Tasting Spanish Wine in Haro, Rioja

Manuel swirling wine in a proper wine tasting room.

On the third day we rested and went to Valenciano and ate at lunch at Fuenmayor and drank QP and Hacienda Lopez. The food was fantastic.

The fourth day took us to the new Bodedga Classica winery in Haro, the Rioja Wine Region. We tasted wine in a “proper tasting room”, toured the winery and headed to the hills for a authentic Spanish lunch of been and ham soups, bread, and, of course wine.

The proper tasting room looked more like a hi-tech chemistry lab in an expensive high school. Everything was white and each wine tasting station had a sink with faucet and a small lamp. The sink was for spitting, of course. And the light was to see the wine color. I did use the light, but did not use the sink to spit out any of my wine. The new Vintae grenache wines we tasted were too good for the sinks.

After, we toured the winery with the Vintae head winemaker, Raul Acha. He took us on the upper deck of the steel casks. Some had the lids open and we could see the bubbling fermentation of the juice. Then he took us to a very large room where they were aging wine in oak barrels. Raul explained that every two months they take all the wine out of the barrels, cleaned the barrels and put the wine back in for more aging. He told us they use the barrels for about six years then sell them. After six years the barrels are better for scotch or whiskey than for wine.

We ended this tour with lunch at the base of some mountains eating a tradition Spanish country lunch. The view was gorgeous with the hills of medieval towns sticking out in the valley. That night we enjoyed the Fiesta San Mateo by drinking wine and eating tapas.