Wine tourism activities in vineyards and wineries of Rioja

Activities in the vineyards

There are currently around 17,000 winegrowers in the Protected Designation of Origin Rioja, partially or fully dedicated to grow the vines and sell the grapes to the big wineries that have modern facilities and fantastic buildings.

Rioja wine is not only an excellent quality product but also a way of life for an important part of the Riojan population. The occupation of viticulture and winegrowing, introduced by the Romans in the 1st century A.D. and transmitted from fathers to sons during generations, has shaped the habits, traditions, and lifestyle of the people of the region. This is a feeling that we would like you to experiment and take with you after your visit to La Rioja.

After decades of oenologic studies and years with the eyes set on the wineries, the experts have finally realised that a great wine begins to be gestated in the vineyard. That is why viticulture is nowadays regaining the relevance it deserves. There, in the vines, there are vital labours that must be carried out all along the year:

In winter, the prunning will control the yield of the vine, thus extending its life.
In spring, the sucker removal and canopy thinning will strip the vine of part of its vegetal mass, thus controlling its growth.
In summer, the heading and defolding will make the vine concentrates its efforts on maturing the grapes.
In autumn, vintage arrives. We will harvest the fruit of all these labours which will lead us directly to the winery.

Vineyard in Upper Rioja

What are the activities all about?

The tours depart from the centre of Fuenmayor (ten minutes away from Logroño, the capital city) and begin with a brief explanation about the history of the village and its remarkable relationship with Rioja wine. A short drive will show us some ancestral homes and old palaces, as the one which was headquarters of the Royal Economic Society of Rioja Winegrowers at the end of the 18th century.

We will then continue to the vineyards area in our van and have a pleasant walk around the vineyards as you are explained about the orientation /guiding of the vines, the layout of the land, the importance of the soil. Depending on the season of your visit, you will be taught about the activity to be carried out in our vineyards at that time. We advise you to come with comfortable clothing and shoes (preferably jeans and sport shoes).

After the activity, we will have a typical snack in the vineyard and we will head to our traditional winery (so called bodega de cosechero), in the same village, where we will carry out different experiments in order to understand the fermentation of wine and winemaking in general. We will later on descend to the 16th century cellar, dug in natural stone, where we will taste wine directly from the barrels (with the appropriate explanations). Finally, each member of the group will bottle his own bottle of wine, that he will carry back home personalized on the label.

Come and have fun while you learn the secrets of viticulture and winemaking!

Having a snack at the vineyards

Activities in the winery

Nowadays many industrial wineries have automated the majority of the winemaking processes. There are few traditional wineries in Rioja where wine is still produced following ancient methods, mainly for family consumption. Our family winery is located at the slope of a hill, under which we have a more than two hundred year old cellar with stone arches. Here you will be able to participate with us in the winemaking process.

When grape bunches, just harvested, are dumped into the casks of the winery, an spontaneous process begins, called fermentation. The yeasts sticked in the grapes will multiply by millions while they transform the sugar into alcohol. Temperature rises substantially and the must seems to boil. There is a wonderful sweet smell pervading the atmosphere of the winery: our wine is being born.

However, in the winery there are labours during all the year, not only at harvest time. Once wine has fermented, we rack it to oak barrels, where it will be resting for years. This is also an active period, as we will rack the wine from one barrel to another in order to eliminate the impurities that slowly deposit to the base of the barrels. We will take advantage of this moment to taste wine directly from the barrel and taste the different hints given by each type of oak to the wine.

Bottling in the cellar

After years of ageing, the wine will be ready to settle in the bottle, where it will get smoother and it will lose the harshness given by the oak. We will select the corks and we will fill the bottles, one by one, with our own hands.

Tasting courses

Would you like to extend your knowledge on this wine that the Earth has blessed us with? Do you dare to test your natural gift for tasting? If so, enrol for one of our wine tasting courses! We will teach you to tune your senses, how to differentiate the features of a wine and understand the effect of different varieties and types of oak used for the barrels. At the same time, we will lay some of the popular misconceptions surrounding wine to rest, and we will teach you the best conservation and presentation habits.

Above all, you will have a great time in the winery surrounded by a product created by nature and shaped by man.

See our prices.

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