Spanish wines (Rioja)

Spanish wines (Rioja)

We associate Spain not only with corrida, flamenco and paella, but also with wine. It is one of the most famous wine-making countries with a long tradition. Spanish wines are not less famous than the French or Italian ones, but also cheaper.

Spain is not the country where you should visit the capital in the first place. When it comes to the wine tours (which is a new popular tourist destination), you should go to the province of La Rioja and the southern part of the Basque Country–Rioja Alavesa.

The grape in Spain is grown everywhere. However, this wine-making province is notable for the fact that, except tasting the wonderful wine from the local wineries, you can get esthetical pleasure from the architectural ensemble. Spaniards are a bit conceited, and the rich ones are not the exception.

To demonstrate the prosperity and glory of their wineries, their owners hire the most famous architects so that they highlight the big name of establishments with fancy decorations or original design. The wine cellars were decorated by such well-known architects as Santiago Calatrava, Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry. It is not surprising that many wineries of Rioja are included not only in the wine atlases, but also in the world catalogs of modern architecture.

Of course, most wine tours to Rioja are performed in a classic way: you walk through the grape fields and visit the traditional wineries or old chateau, where you’ll be explained the secrets of making one or another wine with the following tasting of drinks. Rioja-Basque wine producing dynasties were known for their innovative approach, and (apart from architectural innovations), dared to introduce the latest technology in the wine production, thereby implementing the project of producing the new sorts.

The tour to the wineries “Marques de Riscal” and the local wines won’t leave anyone indifferent. You can’t call it just “winery”, it is a Wine City that consists of the winery, 5-star hotel, tasting center, restaurant, and even wine therapy spa-salon. This masterpiece was built by the world-famous architect Frank Gehry. It is enough to say that the wines from this winery are exported to more than 70 countries of the world.

The winery “Baigorri” (designed by the architect Iñaki Aspiazu) amazes with its depth (literally!) This building comes 12 floors into the hills! It’s some kind of an underground parking! Therefore, the best wine of this original winery is “Baigorri De Garage”.