A nine-day food and wine trip in northern Spain including 5 days in the renowned Rioja wine region, 2 days in San Sebastián, Spain’s foremost culinary epicenter, a morning at the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Gehry in Bilbao, a visit to Olite, a beautiful Gothic village in the ancient kingdom of Navarra and a night in Peñafiel in the heart of the Ribera del Duero wine region.

The Rioja wine region is emerging as a capital of avant-garde winery architecture by innovative international architects like Canadian Frank Gehry, Spain’s Santiago Calatrava and English-Iraqi Zaha Hadid. Rioja’s modern architecture sits in stark contrast to the medieval landmarks from its rich history.

The entire region of Rioja has had a culture of wine, food and hospitality since the Middle Ages when monasteries offered all three things to pilgrims traveling the Camino de Santiago (the Way of Saint James), the famed medieval pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in northwest Spain.

Today, ancient monasteries, historic villages, rustic and innovative restaurants and futuristic architecture are interspersed among the scenic vineyards and classic bodegas of vibrant Rioja.

Wine Roads

The Wine Roads of Rioja and La Ribera del Duero is led by Gerry Dawes, leading wine and gastronomy writer and recipient of Spain’s National Gastronomy Award. Gerry is a regularly scheduled speaker on Spanish food and wine, both in Spain and the U.S. Gerry has led numerous culinary and wine tours in Spain, and most recently guided New York chef Terrance Brennan (chef/proprietor of Picholine Restaurant, awarded 2 Michelin stars, and Artisanal Bistro and Wine Bar, two highly acclaimed restaurants in New York City) on a food tour through Valencia and Alicante in eastern Spain.

The gastronomic focus of this journey is on traditional Spanish cuisine with a few forays into Spain’s contemporary and avant-garde cooking. Deluxe, multi-course gourmet meals will be balanced by lighter fare and the occasional tapas tour, for which San Sebastián and Logroño are famous. All wine accompanying the meals will be chosen by Gerry Dawes in consultation with the restaurants’ sommeliers. The culinary highlight of the trip will be the dinner at Arzak, a Michelin 3-star restaurant outside of San Sebastián, whose chef–Juan Mari Arzak–is widely considered to be a genius in the kitchen. All meals except for one lunch are included in the tour, as is the wine accompanying the meals. Hotels are 4-star historic buildings (convents and monasteries) in town and city centers. Transportation is in deluxe tour bus. 

9 Days/8 Nights

Madrid

Day 1 - Madrid

Check in to the Hotel de las Letras, a modern luxury hotel centrally located on Madrid’s Gran Vía.  In the late afternoon, we will visit the Prado Museum or the Reina Sofia Museum to view Picasso’s Guernika painted in homage to the Basque town of that name bombed in the Spanish Civil War. We meet in the evening near the Spanish capital’s historic Plaza Mayor for dinner–outstanding regional food and wine from the local Madrid wine region.

Medieval Towns and Bodegas

Day 2 - Madrid - Santo Domingo de la Calzada - Haro

We leave Madrid in the morning and drive to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a legendary town on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. We tour the cathedral where the famous chickens that are a part of the Camino legend are kept. We explore the town’s medieval streets before taking a short drive to a lovely town in the mountains of southern Rioja, and have a great traditional meal at the restaurant of one of the Rioja’s most revered cooks. We then walk through the kitchen and have dessert in a restaurant specializing in modern Spanish cuisine run by the chef’s son.

Just half an hour north of Santo Domingo is Haro, the capital of La Rioja Alta, one of Spain’s greatest wine subregions.  We will stay for two nights at the 4 star Hotel Los Agustinos in a historic building dating from 1373 which has been at different times in its multi-century history a monastery, a jail and a hospital. We then visit wineries in the Barrio de la Estación, a remarkable place that is home to more than half a dozen centenarian wineries and one of the most evocative places to visit in the world of wine.  We will visit a magical page-out-of-time bodega (winery) and taste their “wines of yesterday,” then cross the street and visit another top winery for a wine tasting.

