Easy Like A Sunday Morning

This was a surprising interesting tour which described how the Muga family continue to make wine following traditional techniques, eschewing modern apparatus and chemicals. For example, they use 350 egg whites to clear the contents of a 3 metres wine vat. This process takes a month.

The attached slideshow follows the grape from vat to barrel to bottle to glass. Well worth the ten euros for the 90 minute visit.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/russell.jamieson/MugaWineryHaroLaRiojaSpain8thOctober2007 

On Monday morning we skipped breakfast and headed to the bodega quarter of town. My spanish housemate had given me a wine shopping list: Berceo, CVNE, Muga, Cubillo, Tondonia, Ardanza, Alberdi with a recommended 3 :1 split of crianza to reserva.

Muga was the first to open at 08:30 so we booked on the English tour starting at 10:00. They had sold out of white and rose so we had to make do with 6 bottles of 2004 Muga crianza and 6 of 2003 Muga Special Reserve.

Next we tried the R Lopez de Heredia bodega but this was shut until 10:00. We then tried La Rioja Alta and they happily decided to open up early. I sampled the 1998 Arana Reserva which was a lighter than more famous Rioja Ardanza. I think M will like this. I also tasted some Galician white, 2006 Lagar de Cervera, a crisp, aromatic, melony  wine, ideal for breakfast! I bought a dozen bottles of the white, 6 of 1999 Ardanza Reserva, 6 of the 1998 Arana Reserva and 12 of the 2000 Alberdi Cosecha.  

We then tried the CUNE bodega but this was closed until 11:00 so we hung around until the Muga tour started at 10:00, see next post.

After this finished we dropped in on  the Lopez de Heredia bodega which was now open. The shop was modern in design being shaped like a squashed decanter while inside it has a twelve foot high ornate raised bar. I tried the Tondonia Rose but found it a litttle bland so just bought 6 bottles of 1998 R. LÓPEZ DE HEREDIA VIÑA TONDONIA) and 6 bottles of the 2001 Vina Cubillo.

It was now about noon and we had a boat to catch. We took the motorway through the mountains up to Bilbao and then the spectacular coast along to Santander. We had about a half hour spare to drop in a local supermarket to buy some Cava and some San Miguel plus some fruit and water for the crossing.

For more on Spanish wine classification, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_wine#Classification 

http://www.bodegasmuga.com/English/vinos-de-rioja-1.html#Reservase

http://www.riojalta.com/ingles/rioja.htm

www.lopezdeheredia.com

www.cvne.com

I am spending the night at the Los Agustinos Hotel in Haro, in La Rioja Country. http://www.hotellosagustinos.com. We checked in around 7pm having driven around the beautiful old town centre three times. It reminds me of Sicily, with its heat, noisy bars and restaurants, the inhabitants strolling around the squares, the narrow streets, with bedsheets flying overhead. The hotel is beautifully styled with wooden panelling and the atrium and cloisters are well impressive. Dave and I, in removal men attire, were rather underdressed for the classic elegance of the hotel´s restaurant, so we headed out to the main square and eventually found a bar/restaurant that was willing to serve us dinner at the unfashionably early time of 8 o´clock. “You would like to eat dinner, now¿¿¿” Anyway it was excellent Russian Salad, Basque Style, and then Steak, then local cheese, washed down with house Rioja. Tomorrow we will hit a couple of bodegas, fill up the van and head for the port.

It was a long day, it started somewhere in the Bay of Biscay in thick fog and ended up with the chirping of crickets of 02:30 in the morning when we finally finished unloading the van. I think I might stay. The drive was arduous, stopping once at about an hour outside Santander, again an hour past Madrid  for a worringly rustic lunch at 16:00 and then again before Granada where I took over the driving for the last 3 hours. We arrived at Castillo at 23:15 too late for my favourite restaurant Domingo´s but had a decent lenguado a la plancha and insalata mixte at Delphine´s.

This morning it was the bank, topping up the credit on my spanish mobile, and then some lunch on the beach. We´ll head back to the flat now to unpack the furniture and bring beauty to my flat.    

It has been a busy week planning a trip to Spain. Last Friday my London flat furniture was delivered to home in Devon, 75% of which is bound for my flat in Spain. A few hours ago this was loaded into the Luton van. We depart tomorrow at 09:30 for the Plymouth – Santander ferry. The ferry arrives at 08:00 tomorrow morning. From there it is another 12 hours drive to La Duquesa, about 20 miles south of Marbella.  In 48 hours, my flat will have 3 beds, two sofas, a dining table, some shelves, books, videos, DVDs, a DVD/Video player, a TV, some pictures and a coffee maker. 

 Why go to all the trouble? Due to my Scottish soul which cannot bear to pay the local prices for furniture.  Our ever so charming furniture salesman, W, wanted 25,000 euros to furnish my wife’s 3 bed-flat. Please bear in mind it already had 2 sofas, dining table and chairs, 3 occasional tables, 2 beds, all kitchen appliances. So we are talking about 25,000 euros for 1 bed, 5 bedside tables, 3 mirrors, 3 dressing tables, 5 bedside tables,  5 pictures, bedclothes and some sparkle rugs. W has impeccable taste and it would have been really beautiful but I could not go there (at least not yet).

It’s funny, when I am in England I resent the drain of the property in Spain with its being a pain to cover the mortgage each month. However, depart this green and pleasant land in this October with its damp 15 degrees and arrive in 25 degrees and sunshine and I remember why this was not such a bad investment after all. After 3 days I do not want to come back. In 60 hours from now I will find myself in a T-shirt, in some fish restaurant in Castillo having Carabineros. These are larger than normal langoustines which are just beautiful washed down with some Rioja Blanca. 

 Must catch some zeds now.  Darling M will prepare me a manly breakfast in 6 hours, such that I am fortified for my quest.

Russell de la Mancha