Best Wineries to Visit in La Rioja

Here is a link to an article on La Rioja Wineries. See if any of those spark your interest. It is very recent.
https://www.savoredjourneys.com/11-must-visit-bodegas-rioja/

Another link:
https://espanafascinante.com/en/gastronomy/gastronomic-routes/route-around-the-5-wineries-d-co-rioja/

I've always been a Ribera del Duero man myself, when it comes to wines. But la Rioja has a few good ones too lol! Anyway, the most impressive Rioja winery that comes to mind is that of Marqués de Riscal, just west of Logroño, it has very unique architecture designed by the famous Frank Gehry. They have both tastings and winery tours in English, here is their tours website: https://www.marquesderiscal.com/secciones/44

If you have some extra time, since you will have a car, there are also many good non-winery day trips in the region around Logroño too. Like Laguardia, a picturesque medieval hill town, or Olite, a large royal medieval castle and walled town.

Sy,

First off the fiestas strart on Friday the 20th at 7pm, and they end the 27th. I would avoid Logroño during the weekend, a lot of people come from the surrounding towns to celebrate the WINE part. For me the best day of the fiestas is the Chuletada, when they cook over 800kg of lamb chops in the plaza. The whole area smells like bbq lamb. Whichever day you come, stay for the fireworks show. They are quite impressive.

Another "must" is to visit the Dinastia Vivancos winery and museum.

For general ideas about visiting La Rioja visit the RiojaTourism page. A good place to start when planning to visit wineries is the DOC. Some ideas are:

-Go to Vivancos, and have lunch there or in San Vicente. After lunch visit the wineries in San Vicente or Abalos. You can also visit the castle in San Vicente.

-one day in Laguardia. There are many wineries there to visit, I like Bodegas Palacios. Make sure that you visit the Portico in Santa Maria.

I would avoid Haro. Many of the famous Riojas are there, and you have vans so you should try to go to some of the smaller wineries that don't have much distribution in the states.

I would also recommend Lecea, they have a very interesting tour, and Ijalba in Logroño, they are doing a lot of different things like trying to bring back some of the older disused grape varieties.

And because there is more than wine, I would take a day to visit the Abby in Cañas, the Monastery of San Millan (a UNESCO site) and the Monastery of Santa Maria el Real in Najera, with it's pantheon of Navarran Kings.

I hope this helps you,

Thank you all so much....these are wonderful suggestions! Salud!

I would avoid the big names, such as Marqués de Riscal, Ysios and others mentioned. Very, very touristy, with wines that are not that good, and where the architecture is more important than the quality of the product. I like small family wineries, such as Ostatu, Alútiz, Casa Primicia in Laguardia, Tobelos, Sajazarra...those that are not that well known and not in the guides, but probably much more interesting for wine lovers than the big (and very obvious) names.

Mahalo Mike....good to know!

We were just there last month. Loved it! Didn't know a ton about Rioja wineries before our trip, so I just picked one to book ahead that was open (many were on holiday when we were there) and had wines that got good reviews. We planned to just wing it on finding a couple others once we were there. Our anchor tour/tasting was at Muga. The tour was fantastic and their wines were delicious -- my husband said it was probably one of his favorites to date (and we've been on so many wonderful tours/tastings over the years in WA, OR, CA, NY, France, and Italy)!! We also went to a smaller winery, Gomez Cruzado, around the corner from Muga, recommended to us by the owner of the inn where we were staying. We just had a tasting there, but it looks like you can book a tour if you'd like. They are both just outside the town of Haro. There were at least four other wineries within stone's throw of these, so you can park once and visit multiple.

We also went to the wine museum at Vivanco Winery outside of Briones. This was a huge property with an upscale restaurant, tours, tasting room, and the highlight for us, the wine museum. It was multiple floors, so allow plenty of time if you go. May be too touristy for some, but we found it impressive, informative and worth a stop. It probably helped that August seemed to be a relatively quiet time for wine tourism in the area, so we did not encounter big crowds at any of the wineries.

Hope you have a great trip! Salud!

This sounds really terrific and thank you so much for writing about your experiences! Salud!!

Does anyone have any favorite restaurants in La Rioja as well? Would love to get some recommendations for that too. Mahalo!

Gómez Cruzado is one of my favorite wineries, and they do offer fantastic, small tours.

La Rioja is a political region. Rioja wine country is divided into Basque Rioja (Rioja Alavesa), in the Basque Country; Rioja Alta (Haro and Logroño are there) and Rioja Baja, all these regions belong to three different political communities. La Rioja, as a community (or state, if you wish) only grows wine in the north. It´s a common thing to mistake La Rioja with Rioja wine region. Both Rioja Alavesa (Laguardia is there) and Rioja Alta offer, probably, the best wines in Spain.

Mikel makes a good point, La Rioja the political entity is not the same as La Rioja DOC wine producing zone. A good example of this that comes up often on the forum is calling Laguardia La Rioja. It is in the DOC, and there are a lot of wineries there, but administratively it is in Alava, part of the Basque Country.

As Mikel mentioned there are three geographical subzones, Rioja Alavesa which are the wineries in Alava. Rioja Alta, which is the northern part of La Rioja state. The third area is now called Rioja Oriental. It includes the wineries south of Logroño, almost to Aragon, and several wineries in Navarra. And not all wineries in the DOC are part of La Rioja. The winery Artadi, which has some of the best rated wines, left the DOC in 2015.

As for places to eat. In Daroca is Venta moncalvillo.

In Logroño, you have Calle San Juan and Calle Laurel. During San Mateo they will be packed pretty much all day and night. En Ascuas is a good asador, but you will have to try and make a reservation, it is very popular and fills up quickly.
If you go to Vivancos, they have a good restaurant.
Last, if you go to Ezcary, you can go to Echaurren Tradicion It is the little brother of El Portal, Francis Paniego's 2 star restaurant there.

Hope that helps some

Yes, all of your posts certainly help a great deal so thank you for taking the time to explain the geographical differences of each sub zone to this "Hawaiian." It will help all of us be more informed during our travels. We will definitely try Venta Moncalvillo as it is very close to our home in Daroca. Thank you!

Syartist, they have just released the San Mateo's program of activities.

You can read it here in a pdf from the city hall. It is in Spanish. This weekend there are some pre fiesta activities. The true beginning is the 20th at 19:00. The lamb chops are on Saturday the 21st at 11:00 am. On the 27th at 22:00 they "burn the bucket" (Quema de la cuba).