Rioja

Hilltop towns with monasteries and castles overlooking vineyards, underground caves for aging wine, bustling pintxos bars and a long history of producing Spain’s finest wines.

Rioja feels a world apart from the Basque Country nearby. Towns and villages are dominated by ancient castles, churches and monasteries, but most of all wineries. Vineyards are everywhere, but wineries have always been in town in the Rioja. In honorary wine capital Haro, the Station Quarter is full of them, their famous names and tasting rooms beckoning. The bordering mountains protecting Rioja to the north and south make this region a wine sanctuary. Great wine is everywhere: in the pintxos bars of Haro and Logroño, at the traditional restaurants in Laguardia and Casalarreina, in the cavernous cellars of Michelin star restaurants. The food ranges from rustic to refined, but it’s always hearty. Above all, the Rioja is beautiful. Perfectly preserved medieval villages, rolling hills covered in vines whose leaves paint them in jewel tones every fall, sprawling old wineries full of aged barrels next to psychedelic new complexes. You could come here just to look at it all, but thankfully the wine is as beautiful and diverse as the country itself.

Lingering over leisurely meals accompanied by the best wines of the region you will find yourself thinking that you have found the perfect food and wine escape.