Rioja Natural

What is La Rioja? An entire territory covered with vineyards where wineries have the importance of a cathedral. Why will we travel there? To discover the secrets of wine and its landscapes in the hands of some of the bravest and most unique protagonists. It will be a completely natural, ecological, and revealing experience. No posing: you'll meet winemakers who don't even use tractors.

La Rioja is located on the banks of the legendary Ebro River, the longest river in Spain, 90 minutes from San Sebastián. We'll go by van, but you won't get bored: we'll cross through three of Spain's most classic landscapes: the green and mountainous forests of Euskadi, the flat drylands (yellow or green depending on the time of year) typical of Castilla, and the vast vineyards on gentle hills of La Rioja. Three countries for the price of one.

Laguardia, the Name of the Rose

We'll arrive at the town of Laguardia, recognizable because it sits atop a hill dominating this fantastic landscape. It boasts narrow streets, an urban layout in the shape of a medieval almond, cobblestone roads, walls, an extensive network of tunnels used as wineries, and a church with one of the most fantastic polychrome porches in Europe.

Mikel's House

We'll focus on a house. One of the oldest, rooted in the Middle Ages. We'll enter because Mikel will offer us a unique wine experience. It's not just about tasting wine, but about discovering young winemakers and producers, many of them his friends, whose hands hold the future of wines from La Rioja and Rioja Alavesa.

It will be a tasting as well as a talk about producers who have traveled to the most important wine regions in the world, who love to taste wines from other producers, and who, like Mikel, were born among vineyards and know perfectly well how to express the richness and diversity of our landscape. The tasting will feature excellent wines revered worldwide, hard-to-find wines, different wines, and surprising wines.

And all of this in a unique setting. There we'll see an original stone tank for fermentation... where wine has been made for five centuries!

Wine Mavericks

It won't be easy to say 'see you soon' to Mikel, but we must go because we must continue having Premium wine experiences. Our next stage will be at one of three 'corsair' wineries characterized by making wines their own way, paying special attention to Nature and less to cold marketing strategies.

What will we find in them? A bit of everything: there will be youth, but also a lot of experience; there will be ecology and a lot of respect for the environment; there will be innovative techniques and processes with hundreds of years of history, such as using animal traction over fossil fuels in the vineyards. More? A supreme respect for the grape, the vine, the environment, nature, naturalness, and sustainability; for organic and sustainable practices.

Bye, bye, Ebro River!

We'll leave the vineyard plains next to the Ebro River to ascend (by car) to the Sierra de Cantabria, enjoy the curves and the views to reach Arrea!, the life and gastro project of Edorta Lamo. Covert cuisine, village pride, native products from the surrounding environment in a gastronomic proposal that has sparked a revolution (another one) in Euskadi: a return to our roots in a world that is spinning faster and faster. Arrea!'s menu will reveal many things...and not all of them will have to do with food.