Why You Should Make A Wine Trip Your Next Holiday

Summer is all about a few things: sun, scenery, and a seriously delicious glass of wine.

There are few better experiences than a crisp vino and a bit of good weather. It may only be topped by actually being in the place where the wine is produced… while indulging in a whole lot of it, of course.

La Rioja is a place most famous for its wine. The production of it, the quality of it, and of course, the drinking of it.

It’s known as Spain’s fine wine capital, and with good reason. Producing up to 60 percent of the wines drank in Spanish bars and restaurants, La Rioja is esteemed for its fruit-forward, innovative, and deeply traditional drinks industry.

It’s also the place that Lidl Ireland sources a whole lot of their wine, from full blooded reds to crisp rosés to bubbling proseccos.

Earlier this month, Team STELLAR was invited along to La Rioja and Ribera del Duero to meet the wine makers, spend a few days in the Spanish countryside, and taste some truly delicious vino. How could we say no?

Our first stop was Hotel Marqués de Riscal, a luxury and really quite dramatic hotel that combines modern architecture with the region’s traditional wine making.

Sat atop 10,000 square meters of lush basque countryside (and a few vineyards of its own to boot), it was like nothing I had ever seen before. On one side you’ve got the medieval town of Elciego, and on the other you’ve got rolling hills for miles, dominated by vines, farms, and far more greenery than I ever expected to see in Spain.

We dined there the first night; an eight course meal of exquisite seafood and contemporary flavours, made only more delicious by the wines paired with them.

Master of Wine Richard Bampfield was on hand to give some context on the wines he had chosen for dinner, a solid mix of whites, reds, and sparklings from the hotel itself and the surrounding region. I went to bed full of food, and full of knowledge.

The next day, we traveled to a nearby vineyard, Bodega Isidro Milagro, where we strolled through the fields, learned a bit about Ireland’s wine supplies, and enjoyed a hearty lunch paired with (you guessed it) wine.

We visited a lot of wineries on this trip – some that were small, family run businesses, others than were mammoth productions housed in vast warehouses with stainless steel tanks holding hundreds of thousands of litres of liquid.

Some of the wineries harvest their own grapes, others source their fruit from elsewhere. All of the places we visited host tours and tastings, steeped in local culture and paired with cheeses and meats and crusty breads.

One winery, Bodegas Posada Mayor de Migueloa, has been operating since the 17th century, its cellars deep underground beneath a restaurant serving up divine local cuisine.

As was habitual on this trip, the meals were plentiful and the courses were long. We dined in Mayor de Migueloa on the second night, on what can only be described as a feast – cheeses, hake, asparagus, prawns, tuna, bread, and a French toast-esque dessert that was maybe one of the nicest things I’ve ever put in my mouth.

There are over 200 underground cellars in this part of the region, Laguardia, each with its own history and character. Here, the owner names his wines after those who mean the most to him. In another cellar we visited (near Aranda de Duero), locals host parties in the centuries old space, surrounded by the filters and barrels of yesteryear.

The next night we travelled further south and stayed in Castilla Termal Monasterio de Valbuena, a spectacular hotel built inside a 12th century monastery on the region’s so-called ‘golden mile.’

In short, it was stunning. We dined in the courtyard as the sun went down, a guitar strummed in the background, and we enjoyed some more gorgeous wines specially selected by Richard.

He even treated us to one of his favourites at the end of the night, a dessert wine sipped while a Flamenco dancer gave us a taste of some traditional entertainment.

That night I slipped off to bed early, aware of our final tasting the following morning (our sixth the entire trip, no doubt). Here, we tried a selection of Lidl’s best wine offerings, picked by Richard, and sipped gingerly by me, as it was not even 11am and I did not feel worldly enough to spit into the provided buckets yet.

I learned a lot on this trip. I learned that barrel ageing wine was a happy accident. I learned that the white with fish, red with meat ‘rule’ doesn’t really apply anymore. I learned that giant wine glasses don’t actually make any difference to taste.

Before this trip I’d been on one wine tour before, I had never been on a wine holiday and I had never immersed myself in wine country. Now, I’m eagerly anticipating my next big wine trip, wherever that may be.

I still wouldn’t call myself much of a wine aficionado, but I drank a whole lot more of it than I ever had before.

This writer was invited on a press trip with Lidl Ireland & Northern Ireland to La Rioja. Find out more here.