Category: General (Page 35 of 37)

Being in the Rioja area, we could not not visit a vineyard, so we did!  Several in fact.  We also managed to inadvertantly increase our knowledge of Andy Warhol’s paintings, yes….. really!  Wine and culture again!!nnnnToday’s blog is all about culture, so be prepared to be educated!  One local vineyard recommended to us for it’s building and wine was Ysios Bodega, just outside a hilltop village called Laguardia; we were (wrongly) informed that you did not need to book an appointment so off we went.  We were following signposts when something caught our interest, a Roman archeological site called La Hoya, discovered and excavated in the 1970’s.  It is said that the whole town was wiped out by a viscious  attack by ‘horribles unknown’, bodies were left as they fell, pots were buried with food in them and as years passed the whole town gradually disappeared under soil.  The site is one of several across a 45km area that were totally eradicated in this way.  Pictures below show some of the roads, shops and house layouts, with the Ysios Bodega in the background.  As it happened we arrived at Ysios the same time as a small coachload of tourists, all refused entry as we had not prebooked!  We went back to the ranch and booked a guided tour at another famous Bodega nearby – Marques de Riscal.nn

nnnnnnWe also visited the Museum of Wine at the Vivanco Bodega, such an interesting place.  We learned all about the vines, how every vine in the world is grown from being “grafted” not from a seed or root (to maximise quality);  how the soil influences the variety and strain grown;  how the seasons and terrain affect the flavour of the grape;  how they are still (in Spain) mostly harvested by hand, the processes involved in juicing them, pulping the must, pressing the remains and the storing the liquid.  We learned how barrels and corks were made; how the product was considered medicinal (in small quantities of course) and how it was shipped abroad to all the world in exchange for improved business knowledge and more modern process knowledge from other grape growers.  Finally we visited a cellar and experienced the smell and feel of the storage area, with several thousand barrels made of American oak – this was such a hair raising experience.  The room was cool, probably about 16c, humid but not wet, it smelled of oak, damp, musty and wine.  The air was sweet if that’s possible. You could smell the bubbles still fermenting!!!nnnnAlso on display were ancient artifacts and modern art relating to grapes and wine, so David and I got to see another picture by Andy Warhol – aptly named “Grapes”.  There was also a lithograph of a sketch by Picasso…..that was oddly uninteresting.nnnnThe museum also had a collection of several THOUSAND cork screws!!  Impressive.nnnnnnnnSo the ultimate highlight to our stay in the La Rioja region has to be the visit to the Marques de Riscal Bodega.  The owner wanted his own “Guggenheim” so he asked Frank Gehry to design him a hotel –  it cost €85 million and took 5 years to build and represents a wine bottle – purple (for the vino tinto) and silver (for the foil cover) titanium shields and cream/white stone (for the label).  There are 14 rooms in the main building on the 1st floor, two Michelin starred restaurants on the second floor and a private library and balcony on the top floor, as well as a Spa wing with more bedrooms.  A low season nightly rate in the Spa wing is from €350 per night, dinner is a minimum cool €70 per head, I dread to think how much a G&T will set you back!!nnnnnn nnnnHere we learned how the grapes were harvested at the end of August 2017 and were currently in the second firmentation stage in huge oak barrels; the earliest “young” wine would be processed and aged for 18 months, the oldest “Reserva” would take 6 years before they were bottled, labelled and hit the shops or hotel restaurants.  Again the smell here was really undescribable, yeast, alcohol, fruit, oak, sweet, burnt, cherries, pears……the list could be infinite as every person smells a different aroma.nnThe vineyard has been in operation since the late 1880’s and from each harvest the owner lays down 1000 bottles in a cellar.  Occasionally someone important comes along, like King Juan Carlos or Frank Gehry and a bottle is opened, Frank Gehry opened a bottle from 1929, the year he was born.  We were shown how the neck is heated then cooled then cut open to preserve the cork and wine.  We were shown this extensive private wine cellar (below), as well as the modern mechanised bottling plant.nnnnnnnnApparently this one Bodega manufactures 9 million bottles of red, white and rose wine each year, for distribution through Spain, Europe and the world.  Nine million bottles of wine a year!!!  Amazing.nnnnWe did get to taste a red and white Wine, we were shown how to look at the colour,  smell the aromas and taste the grapes and we feel we are now wine officianados, so beware the next time you open a bottle of red wine in our company!!!nnnn ‘,