WINE TOURISM IN RIOJA ALTA

What do you fancy doing at Easter? Actually, it’s not a trick question, because the Rioja Alta Wine Route offers you so many suggestions that you won’t even be able to imagine. Bodegas Lecea, in San Asensio, invites us to take a ride through the vineyards in a horse-drawn carriage; but not before enjoying another interesting proposal: pruning the vines and recovering your strength with a Riojan lunch in the vineyard where you can enjoy homemade omelette, sausage, cheese and local bread. To end the day, a visit to the winery with wine tasting. Although if you prefer a hearty Riojan meal, at Lecea you can also enjoy potatoes with chorizo and vine-shoot chops, accompanied by a visit to the winery’s century-old cellars and a tasting of three of its wines. And for those who prefer to see only the four 16th century cellars, without staying for lunch, they can also do so, with a commented tasting of three wines. Without leaving the capital of La Rioja, Bodegas Viña Ijalba, the first organic winery in Rioja, tempts us with another suggestive proposal: to “become” grapes and follow the same route from the time they leave the vineyard until they are […]

The pandemic prevented it last year, all the more reason for the Vivanco Foundation to announce with even greater enthusiasm a new edition, the thirteenth, of the Pedro Vivanco International Print and Wine Award. An award that has placed our territory in the national and international spotlight of art and culture. In this competition, artists are asked to draw their inspiration from the sensorial and artistic universe of wine. Each year it brings together a greater number of national and foreign applicants, making the culture of wine in general and La Rioja in particular increase its notoriety around the world and arousing greater interest in visiting us. In this edition, the Vivanco Foundation and the Escuela Superior de Diseño de La Rioja (ESDIR) invite artists to send -until Monday 19th April- unpublished prints that have not been presented in other editions or awards, and that focus on the suggestive world of wine. Each author may submit a maximum of two works. The jury will meet on Friday 7 May, although it will not be an easy task, as this 2021 promises to be a very special encounter with the art of engraving. If the situation allows it, on Friday 25 […]

San Vicente de la Sonsierra offers a large number of attractions for wine tourists and, from now on, it will have two more. After months of work, work has now been completed on the “Enhancing the value of the Castle’s wine cellars” project, which has adapted two municipal-owned wine cellars for future visits. Through this project developed in 2020, these two coves will be incorporated into the guided tours offered by the municipal tourist office, which will greatly improve the tourist experience. On the hill of the fortress of San Vicente there are a hundred or so caves of different depths and surfaces. With the implementation of this project, this important heritage linked to wine culture and to the past, present and future of the town will be enhanced. The cellars in caves -calados- take advantage of the properties of the subsoil, which gives them a stable temperature and humidity throughout the year for the ageing and storage of the wine. These cellars are also part of the museum project developed, thanks to which visitors will learn a little more about the history of the cellars, the history of traditional winemaking and the wine cellars and the heritage of the […]

The agricultural organisation ARAG-ASAJA has launched a campaign to promote the consumption of Riojan foodstuffs. The campaign is called ‘The real taste of Christmas is very close’ and the Rioja Alta Wine Route has also collaborated in it to promote the agricultural sector and recognise the work of farmers and stockbreeders in La Rioja. The agricultural organisation also seeks to promote direct sales to provide an outlet for products such as wine, beef, kid and lamb, which are some of the products that are suffering the most from the restrictive measures of this health crisis. Another of the objectives of this campaign is to provide a positive view of the origin and quality of all the food produced in La Rioja. This initiative continues the work set in motion with the project ‘Better the Closer’ in which ARAG-ASAJA, with the collaboration of the Protected Geographical Indication Pimiento Riojano, the La Rioja Sheep and Goat Association (AROVI) and the local action groups CEIP-Rural, ADRA and ADR La Rioja Suroriental, promoted direct sales in La Rioja this year. As part of this campaign, ARAG-ASAJA offers producers who are agricultural professionals, that is, who are registered with the Agricultural Social Security or declare […]

In this Entrepreneurial Women’s Day the Rioja Alta Wine Route would like to pay particular tribute to all our members. Winemakers, hoteliers, chefs… all of them successfully run their respective businesses. They decided one day to undertake their own projects in the rural environment, with what it means in terms of job creation, settlement of the population and example for other entrepreneurs. For all these reasons, and many others, today is the day to remember Blanca Baños, manager of Bohedal Winery in Cuzcurrita, and one of the first women to assume this position in a Rioja Wine España winery; or Silvia del Campo from Calado 1880 Winery in Cenicero. On this day, we also cannot forget about Carmen Enciso,  winemaker for 30 years and a founding member of Valenciso Winery in Ollauri, nor of course of the Ayagar Wineries in Hormilleja, with Marivi directing it since 2004. There are also many women in the tourism sector, such as Elena Maiso and his newly opened cottage El Mirador de Eloísa in Rodezno; or Laura Lopez, in the front of an old 17th century mansion that has been restored and converted into the Hospederia Teatrisso in Cuzcurrita.   But there is much more female presence in the tourist hotel sector, as is the case with Angela […]

Our partner Ignatius Posada in Navarrete, has been included as an example in the Guide to Good Practice for the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 of the Government of La Rioja. Rioja Alta Wine Route has collaborated in the publication of this guide which includes those projects subsidised by FEADER which, like Posada Ignatius, are considered to be of particular relevance. Posada Ignatius was inaugurated in April 2018 after a complete restoration of Duke of Nájera Palace. This is a 15th-century building that took three years to build. The result: a high quality hotel resource that did not exist in the region until its opening. Its uniqueness has made accommodation a tourist resource in itself, attracting visitors and generating economic flow in the municipality. In addition, it has created 6 jobs. The Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 seeks to achieve sustainable management of natural resources and a more economically and socially balanced territory. Specifically, this Programme pursues the following objectives: Job creation, with special attention to young farmers and rural entrepreneurs and, within them, women; the modernisation of agricultural holdings to make their products more competitive on the market; the improvement and modernisation of irrigation infrastructure; the training of farm owners, through training courses and specialised advice; the […]