In Search Of The Perfect Culinary Holiday In Spain's Rioja Region
While many Autumn travellers head to the streets of Barcelona in the search of good tapas
, the clever tourist heads down a bit lower, a hour and a half a way from Bilbao for a great culinary experience.Spain's Rioja region offers some of the best places to eat and drink in the whole country, with two of the most raved about foodie destinations within very close distance of one another, one is Laguardia, the other is Logrono. There are Spanish men who trawl from town to town by bicycle searching for the best dishes and wines, though realistically you'll need a car to get about.
Renting one of the Spanish villas in Laguardia offers a great opportunity to get about and sample the diverse offerings from around the region. The first port of call here is the turreted Castillo El Collado, where we are met with some of the most mouth watering Jamon, with a fine bottle of Rioja to wash it down with.
In the area there is a rustic feel, a rather old worldly destination of old villas and plenty of greenery, but the wineries can offer a different feeling. The Marques de Riscal is a sight to behold, it looks as if it has just landed from Space, that is because the astonishing building was designed by Frank Gehry, meaning it must be seen if you are passing through.
Up the hill Biagorri offers wine tastings, and again this is a sleek futuristic design. Here they lead you down several floors, teaching you a great deal about the Riojan wine developed here, there is a tinge of yeast in the air as you take your tour. Then at the end of the tour and tasting they settle you down in to the complexes restaurant, which perches itself just over the sprawling vineyards. Classic Spanish cuisine is served including Cheese Croquettes, stews and chops, all of course, accompanied by a big glass of red wine.
Then for tapas a trip to Logrono is essential, these streets have been trawled by Hemingway and the tapas has received royal approval. It's a town densely populated with tapas bars, you can barely take twenty steps without finding yourself at one of their doorways.
It's certainly a fun experience, each tapas joint has two or free specialities, leading to something of a tapas crawl. You start in one bar ordering whatever delicacy they may have, there is a range of chorizo dishes, lamb kebabs, octopus, squid, fish, the whole gamut that tapas has to offer, but because each bar specialises, there are no over stretched menus. Locals will pour inn and order glasses of carbonated red wine which is very popular here, though your gut won't thank you if you over indulge. Then everyone moves on to the next bar for more eating, more drinking. By the end everyone is a sated drunken wreckage, laughing away as they make their ways back home.
For a final stop there is Dinastia Vivanco, a winery and museum. The owner here has amassed a great amount of wine related memorabilia including the world's largest corkscrew collection. For lunch there is a speciality dish of lambchops with asparagus which is beautifully prepared and goes wonderfully with the stretching vineyard view.
For anyone in pursuit of the perfect culinary holiday, the Rioja region is your destination.
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