How to make the most of La Rioja: top wineries, activities & festivals
La Rioja might be Spain's best-known wine region but, much like its grape varieties, it's a complex region with so much more on offer. It's also quieter than other European wine regions like Tuscany or Bordeaux, although that may change before too long.
In this beautiful part of northern Spain*, where rolling hills are dotted with pretty hamlets and sleepy walled medieval villages, you'll avoid the crowds of Bilbao, Barcelona and Madrid. And while there's plenty for wine-lovers to do, you don't need to be a wine enthusiast to have a great holiday here.
Getting there: book a guided tour of La Rioja with the experts at Travelsphere*, which offers affordable itineraries for various budgets.
Visit historic monasteries
Plan a visit to the twin monasteries of Yuso and Suso at San Millán de la Cogolla. Known as the birthplace of the Castilian language, as the first written evidence of the language was recorded here, the hermits' caves at 6th-century San Millán de Suso give an idea of the solitary life led here all those centuries ago.
Meanwhile, the 11th-century San Millán de Yuso Monastery contains a huge, stunning 18th century baroque altarpiece, made from walnut wood, covered with gold leaf and decorated with carvings of saints.
Quad bike through the vineyards
When you picture a vineyard tour, you invariably envisage a tranquil stroll amongst the vines. However, in Rioja, rather more adrenaline-fuelled experiences are on offer, such as quad biking, offered by Grape Aventura.
It's exhilarating revving your bike as you speed up and down the tracks between the long, regimented rows of vines, enjoying spectacular views of the patchwork quilt of further vineyards, fields and forests of olive trees ahead.
Glide above the vines
A hot air balloon tour provides a wonderful overview of the landscapes that is hard to beat. Companies such as Globos La Rioja and Rioja Like A Native offer private and group sessions. Typically, the balloon drifts over village rooftops, vineyards and fields for an hour or so.
Wine festivals
Like much of Spain, Rioja loves a festival with events held throughout the year. Come late June, for example, the town of Haro holds 'The Wine Battle' on St Peter's Day, where participants dress in white with red scarves, climb a mountain and drench each other in red wine using buckets, water pistols and soakers.
Meanwhile, the town of Logroño makes a good base during the Rioja Wine Harvest Festival, held in the third week of September.
It includes numerous events in the town, such as processions, tastings, live music, fireworks and traditional ceremonies such as the burning of wine barrels.
Prepare for some bonkers sights, such as a band playing full blast, marching into a café, the sound of trumpets, trombones and a huge sousaphone drowning out the chatter of the diners.
Eat your way around
You can't visit Rioja without sampling the hearty, traditional cuisine, which focuses on local produce such as pork, lamb, beans and vegetables.
Dishes include Patatas a la Riojana (potato stew with chorizo), Bacalao a la Riojana (salted cod) and Culetillas al Sarmiento (grilled lamb chops).
Two of the finest restaurants are Tondeluna, whose menu is overseen by a Michelin-starred chef, Francis Paniego, and Asador Alameda, which serves renowned local traditional dishes. Both are in Logroño, capital of the province.
See wine in production
Many wineries in La Rioja offer tours of their vineyards, and at family-run Bodega Luis Canas, the best time to visit is during the harvest. Go in September or October when it's fascinating to watch trailers packed with freshly harvested grapes traverse the painstaking Rioja quality-control process.
The region has some of the world's most modern and rigorous regulations to ensure the wine is coming from the Rioja region.
The grapes are weighed and documented, and a sample is analysed for 24 parameters, including tannin, alcohol and chemical composition. An inspector for the appellation is present during the harvesting and may stay for up to two months.
Only wines grown and produced within Rioja's borders and approved by the control board, the Denominacion de Origen Calificada (look for the DOCa label), can be sold as Riojan wine.
Time your visit well and you'll see the grapes being tipped into a huge vibrating steel vessel before they're moved to a conveyor belt to be checked by hand, where unwanted items like leaves are removed. A machine also extracts irregular grapes and the stems, prior to being juiced.
Seeing the whole winery working full pelt, the pungent smell of millions of fermenting grapes and vats of bubbling juices really brings the winemaking experience to life.
Step inside a vineyard's art gallery
Bodegas Campillo has an impressive art gallery, and walking through the huge wine cellars, where walls supported by giant brick arches are lined with thousands upon thousands of bottles, it's like walking through a cathedral of wine.
The Martínez Zabala Gallery is a contemporary space where you can sip wine while taking in modern Spanish art and sculpture. The exhibitions rotate in a building whose architecture is all part of the show. It's an unusual way to wine-taste that lingers long in the mind.
Blend your own wine
At Zinio Bodegas, a cooperative of 200 viticulturists, you can try a wine blending session. After discovering the aromatic stages and flavour dimensions of different grapes, you'll experiment with grape combinations and create a wine tailored to your taste, which is judged by a wine expert.
It's great fun competing with your friends to see who can craft the winning formula. The winery also offers vineyard bike tours, picnics and walks.
Winery museum
Until 2004, Rioja's wineries were largely only open to trade. This changed with the opening of the Museum Vivanco of Wine Culture, which boosted wine tourism in the region.
Surrounded by the medieval villages of San Vicente de la Sonsierra and Briones backed by mountains, the superb museum encompasses 8,000 years of wine history worldwide.
It contains everything from wine presses to corkscrews, ancient Greek and Roman wine vessels, glass-blowing and barrel-making displays and much more.
There are wine-themed artworks by Picasso, Braque and Chagall, and a vineyard with 222 different vines to walk among, where you can pick grapes to compare flavours.
Climate in La Rioja
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maximum daytime temperature °C |  8 |
10 |
 13 |
14 |
 18 |
 23 |
 26 |
26 |
 24 |
18 |
12 |
9 |
| Hours of sunshine (daily) | ||||||||||||
| Days with some rainfall |  15 |
14 |
14 |
15 |
15 |
 12 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
The above guide shows the climate in Pamplona in neighbouring Navarre, around 52 miles northeast of Logroño in La Rioja. Find out more about conditions across the country in our complete guide to the climate in Spain.
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