One of Spain's most famous wine regions is Rioja, a large area spreading down the valley of the Ebro, the country's longest river. Most of it forms its own province (La Rioja) but the northernpart comes under the administration of Vitoria-Gasteiz and is known as Rioja Alavesa. It produces more concentrated wine than elsewhere but in smaller quantities due to the acidity of the soil. On the Sunday before the eclipse we went for a quick whizz round, seeing all kinds of places in not much detail. There were five of us in the car, namely me, BestMate, BestMate'sOtherHalf, BestMate'sOtherHalf'sBestMate and BestMate'sOtherHalf'sBestMate'sOtherHalf, so the trip wasn't especially conducive to focused sightseeing. Here's what we saw anyway.
Treviño enclave: On the drive south from Vitoria-Gasteiz the road to La Rioja passes through an administrative anomaly on a grand scale. The Treviño enclave is part of the province of Burgos but entirely surrounded by the province of Álava, this for complicated historical reasons and because the government of Castile and León absolutely refuses to give it up. The Basque Country thus contains a mountainous hole covering 100 square miles but with a population of just 1500, which is just the kind of territorial aberration people on YouTube like to make videos about. We didn't stop.
Balcón de la Rioja: The mountain road crosses the Sierra de Cantabria at a height of 1100m. Just beyond the upper pass is a viewpoint called Balcón de la Rioja, essentially a balcony from which to view the Ebro valley below, which thankfully has convenient parking. Staringdownwards what looked like a patchwork of green fields was in fact almost all vineyards, an abundant grape-y landscape blurring off towards mountains far beyond the river. A few hours later the entire range was brimmingover with fog so we got lucky.
Labastida: This fortified hillside town was celebrating its three-day summer fiesta when we arrived so was somewhat busier than normal. I'd like to have climbed the main street for the medieval architecture and for elevated views but we were actually here for a lengthy lunch so I was perfectly happy with stewy potatoes, saucy cod and Basque cheesecake. Had I realised that 'flan' is the Spanish word for creme caramel I would have been even happier with that instead.
Marqués de Riscal City of Wine: We had to visit a winery and picked perhaps the most ostentatious, the Marqués de Riscal in the heart of the town of Elciego. Admittedly we only had time for the gift shop and cafe but that was long enough to sit down with a glass of the local red and a small plate of chorizo and pretend to be connoisseurs. The extraordinary ribbon-likebuilding isn't the winery, it's a luxury hotel designed by Frank Gehry who's better known for a building I'll get to later in Bilbao. Those who stay here are also those who buy the ridiculously priced wines, for which the local economy is very grateful.
Baños de Ebro: A quick house visit because BestMate'sOtherHalf wanted to visit the family's rural second home before they sell it. Extraordinarily Basque inside, also extraordinary value by London standards, also packed with memories so hard to give up.
Laguardia: And finally to the jewel of Rioja Alavesa, the fortified city of Laguardia. This grew atop a strategic hilltop in the Middle Ages, is still surrounded on all sides by its walls and retains a cramped street pattern within. We parked below the cliff and ascended to the upper level in a thin eleven-storey elevator, entering the old town through a gate below a medieval belltower that was once part of a castle. We were six weeks too late for the town's bull-run but did see the wooden gates they close to keep the angry beasts within a single circuit. The marionettes beneath the clock in the main square instead come out four times a day, but annoyingly the mechanism runs two minutes fast so we almost missed their jolly dance.
Had we had more time we could have gone down into a wine cellar or two, or looked inside the two bookending churches, or visited the ridiculously corrugatedYsios winery designed by Santiago Calatrava, but instead made do with the splendidviews across the plain from the town's battlements. A glittering citadel amid a sea of vineyards, Laguardia is really very special indeed.
