Ongi Etorri a Bilbao!: La Rioja y las Bodegas

On Saturday Kate and I were invited to go wine tasting with Ashley and some of her friends in La Rioja. It is a region of northern Spain in Navarra that is considered to have the best wine in the country. We would be going to one particular town in particular called Haro where we had reservations to see a bodega (wine cellar) called Bilbaina Bodega and try some of the wines they made there. The plan was to leave for Haro at 10:45 that morning, but by that time Kate and I had only gotten four hours of sleep after leaving Fever earlier that morning. We opted to take the later bus and meet everyone there in the afternoon since our bodega reservations weren't til 5:00 in the afternoon.

(La Rioja... Ashley took this picture earlier in the day)

(The seal of Bilbainas Bodegas)

Have I mentioned that Kate and I fail at planning any sort of adventure or trip? Well Kate and I got to our bus and arrived in Haro as scheduled. What we didn't realize was that we were completely under dressed to be walking around a town surrounded by mountains, we had no idea where we were and no map to navigate us, and to top it all off I didn't have my phone and Kate's ran out of minutes! We were able to talk to Ashley briefly so she could give us some type of direction, but it wasn't much help to two girls who were stranded in the middle of ghost town. Maybe it was because of siesta, but there was no one in this town and everything was closed! When we did see someone in the distance we had to practically chase after them to ask what direction the river was in.

(Town of Haro... Photo credit to Ashley again)

(Vineyard... probably prettier in the summer)

When we finally did find the "river" we were no where closer to finding where we needed to be. Finally the Guardia Civil (police) drove up and asked us if we needed directions. The next thing I know we are in their patrol car on our way to the bodega. As if it wasn't embarrassing enough that we were late, we pulled up to the place in a patrol car and a group of about 20 strangers (who were waiting for us!) burst into laughter! Just a tad mortifying...

(Giant barrels of wine!)

(Fermentation Tanks)

(Storage barrels)

We finally caught up with our friends and just in time for the tour. I did not realize that our tour group would consist of more than the nine of us and for that same reason I was about shocked that I could hardly understand our tour guide. Since he was speaking to a group of about thirty and they were all native Spanish speakers he had no time to slow down for us. That made the tour a bit less intriguing... Then we also discovered half the tour was outside or in cold cellars, so once again our lack of layers came back to slap us in the face. We made the best of it though and it was interesting to see all of the different rooms the processing of wine goes through. At the end we got to sip some red wine, but once again, not by choice. It was a cheaper bottle and one of them had a licorice flavor... He showed us how to hold the wine against the light to look at the color and how to decipher the scent though so that was educating. We made it back for our 8:30 bus and all in all it was a nice day. I think a summer tour would have been the better choice, but I don't have that option, so this was just one more thing I can say I did in Spain!