La Rioja A Journey Through Vineyards and Tradition

A great visit to La Rioja and La Guardia. Well worth the price for a full day out. A nice guide and two nice vineyards with a cool history.

+2

Igor was patient, kind and professional. We had a lovely day in the La Rioja region. Highly recommend this tour company and our guide, Igor!

This was an amazing day. The contrast of 2 different winery visits where we learned so much about local winemaking and then a stop in beautiful LaGuardia was fantastic.

We had an amazing day out with our guide Igor. We visited two fantastic winery’s and a lovely medieval hill town with great pintxos bars.

The Rioja wine tour was an opportunity to be in a small group of International travelers, led by a lovely trilingual guide, Borje. He picked us up at a predetermined location, made sure we were clear about safety and gave us a plan in terms of what to expect in our day together. He was passionate and dedicated as were each person representing the two wineries attended. He gave us his background and encouraged questions. It was informative and fun! I can easily recommend this experience to any traveler who wants an authentic, deepening experience into the Basque culture and regional wineries.

It was an excellent decision. I celebrated my birthday a day early, and this was my well-deserved gift. The driver who took us was also a historian — I wish I could remember his name — and during the ride, he told us fascinating stories about the history of Euskadi and Spain. I was completely captivated by all the information he shared. The first vineyard we visited was Finca Emperatriz, in La Rioja. The weather was perfect for walking through the vineyards — we even got to taste the grapes! The girl who guided us gave us plenty of interesting facts about the estate, which was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte’s nephew and his wife. We tasted wines indoors rather than outside, but I wouldn’t call it a formal tasting, more like a sampling of two wines. The Albariño white wine was absolutely delicious — definitely my favorite. The second stop was in the province of Álava, in Laguardia, at El Fabulista Winery (a place that had already been recommended to me). I enjoyed this one even more — it was lively, fun, and very educational. Our guide was funny yet very knowledgeable. We went down into the cellars, which are over a thousand years old — the walls were naturally cold! We saw the wine barrels, learned how to properly taste wines, understood the meaning of the labels and aging, and sampled three different red wines. Even though my favorite wine was from Finca Emperatriz (because I personally prefer white wines over reds), the experience at El Fabulista was absolutely superb! We ended the tasting with a lovely walk through the historic streets of Laguardia and had a delicious lunch at a charming restaurant in the town’s main square. Without a doubt, an experience worth every penny — I highly, highly recommend it!

+5

Crowded 8 passenger van for such a long trip. Couldn’t hear speaker and she had a Heavy accent required focus to comprehend.