An exceptional wine tour

Monday 16 September
Our wine tour with Jose is booked today on the recommendation of Chaine friend Grant and we wait out the front in coolish overcast weather. Jose arrives in his Chrysler 7 seater and we are the only guests for today's tour. After a thorough briefing on Rioja wine appellation and some sniffing about the vines, we arrive at our first tasting stop. A little bit of background is needed here. Vineyard visits and tastings are not like Australia. In both France and Spain, vineyards make wine. The move to wine tourism on the scale we know it is just beginning here and our mate, yep we're best buddies by now, Jose is leading the charge. Our first stop is a young winemaker- that means less than 100 years old, Roda Wines. They provide two reds. Flashy raises an eyebrow and gives Lady P a wink. The tasting is in a proper big glass and the volume is 125ml. This could be a big day. Both wines are excellent and spotting the price list, Flashy orders a bottle, mistaking the 2€ a glass for the bottle price. Well wine is cheap in Spain. Slightly embarrassed and 36€ later we head off again through beautiful little ancient villages and stunning Rioja valley scenery to the next tasting. Muga wines is a big operation. Millions of bottles produced each year and a winemaker recommended by Grant. Well done mate, we had five full glasses of Rosado, Blanco - a new grape for us a ‘Viura’, then three exceptional reds mainly tempranillo grape with some granacha.

They may get the tasting volumes right in time but Flashy was very happy, so he bought a couple of wines and a little tea spoon souvenir. Moving along, we come to Jose's latest tourism operatio. He has bought and renovated an abandoned winery, procured stunning wines from the region, bunged his own label on the bottle and takes guests through what can only be described as being transported back to the 18c wine caves.

We taste wine straight from the barrel, enjoy sheep cheese and jamon with olive oil, try and drink rose from a jug, Spanish shepherd style and then watch Jose light a grill with grape vine cuttings and proceed to grill beautiful little lamb chops. All this we have for lunch, seated inside a gigantic wooden wine barrel. There is ample wine to help digestion. This has been the highlight of the trip so far. An exceptional tourism product delivered by a really smart operator. We predict he will go far and be very successful. What a nice man.

Postscript – it should be noted that on our arrival home, Lady P climbs into bed and in true Spanish style, has a 2 hour siesta. Flashy similarly snoozes on the couch. We could get used to this Spanish custom and join throngs at the local mercador(supermarket) at 8.30pm for a few simple supplies for dinner. The babies and children are still awake so I guess all is OK in the streets of Lograno.