Elciego, Spain (Basque Country)

To continue our trip across Northern Spain we drove through Navarra and La Rioja to a small town called Elciego.  We had been told by some good friends that this was a great spot to enjoy Spain and its world famous Rioja wine.

Marques de Riscal Hotel

We stayed at the hotel on the Marques de Riscal vineyards that was designed by the world famous architect Frank Gehry.  Based on what we were told it is supposed to represent the colours of the Rioja wine in their specific bottles and who am I to disagree.  He did design the Guggenheim.

Crianza 2007

We were only there for a day and a half but really enjoyed the peace and quiet this place provided as it overlooked the small town. We obviously did a tour of their bodega (Jolene's first wine tour!) and got to walk through their old and new cellars as well. In one of underground rooms they store the family's private wine collection that consists of over 100,000 bottles of wine and some that were bottled in the 1800's. This of course was followed by some wine tastings which then of course led into a full day of sipping wine overlooking the vineyards and working through the various different types of wine they currently make.

We ended up having dinner at the restaurant in the hotel, which of course was maybe just a little bit too fancy for us.  It involved multiple courses of small portions with abstract food presentation.  I also think we went through the entire hotel supply of silverware throughout our meal. While it all tasted great, there was one dish we referred to as the puddle (slivered red shrimp on a garlic cream base) and also the dish the waiter suggested for me was the pigeon in a pear glaze which was very good as well.

La Rioja region is great and there are bodegas all over the place you could stop at when visiting. We'd definitely suggest visiting and spending more time there if you can fit it in.