So generally, I’m a planner kind of person. Especially for holidays abroad. Yet somehow I overlooked how much a “daytrip” from the Ribera del Duero to Rioja was – how shall we say – ambitious. I mean, a simple google map search (now) reveals it’s a 227 km (140-mile) drive between Penafiel and Laguardia.
Apparently, neither Jon nor I (nor our friends) are ones to abandon a plan once it’s set, so to take a break from all the wine tasting we did in the Ribera del Duero, we set off one day for some wine tasting in the Rioja.
Three hours after leaving our rental house near Penafiel (note: if you get stuck on a local highway behind, say, a long flatbed truck carrying a giant windmill blade, you’re screwed), we pulled into Laguardia. And let me first say that the town of Laguardia, Spain shares nothing in common with the New York City airport of the same name. Laguardia, the town, is picture-perfect, with cobblestones, winding alleys, mysterious doorways, tunnels, and warm, ochre-hued stone.
The airport is, as you probably know, not picture perfect.
Because 99.9% of vineyards we contacted prior to arriving in Spain required us to make an appointment for a tour and tasting (and no, you apparently can’t just drop by for a tasting without the tour), we reached Laguardia with three hours to kill before our scheduled time at the Marques de Riscal (aka “the Frank Gehry place”).
So we walked a bit. And the town was lovely. But it was siesta time (i.e., between 2 and 4 pm), and we needed something to eat. We found a place, Biazteri (Calle de Mayor, near the TI office) that had a positive description in this April 2007 Guardian article on this part of Rioja, but it was a bust, offering just a Spanish soap blaring on the TV and a few sitting-there-too-long bocadillos. At least the glasses of house wine were hilariously cheap (1.50 euros each).
So we kept on walking until we saw Mayor de Migueloa, which was both open and had a wall lined with wine bottles.
So we walked in, and it was just what the doctor ordered. I liked the old wine press converted into a table – just enough yuppie decor to be appealing to me, while those fast-food-style napkin dispensers kept things down-to-earth.
First up – Iberico everything! Ham, cured pork loin, and chorizo with kick! Nobody wants for cured meats in Spain, and the platter served at Mayor de Migeloa was excellent. It seems that everywhere in you go in Spain, there exist melt-in-your-mouth pork goodies waiting to be eaten.
We felt obligated to order the Rioja-style potatoes by virtue of being in Rioja, but you know, they were potatoes. with some pepper. and not enough chorizo. A bit eh.
But luckily, every meal is a success when there are croquetas involved: crispy crust; creamy interior; and a little bit of ham inside if you’re lucky. I especially liked how, at Mayor de Migeloa, they didn’t come in that suspiciously pre-manufactured fish-stick shape you see in the more touristy bits of Spain.
All these snacks with glasses of house wine all around totaled 35 euros.
Fueled up for our 4 pm appointment at the Marques de Riscal, we spent 5 minutes driving over to neighboring Elciego, parked, paid our 10 euros each for the tour and tasting, and got on our way.
Despite having gone on many wine tours before and after our visit, I thought the Marques de Riscal tour was super-comprehensive and worth taking, and our guide, Patricia, was knowledgeable and funny, earning extra points for taking us into the vineyard’s “treasury,” where all the *really* old wines are kept.
Having walked the quiet, dusty depths of the Marques de Riscal treasury, we now have something in common with Gywneth. (Obviously this shared experience is bound to make us BFF before too long).
The 2004 Marques de Riscal reserva we tasted was fine for the money (12.50 euros a bottle), but it wasn’t super memorable.
By the end of our tour, it became clear to us that the Marques de Riscal owners are incredibly good at marketing and promotion (how else do you get Frank Gehry to design you a tiny 14-room hotel?), and while it’s a pleasant place to visit, I wouldn’t make it a destination for the wines.
Slightly annoying is that the relationship between the vineyard and hotel seems a bit strained, so our vineyard guide insisted she had to call for reservations at the hotel bar/lounge if we wanted to have drinks there.
Service at the hotel lounge, once we were allowed in, was friendly and helpful, and we downed lots more cheese, chorizo and wine there. Prices were what you’d expect at a Starwood-operated hotel, costing 65 euros before tip for four glasses of the vineyard’s wine, and a bit of chorizo and cheese.
