Visita Marques de Riscal & Boutique Winery da Bilbao

My girlfriends and I had an amazing time on our tour of the Rioja wineries! Zach was a super knowledgeable guide and gave us plenty of great recommendations for the rest of our trip. The wineries we visited were great and distinctive in their own ways, and we were even able to get out into the vineyard and prune some grapevines. Would highly recommend!

We were would highly recommend this tour. Our tour guide arrived exactly on time. She was wonderfully chatty, friendly and knowledgeable. The drive to the first vineyard was a little over an hour from Bilbao. However, she kept us fully entertained with her knowledge of Basque history, language and culture. We found her pride in the Basque Country to be very endearing. Her standard of English was excellent. We visited the Boutique Vineyard first. Quite simply this was just brilliant. It was a family run operation and as there were only four of us the tour was very intimate. Our guide was, in turn very knowledgeable. We were treated to decent sized samples of 4 lovely wines and a really great lunch. Wines were available to buy at very reasonable prices (at least by Irish standards). The second vineyard was wine making on an industrial scale. Interesting and pleasant but, in our opinion, no where as nice as the Boutique Vineyard. If you want to do a vineyard tour then you won't go wrong allowing Best of Basque to organise it for you.

Our guide Olaia was excellent. She was very friendly, knowledgeable and gave us a real insight into Basque history and culture. The scenery on the way to the Rioja region was impressive. We stopped first at a small family run vineyard in Samaniego where we had an interesting tour and talk about the processes involved in producing the wine. We had a lovely lunch there and the chance to taste some of the wine. Needless to say we bought a few bottles as it was so delicious. On the next part of the journey we stopped at viewpoints to see the Ysios winery building and the village of Laguardia. Finally we had a tour and wine tasting at the Marques de Riscal winery. A totally different experience as much bigger and more commercialised. All in all a very good day out from Bilbao. We were picked up and dropped off at our hotel which we were pleased about especially as it was a very hot day and we were quite tired by the end. Many thanks!

One of the best days we've had whilst in the Basque Country. The drive through to the Rioja Region was absolutely breathtaking. Jani, our beautiful guide was so informative, teaching us everything we needed to know about the area as well as answering all our questions (we had so many!) about this beautiful country that is Basque. The wineries we went to were outstanding! Coming from Australia, a very big wine culture, we absolutely appreciated the way they produced wines here, from land to table... so interesting. Then there's the lunch. Wow! Eating traditional Basque cuisine and wine tasting with the perfect backdrop of the Sierra de Cantabria. Jani, our guide joined us for lunch and We sat back, took it all in and felt like we were old friends living the best moment. This country and its people are truly wonderful. So, if you're in doubt about doing this tour, don't be. We can assure you will have the best time. It's Worth every penny you'll pay for and the memories, Priceless! A moment in our lives we will never forget.

This tour was a highlight of our trip to northern Spain. Zach is an amazing guide for anyone, but specifically for Americans as he is a native English speaker and can help us understand Spanish and Basque culture from an American perspective. He put together an amazing day for us, everything on schedule, smooth, perfectly organized. We saw two different wineries, one larger and more “corporate” and the other a family owned, smaller winery - both were excellent experiences. Zach is also a great listener and he could answer any question we threw at him. I could not recommend him more highly if you’re visiting the area.

We recently experienced a lovely tour with The Best of Basque exploring 2 different wineries. We had a beautiful day, and we really appreciated all the great information our guide Irene provided. We drank some great wines, ate some tasty food and had many laughs. Would absolutely recommend this your to anyone looking for a fun day in La Rioja. Thank you again for a fantastic day Irene!

This was our third trip with The Best of Basque, as we love spending time in the Basque Country. They always show us such a nice time. On this trip we went with Irene to 2 very interesting wineries and tasted some excellent red and white wines. In the second winery we also had a great picnic style lunch outside, which was the highlight for us. Thanks so much Irene, as it was another stellar experience with you.