Later we will take a short tour of Haro’s lively old quarter, peruse some of the wine shops and hang out in the charming bustling town square, sip a drink or a coffee at a sidewalk café and watch the peregrinations of the jarreros, as the citizens of Haro are called.  After some down time to rest, we will gather for dinner with a winemaker in a colorful upstairs restaurant and have roast suckling lamb, Rioja specialties and decades-old bottles of wine from prestigious Haro bodegas. 

Riojan Cuisine

Day 3 - Haro - La Rioja Alta - Haro

Today we will visit another bodega in the morning, see the stunning views from the hilltop Rioja Alta towns of Briones and San Vicente de la Sonsierra and visit a 12th-century Cistercian church that has special significance for our host.  We return to Haro where lunch is on your own.

In the evening, in Briones, we will have an al fresco dinner of Iberian ham, Riojan chorizo, Cameros cheese, baby lamb chops grilled over grape vine cuttings and delicious local wines taken from vats down in ancient caves carved into the cliffs above the Ebro River.  After dinner, we will return for drinks in a turn-of-the-19th-century café in Haro, joined by a Riojan wine personality.

Frank Gehry and Marqués de Riscal

Day 4 - Haro - La Rioja Alavesa – Laguardia

What a fantastic day we have ahead of us!  We will visit the picturesque villages of the Basque Country’s Rioja Alavesa. At the Marques de Riscal winery (founded in 1860), we tour their 150-year-old wine cellars and taste some great wines–including some very old ones.

We check into the superb Frank Gehry designed Marqués de Riscal 5 star hotel in Elciego, known as the City of Wine. We have lunch in the restaurant of this stunning hotel, which includes luxury spa facilities. The restaurant’s renowned chef is the same one who served us our avant-garde desserts near Santo Domingo de la Calzada two days earlier.  After lunch you are free to schedule optional spa treatments and massages in the hotel’s spa, which offers wine therapy massages and treatments using products are made of grape extracts and mineral water.

In the late afternoon, when the nearby town of Laguardia is illuminated by the setting sun, we go to a point south of town where this magical walled town can be seen shining against its backdrop of the blue-gray Cantabrian mountains like the mythical Shangri-La. In the evening, we will have a quiet down-home Rioja meal in a nearby village. A starker contrast to our opulent hotel is hard to imagine.

Wine Cellars and Tapas

Day 5 - Elciego - Laguardia - Logroño

This morning we will visit the capital of La Rioja Alavesa, the walled medieval town of Laguardia, which we saw as that magical city on the hill the evening before. Laguardia, a perfectly preserved medieval wine town, is closed to vehicular traffic, which makes the picturesque streets of this exceptionally charming Basque town a joy in which to walk.  We will stroll through Laguardia, have a short visit at a 14th century church to see a magnificent portal that is one of the most exceptional examples of religious art in northern Spain, and take in the views from the ramparts.

Every house in Laguardia has a wine cellar carved into the living rock, where the families, many of them wine grape growers, made wine for their own consumption and often sold some to local wineries and bars.  We will visit one of those subterranean bodegas and visit an unusual artisan family winery just outside the walls. We will taste some of Rioja’s best wines and have lunch at one of Spain’s greatest estate wineries, Contino, located nearby.

In late afternoon, we arrive in Logroño, the capital city of La Rioja and check into our hotel in the center of town.  After a brief siesta, we will head for Calle Laurel and other back streets of the colorful old quarter, which has one the best and most concentrated collection of tapas bars in all of Spain. Each bar has a different specialty– mushrooms, anchovies, grilled chorizo, patatas bravas, etc.– all served with local Rioja wines.  After our tapas tour, we will have the option of stopping at a local nightspot for a nightcap.

Kingdom of Navarra

Day 6 - Logroño - Olite - San Sebastián

We drive from La Rioja to Navarra, where we will visit to the castle town of Olite, whose 15th century castillo built in the French style is one of the most outstanding monuments in this historic province.  Long favored as a residence of the kings of Navarra, Olite is a charming gem of a village featuring a wine museum and a small Jewish quarter. We will visit a winery here and have an early lunch nearby at Túbal, one of the best restaurants in Navarra. 

