6 Day Epicurean Food, Wine, Olive & Cooking Holiday Tour in La Rioja, Spain

Day 1 - Bilbao, Laguardia

• You will be welcomed and escorted by The Unique Traveller's guide, who will take you to your carefully selected hotel in La Rioja.
• Check in at your pre-selected hotel in Laguardia.
• Have a welcome drink, menu hand out, and introduction to the tour program.
• Free evening.

Day 2 - Laguardia

• Enjoy a tutored wine tasting of a selection of the most representative wines of La Rioja, conducted by a wine expert. You will learn different techniques to taste wine, as well as the unique characteristics of the wines produced in La Rioja wine region.
• First hands-on cooking class in your culinary adventure, directed by British born, Cathy, who lives in La Rioja.
• Have lunch before a tapas tour in the amazing town of Laguardia, where you will sample the best tapas in town, and mix with the locals, experiencing evening life in such lovely place.

Day 3 - Laguardia, Logrono

• Private guided tour, conducted by local expert, of one of the most astonishing medieval towns in Europe: Laguardia. Walk through the narrow-cobbled town streets, enjoying stunning views as well as visiting small wine and food shops, and bars.
• Enjoy a privileged visit to one of the best underground cellars in the medieval town of Laguardia. The cellar elaborates its wines in a traditional way, which you will taste.
• Afterwards, have your second hands-on cooking class followed by lunch.
• Then, have a guided visit one of the wineries in La Rioja and a vineyard walk followed by wine tasting.
• Transfer to Logrono, capital of Rioja, for the last two days of your food and wine adventure.

Day 4 - Logrono, Cameros, Logrono

• Guided visit to the food market. You will be nicely surprised by the size, quality, and taste of the vegetables and fruits in the area. Select your ingredients for the dinner cooking class.
• Next, head to Cameros, a region of contrasts in the mountains.
• On the way, stop in an Almazara (oil mill), where you will learn how they make extra virgin olive oil, essential ingredient in Spain's gastronomy. Olive oil tasting included.
• If there is time, you can also visit a beehive yard, learning how honey is obtained, as well as different applications and products from it.
• After this interesting experience, you will have a traditional lunch in a local restaurant, based on a typical menu of this quiet and mountainous area: Los Cameros. *Return to Logrono. Seize your free time to relax and enjoy Logrono before your third hands-on cooking class, which will take place in the gastronomy society palace, followed by dinner.

Day 5 - Logrono, Haro

• Today, leave behind your passion for cooking to relax, visit and experience two unique wineries, including a tasting of two of the best extra virgin olive oils.
• You will also be lucky enough to have one of the best traditional lunches in a fabulous setting, a guided visit to one of the oldest and prettiest wine estates in Europe, a tour conducted possibly by one of the members of the family and a wine tasting.
• Then, have your second guided visit to one of the most prestigious wineries in Spain, which has mastered one of the best wines in Spain, thanks to its winemaking methods.
• Afterwards, have wine and extra virgin olive oil tasting.
• Enjoy a superb typical lunch from the area.
• In the evening, you will have a fabulous treat: guided tapas tour in the famous gastronomic street: Calle Laurel. Sample the best tapas of the area accompanied with wine or beer. You will experience authentic and unique tapas from Rioja, while you mix with the locals. Highly enjoyable.

Day 6 - Logrono, Bilbao

• Return transfer to Bilbao International Airport (BIO).
• Timing is subject to your schedule.

• Discover vineyards walk followed by wine tasting
• Enjoy a private guided tour conducted by local expert in Laguardia
• Have a tapas tour in the amazing town of Laguardia, and a guided visit one of the wineries in La Rioja
• Relish a tapas tour in the famous gastronomic street Calle Laure
• Sample the best tapas in La Rioja
• Seize a privileged visit to one of the best underground cellars in the medieval town of Laguardia
• Stop by at Almazara oil mill
• Taste a selection of the most representative wines of La Rioja, conducted by a wine expert
• Visit small bars, wine, and food shops

It is not difficult to have a love affair with Rioja, not solely for its wines, but for its generous people, gastronomy, and magnificent landscapes. Rioja is a wine area, which includes the province of La Rioja, a part of Alava, in the Basque Country, as well as Navarra. La Rioja is the autonomous government. Castilian Spanish is spoken in this region, located in central northern Spain, 100 kilometers south of the port of Bilbao, lying astride the motorway that joins the north and Mediterranean coasts. The landscapes of La Rioja are beautiful and impressively diverse, with ancient hilltop fortress towns rising from the blanket of vineyards, overlooked by a panorama of the imposing Sierras of Cantabria and the de la Demanda ranges in the west, and those of Pealosa and Yerga to the east.

