TomTom managed the trip far better than I (Ann) would have, despite the gaps in the new motorways that she valiantly tried to take us on! We could see the evidence of new construction, and at times they are working on it, but in other places it appears totally abandoned. The trip through the back of Bilboa certainly justified her worth! Monday is museums-closed day so we missed the Inquisition Museum and church in Santillana and there was no point attempting to get to the Guggenheim in Bilboa.
As we arrived in Laguardia, I realised that I’d not noted the address of the place where we were staying. I asked a man who was on the side of the road, who talked extremely fast Spanish, no English at all, took me racing through the pedestrianised streets to a guest casa, wrong one, then asked another lady who directed him in Spanish to the right place, back out to see Steve and insisted on climbing in the car with us and driving around the outside of the walls with us all the time volubly explaining that there were two such places and why he’d got confused (or at least I think that is what he was saying).
He certainly got us to the right place and ensured Steve had parked the car adequately and explained to the lady several times more why he’d got it wrong initially before we said goodbye to him ….. or at least that was our thought. But Laguardia is a very small place and despite efforts to avoid another onslaught, we’ve had other encounters, again explaining important stuff to us in unintelligible Spanish!
The accommodation is actually in the wall of the town and we have a beautiful view out over the valley of vines. Certainly a great place to stay. (www.erletxe.com)
Laguardia was a mediaeval fortress town - the Guard of Navarra – on a hilltop. It has four gates in and is pretty much pedestrian only - we park outside the walls. It is a really beautiful area.
The information office was really helpful and in quick succession we saw the mechanised clock, which pops three dancers out a few times a day and plays music while they dance, did a small winery cave tour and visited an amazingly ornate church with a huge façade, carved out of stone in the 14th century and painted in the 17th century. The figures in it are larger than life. It’s been preserved as, unlike others, it is inside a reception area, and you walk through it to get to the equally ornate church proper.
A quick lesson in Spanish as a background to the Cave tour in English. Spanish involves lots of tongue…we massacre the words we commonly use in the English language eg gracias (grassyarse or grart. c. arse as we pronounce) is really a very tongue forward in the mouth grathhhiathh. Barcelona is really Bathhelona. Buenas Deas is Buenath Deeathh. So a lisp would be a considerable advantage.
Carloth did our tour in English spoken with lots of the Spanish th. It was in fact very good despite running a mental translation of the English.
Rioja is about 14 000 vineyards, 123 000 hectares and the area is about 120km long. This is a family-owned winery, just 10 hectares and supporting the father, a winemaker, for 50 years and the two sons. None of the family has any formal training, they just do the business. Carlos gave a good background and showed a video of the old traditional process being carried out in the building we were touring which is within the walled hilltop town of Laguardia. The caves (cellars) were not installed for winemaking but adapted to it. They were originally for storage of food, refuge in times of adversity and provided an escape route also. All of the houses in the town have them.
Carlos and family produce about 50 000 bottles a year, pretty much all Temperanillo, in three of the four allowed styles. They don’t have storage capacity in the cave to allow them to do a Grand Reserva which requires two years in oak and three years in the bottle. So they do a Temperanillo labelled wine which is fresh and fruity, a Crianza which has a year in oak and a year of bottle aging and a Reserva which has two years in oak plus one in the bottle. The DOC has lots of rules, maximum no plants per Ha, max number of leaders (no more than 5), no irrigation unless the DOC say so, no more than 6500 tonnes/Ha yield of grapes, no more than 70% yield of wine and there were plenty more.
We sampled straight from the stone storage vat the last year’s vintage which was being drawn off as we left the premise for bottling. Also sampled a 2005 bottle, not DOC, this was one the father created to his individual taste, lovely smooth style. We did purchase for the boat stocks, but as we still have a train journey before we get to the boat we are limited in our carrying capacity.
The fermentation is slightly different here; the whole bunch of grapes is fermented for a few days before any crushing. Small things sometimes make a difference!!
Melissa, I’m actually very disappointed that Grannie does not aspire to the feat of carrying a dozen bottles in her back pack. Your record seems to be secure.
Today we saw some more modern manufacture, the history of the area and some more EU money invested. The afternoon wine tour is at the Marques de Riscal (www.marquesderiscal.com) Check out the architecture!
The tour today was 1.5 hours, very good and covering the variety of wines…they make around 20 million bottles export 70%, Spain is the No 3 wine producer in the world (Who are No 1 and 2?). They have a fantastic cellar, containing over 150 000 bottles with a selection from every vintage since 1862. Special guests get a treat. The architect for the futuristic hotel building Frank O Gerhy was born in 1929 so they sampled his year when the hotel opened in 2000 and it was still in great shape. They are now making a white wine with new plantings in the Rueda region. Their reds come from 500 Ha they own and 1000 Ha they buy in from locally. Highly mechanised, but still the best wines are treated very specially with hand selection initially and cellaring in the 1852 cellar buildings.
We also visited an amazing wine museum which covered the history of the grape, the bottle, the cork, the processing, the role of wine and the drinking. They have one of the world’s largest collections of cork screws – over 3000. A small selection in photo!
The museum gave a great context to the visit to this valley where the fields are busy with harvesting , the roads with tractors carrying the wine to the hundreds of local bodegas (wineries) and the warm smell of fermenting grapes hangs in the air.
Headed out for dinner…an upmarket night in a 200 yr old hotel after sampling local café fare last night. This turned out to be a veritable feast with the very attentive maître d’ producing all sorts of little titbits ( just try this) insisting we sample each other’s starters, and bringing out an extra dessert- creme caramel. (Those who know Ann will understand how full she was by the stage as she had only one teaspoonful of her favourite continental dessert.) We did a traditional menu so enjoyed a range of local food and of course a lovely Rioja 2001 reserva – Marquez del Puerta.
PS A bastida is a walled hilltop village
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