Briones …….Wine Tasting and the San Mateo Festival
Categories France and Spain 2015........a roadtrip with a boat cruiseSeptember 20th
Well here we are in the Roja…..nice breakfast with 3 other couples and we are ready to start the day.
This is the heartland of this wine making region and the early morning was alive with the sound of growling tractors pulling small wagons as they embarked for the vineyards. This was quite appropriate as we are off to a winery visit later this morning, in Briones. First though we drove to an overlook of Briones:
…and then stopped in at the Vivanco winery, unfortunately their tours were full, but fun for a bit of a walk around;
Time for our winery tour at Bodegas Miguel Merino…….
Harvest time is intense and as the weather is great (wow another clear blue sky day) and each winery is testing their grapes trying to hit the optimal time to pick. Most of the picking is manual with some of the bigger producers using machines. The young lady guide is fluent in English and there is a 4 person group from the States accompanying us. This is a boutique winery producing only 30,000 bottles per year with the production destined mostly for Great Britain and Canada…..there was actually a shipment being prepped for the homeland when we were there…nice visit, quite personal, we went through the production process. Maria, the guide explained that as a small but high quality producer the grape selection process is key….the women graders have a basket on each side of them and the conveyor in the middle…..the bad grapes go to hell, the so-so to purgatory, and the good to heaven! We the went to the cellars where the wine is aged in barrels and roughly 100,000 bottles in storage:
….next the fun part > sampling three reds in ascending order joined by Miguel the owner, who was educated in South Carolina, hence his good English. He explained that after working in the wine industry all his life, he wanted to produce wine himself, so he started this winery in 1994 as a second career and never looked back……some funny stories with several glasses of wine, a wine purchase and the day is off to a great start.
Back in the sunlight the day is fast warming and it promises to be a hot one. We drive through the brown countryside which is covered with vineyards and in 35 minutes reach Logrono where it is the day of San Mateo which heralds the start of the wine harvest….the festival carries on for a week !!!
Although we were late for the start where they stomp the first grapes of the season on a large stage, we got the general idea:
Everyone is out in their Sunday best with families strolling the plazas and streets with many of the kids in regional dress,
bands playing ……..
……………and folks eating and drinking their way through the tapas bars which line quite a few of the streets….. in one 50 metre laneway we counted some 25 tapas bars…..this btw is around 1PM and the funning is going strong….can’t imagine what it will be like at 1 AM in the morning.
….not quite a pro !!!
It was a bit intense to get into these and order but they also have mini takeout windows so if you know the item you want or can point, you will get something. Among other tapas I got to enjoy some boiled octopus sprinkled with paprika on a bed of potatoes and of course immersed in olive oil…..quite yummy with some wine !!
Walked around and ate a bit more, then it was time to get back …On the way a quick stop in Haro …another pleasant wine producing town:
onwards to Briones……no dinner out tonite just some cheese and ham and an obligatory glass of Rioja. Tomorrow we drive on…………………