Culture

Being a target of its neighbors at one time or another, La Rioja retains close ties to Castile because it was in La Rioja that the Castilian language was first written down. Clearly, its loyalty lies more in that direction than towards the others, something still evident today. Before La Rioja became an autonomous region in its own right, it was part of Castile, an association that goes back to the unifying of Spain after the marriage of Ferdinand I of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, in the 15th century.

The strength of the family remains key to the peoples lifestyle. This strong confidence building unity is fundamental to their personality, and just so long as they are treated with respect, one will find them both friendly and unnecessarily generous. When visiting many parts of Spain, like La Rioja, it becomes clear that by no means all Spaniards are Latin in character; though they may betray the same love of life at times. They are proud, yes, but also phlegmatic, sometimes reserved but also uninhibited, and both patient and courteous, unless they are driving a car. The new generation is demonstrating an openness their ancestors lacked, probably because the nation was so heavily subjugated during the many years following the Civil War.

History

The region's history dates back to the times of the Celtic Iberians, in 3000 B.C., before the Romans who landed at Tarragona in 300 B.C., moved inland up the River Ebro, to set up camps in Rioja some several years later. The locals like to think they stopped because of the wines and gastronomy, but it was most likely because of their failure to cross the mountains into the Basque Country, thanks to the very powerful resistance from the Basques. However, their arrival in Rioja was to prove importance to the industrial wine business, when they introduced a degree of good commercial practices.

Though less evident in the north, the occupancy of Spain by the Moors, between 711 A.D. and 1492, had an inevitable impact on the culture, language, and character of the nation, as it is evident from the peoples proud nature and the many Castilian words with Arabic origins. The first written Castilian occurred in Rioja, when in a 13th century Monk, Gonzalo de Berceo, penned a poem at the Monastery of San Millan, writing in the language of the common people - rather than Latin, and for which he hoped he might receive a glass of good wine.

During the Middle Ages, thousands of pilgrims crossed the province on their way to the shrine of St. James in Galicia, and were very appreciative of the regional wines. La Rioja wines history is well covered in that section and it owes its prominence to the fact it has become regarded as Spains flagship wine region, especially since 19th century.

Nature and the environment

Apart from over 60,000 hectares of vines, other prominent crops are cereals, sugar beet, apples and pears, along with an abundance of sheep. The economy is built around agriculture in general, particularly in the winemaking industry and its allied products, such as oak barrel makers, capsule producers, label printers, and agricultural machinery suppliers as well as engineers and, not least, banking.

The mighty River Ebro bisects Rioja from west to east, and with the mountains, plays a key role in the geology and climate of Rioja; from the cooler, verdant west, where vineyards and population centers are higher in altitude; down to the warmer, arid east, in the Rioja Baja. They influence the micro climatic conditions in the vineyards, both feeding the water table and generating early morning mists across the riverside vineyards, while sheltering them from the worst of the Atlantic influences. More than 2,000 years ago, the Ebro was navigable with sea-going vessels, sailing the 500 kilometers from the Mediterranean to Logrono, the capital of La Rioja.

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Locations play a major part in creating just the right ambiance for both wine tasting and dining, on the regional's extraordinary variety of ingredients and culinary styles. During this culinary holiday, the dishes you will create for yourself include canapes, a Mediterranean menu, a traditional Rioja lunch, and a variety of typical region's dishes at Laguardia. The highlight will be an invitation to one of Rioja's oldest gastronomic societies; but between, you will be introduced to the most entertaining Spanish food, including tapas and plenty of authentic culinary dishes.

Feel free to explore Laguardia and Logrono in your spare time. A visit to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is subject to guests arrival time.

• 2 tapas tours
• 3 cooking classes
• 3 dinners
• 4 lunches
• 4 winery guided visits including tutored wine tasting
• 5 full breakfasts
• 5 nights accommodation
• Airport transfers
• All entrances and fees
• All taxes
• Personalized English speaking expert guide throughout the tour
• Private guided walking tour of a medieval town
• Recipe book to take home
• Tour of the medieval village of Laguardia
• Transportation during the tour
• Visit great La Rioja wineries, local markets, vineyards. and olive oil mills

• Flights
• Meals not specified
• Optional visits
• Optional spa treatments
• Personal expenses
• Tips
• Travel insurance

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• A reservation requires a deposit of 30% of the total price.
• The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
• The rest of the payment should be paid 30 days before arrival.