Spain’s La Rioja wine region sits on the south side of the Cantabrian Mountains. The views are stunning and the wineries plentiful. Deciding which winery to visit is a difficult task, but we settled on Bodegas Tobelos located in the village of Briñas. Tobelos started their 2024 harvest on September 24th and we arrived on September 28th. What a perfect time for a visit!
Javier is the General Manager of Tobelos and he gave us our tour that started with grapes that had been harvested by hand the day before. The grapes have very thick skins so they aren’t great for eating but they make great wine!
We got to taste the 2023 harvest that had been aged in both American and French Oak barrels (the two barrels in the foreground). The difference was noticeable with the American Oak imparting more oak flavor. Works well for tempranillo but overwhelming for granacha.
Here are some more sights from our tour.
And then we drove just down the road to Muga for a glass of wine but no tour.