We then head to the beautiful Basque seaside resort city of San Sebastián (Donostia in Basque), known for its gastronomic clubs and outstanding cuisine. We check into our hotel set on Monte Igueldo, a hill overlooking the city. Later we visit the spectacular La Concha beach, one of the world’s most civilized and elegant urban beaches. That evening we go on a pintxos (tapas) tour in the Casco Viejo–the old quarter known for its abundance of restaurants and tapas bars.

Three Star San Sebastian

Day 7 - San Sebastián

In the morning, we will visit the farmer’s market and then take a short ride to the wonderful one-street harbor village of Pasajes de San Juan (Pasaia Donibane) where Victor Hugo once lived. We will have lunch at a unique traditional restaurant looking out on the harbor. The afternoon is free for shopping and exploring San Sebastian. Dinner will be with a winemaker/winery owner at Arzak, the Michelin three-star restaurant just outside San Sebastián, which many say is the best restaurant in Spain!

Guggenheim Museum

Day 8 - San Sebastián - Bilbao - Peñafiel

We drive to Bilbao and visit the landmark Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry. We have a fine steak luncheon in La Gabarra, a charmingly rustic tavern serving superb meat, across the river from the Guggenheim.

We drive to historic Peñafiel in the prestigious Ribera del Duero wine region, and check into the Hotel Convento las Claras, a 17th century convent turned luxury hotel.  We will explore the spectacular castle town of Peñafiel and then have a tasting and roast baby lamb dinner at one of the Ribera del Duero’s most important wineries.

Farewell

Day 9 - Peñafiel - Madrid

Extend Your Stay in Madrid

If you wish to extend your stay in Madrid we offer tapas tours, exclusive dining experiences, customized historic Habsburg Madrid walking tours, private Prado and Reina Sofia museum tours, and excursions to Toledo and Segovia.

What We Include:

• 8 nights accommodation
• 8 dinners
• Arzak–Michelin three-starred restaurant
• 6 lunches
• Luxury transport
• All restaurant gratuities
• Winery visits and tastings

Not Included:

• Airfare to/from Spain
• Meals not specified
• Accident/baggage/trip cancellation insurance

Upcoming Dates:

May 16-24, 2009
October 3-11, 2009

Pricing:

• $4520

Single supplement $645
Prices are per person, double occupancy. Single supplement applies.
The tour requires a minimum of 12 people, and a maximum of 24. Smaller groups are possible with a price adjustment.

Contact us for information about our customized tours for couples, groups of friends, multi-generational family groups, wine clubs or corporate incentive travel. We offer cuisine or wine focused travel, or a combination of the two. 

Reservation

Please fill out the form below to reserve your place on the tour. Or call us toll-free at 866-642-2917 to make a reservation.

All reservations are subject to our Terms and Conditions. Please read them.

A deposit of $500 per person is required in order to reserve a trip. After we receive your reservation form we will send you an invoice via email for the deposit. You may pay securely through PayPal via credit card or bank transfer, or with a check sent through the mail. We never see your financial information. We will confirm your reservation upon receipt of the deposit.

Full payment for the trip is due 60 days before the program begin date. For reservations made less than 60 days before the program begin date, full payment is due at the time of booking.

You must check one of the circles on this Reservation form to indicate whether you desire or do not desire to purchase travel insurance. We strongly recommend that you purchase travel insurance because of the protection it offers you in the case of travel emergency or need to change your travel plans. A number of companies offer travel insurance. Epicurean Ways offers our travelers Travel Guard and TravelSafe travel insurance. See our Travel Guard ProtectAssist Gold (pdf) or Essential Expanded Silver plan brochures (pdf).

You may purchase travel insurance through Epicurean Ways or independently. Contact us with any questions regarding travel insurance.

We are very pleased that you have decided to travel with us. Do not hesitate to call or email with any questions you might have about the tour.

Toll free: 866-642-2917
Cell phone: 434-228-0641
In Spain: 951-190-478 or 669-109-292