I’d go back to Marques de Riscal if I were vacationing exclusively in the Rioja, but it’s not worth the drive as a daytrip from the Ribera del Duero. So skip the long drive and just enjoy the powerful reds and sleek tasting rooms that abound in the Ribera.
Marques de Riscal vineyard and hotel, Calle Torrea, 1 · Elciego 01340 · Spain, (+34) 945 18 08 88.
Mayor de Migueloa, Mayor de Migueloa Nº 20, 01300 Laguardia, Spain, +34 945 62 11 75 / 76.
Sounds fabulous. It does make it quite difficult when you have to book appointments at wineries which seems to be the case at lots of the major wineries in Europe (although smaller ones are generally more flexible). In Australia you can just show up. I presume it is the same in America?
The bigger and more wealthy a place gets the greater the potential for mediocrity. €65 for 4 glasses of wine and some nibbles – ARGH!!!
A few years ago I had a group of students from Valladolid and they were so enthusiastic when telling me about their region (They were tourism students studying English in Finland) that I have long wanted to visit. But I won’t be staying in Mr Gehry’s titanium hotel.
I’m loving these reports.
The windmill bit made made me laugh and the photos made me drool…oh, those delicious tapas! Hmm. I think I might have to go rustle up some smoked trout (Ecuador’s response to Spanish ham) and some tinto of my own.
[…] I briefly mentioned in my previous post (and which Gourmet Chick immediately picked up on as a bummer), the vineyards in the Ribera […]
Gourmet Chick – dead on about how annoying it was to make appointments and have to plan and juggle our vineyard-visiting-days in advance. In the US, we do, as you say, just drop by vineyards during business hours with no problem.
martha – the nibbles at Marques de Riscal were quite tasty, but at those prices, they were definitely not good value. Mayor de Migueloa offered, by far, better quality for the money.
Remadora – well, as I’m sure you can relate: sometimes the crappiest moments of a trip turn out (later) to be the most fun stories to tell. Smoked trout sounds like it could be great, by the way (like lox). What country’s wines dominate in Ecuador? At the Wine Museum in Penafiel, we learned that the vast majority of Ribera exports go to Mexico. Go figure.
I stopped by Laguardia when I stayed at the Marquis de Riscal and found it very charming as well! Ran into the same problem as you…arrived at siesta time with a hungry belly and limited eating options!
Ha, a story I have to bookmark as I have a tour to Marques de Riscal on my wishlist. Thanks and good luck with the LP voting:-)
My brother-in-law and his family live in Logroño, so we often visit La Rioja when we are in Spain. I love Laguardia! We ate at Mayor de Migueloa also!
Have you been to the Dinastía Vivanco bodega and museum (Museo Cultura de Vino) in Briones? They have a good collection of antique equipment all related to wine making and for those who know nothing about the topic, the museum is a great introduction.
Happy Hotelier – thanks for the good luck wishes. I certainly needed them (and believe it is safe to say I got my you-know-what kicked in the LP awards). But surprisingly, knowing how competitive I am, I’m genuinely pleased just to have been nominated.
globalgal – most of my trip was spent in the Ribera del Duero, so unfortunately, we didn’t get to visit Dinasstia Vivanco or Logrono (both of which I read a lot about). I did go to see a wine museum in Penafiel, which was beautiful, but at that point, I’d been on so many vineyard tours that I didn’t have it in me to really focus on the museum’s exhibits.
Hello,
I’m stumbled across your blog via google while searching for information on Laguardia.
Was your wine tour in Spanish or english? I speak some Spanish, but don’t know if my understanding would extend to a wine tour and my boyfriend doesn’t speak a word.
And if you can offer an more insight to that area as well it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Hi Koriann,
I was in Rioja only for a day, and the remainder of my trip was spent in the Ribera del Duero. I suspect in Rioja, you’re more likely to find english-language wine tours than in the Ribera, but in both places, I found that many vineyards could accommodate English-language-only visitors.
In any event, I think you’ll have a great time despite any language barriers. As you probably know, most communication happens just fine with sign language, context, and good humor. 🙂
For more on our travels in Spanish wine country, either try clicking on the tags at the bottom of this post, or go to the “Pick a Country” pulldown on the right-hand side, and pick “Spain.”
Happy eating, drinking and traveling!
[…] Mayor de Migueloa and Marques de Riscal, Laguardia, Spain (posted 1 March 2009) […]