La Rioja Alta

Picking up where we left off…
After spending the day in Priorat, we leave the region and drive a bit closer to the area of Rioja, before we take camp for the night.  Knowing that our drive to the region the following morning will be a long haul, we take drive just an hour and a half from the region of Priorat towards our next stop.  Here, we choose the very cute, Spanish port town of Tarragona.  While Tarragona’s main city is quite industrial and busy, the city’s charm comes from its quaint ‘old village’ section located in the heart of the city.  Here, the remains of an old Roman walled section of the ‘old town’ sits.  From the outside, it doesn’t look like much until you walk just inside the entrances of the walled sections.
Teaming with life and just about as cute as any city can be of its kind, the village’s square holds a number of great little tapas bars with tiny indoor seats and outside patios. The hotel we chose, SB Express Tarragona, was not inside the village, yet was a very convenient (AND inexpensive!) spot to land for the night.  Clean, quiet, close to the main roads and just a mile walk to the old village, the hotel was a quick $65 for the night with free WiFi and clean place to stay.
The next morning, we set off for our next location:  La Rioja Alta.  A 4 hour drive from Tarragona, the scenery is quite nice and the roads, very easy to navigate.
Our only stop for the day, and one of my favorite Rioja wineries, R. López de Heredia.  While I’ve always been a huge fan of the wine – from the United States – the things that I learned while visiting the winery were astounding!
Fun Facts about López de Heredia:

• The winery is one of the oldest in Rioja, at 137 yrs old
• The winery does not buy ANY fruit in Rioja, but owns ALL of their property for winemaking.
• LdH produces 300,000-500,000 bts per year.  And they never release a new vintage until ALL of the previous vintage is completely poured or purchased.
• They ONLY use oak barrels and never stainless. 
• The winery has their own cooperage on site!!  Without any real ‘modern’ equipment, their master barrel maker makes 1 barrel every 8-9hrs (a full day’s work!)
• The winery does not put any toast on their barrels.  They want their ‘wine’ to ‘taste like wine’ says our tour guide, Maria, therefore use the natural flavors of their (mostly) white American oak to age their wines.  
• LdH does not use any ‘modern’ winemaking equipment for fermentation, but uses mostly large Hungarian/French styled barriques. 
• They age their wines based on the ‘elegancy’ of the wines and the grapes they farm – therefore hold their current vintage’d wines between 1999-2004.

Familiar with the wines, I was aware of their philosophies regarding their aging capacities, etc, yet was still surprised to discover that the winery makes everything (literally) from hand.  From the winery’s barrels to the oak harvest bins and hand dug tunnels, LdH is pretty much one of THE most self sufficient places I have ever seen.
Surprisingly, the winery entrance is a bit of a ‘throw off’ as the outside looks quite modern when you approach the site (designed by Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi female architect). The look of the winery is designed in an all glass look in the shape of a wine decanter, with a very modern approach from its futuristic looking tasting room furniture to its winery shelving.  Yet, the second you step into the actual winery, it feels as if you’ve slipped back in time by 100 years.
From the cellars and ‘wine cemetery’, which houses a number of bottles from EACH of the winery’s vintages, LdH itself is one of the coolest, most historic relics in all of Rioja. The Viña Tondonia red is the largest piece of LdH’s production, yet does produce at least 2 other reds and 2 whites.  The wines, of course, all lovely but not for the tutti fruity, juicy lovin’ winos of the world.  The portfolio from its reds to its whites are layered with deep, complex notes of ripe cherry, rich carpaccio and lemon meringue.  Complex and mature, they are a lovely sipper for any real ‘wine nerd’ at heart.
In the end, López de Heredia offered us an exquisite experience with a very cool look into Rioja history!