Tempranillo Time

WineMaker readers including Publisher Brad Ring spent a week exploring one of the world’s great wine regions: Rioja, Spain, and on either side of the Spain-France border in Basque Country. The group experienced the history and local winemaking traditions during WineMaker’s Spain Wine & Food Tour in late June. We visited an amazingly broad spectrum of wineries from a winery dating back to 1890 relying heavily on gravity instead of pumps and still using wine presses designed by Gustave Eiffel, to a new-school winery experimenting with fermenting their wines underwater in heavy plastic buoys anchored several meters under the Atlantic Ocean’s surface. All along the way we had the chance to walk through vineyards and miles of ancient underground cellars while meeting with local winemakers happy to answer questions from North American home winemakers while we enjoyed sampling their wines.

We also made sure to leave time for some incredible food experiences highlighted by an over-the-top, 11-course, wine-paired meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant located in a stunning winery and hotel building designed by world-famous architect Frank Gehry, who is best known for the nearby Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The WineMaker group also enjoyed a memorable cooking class in one of the world’s top culinary destinations, San Sebastián, producing our own delicious cod dinner topped off with an incredible Basque cheesecake dessert.

Tempranillo is king in Rioja and we learned firsthand about the various expressions of this classic Spanish grape in the glass. But we also explored lesser-known varietals such as the rare red Graciano, Rioja’s white Viura, and even the mutated white grape of Rioja’s red star – Tempranillo Blanco. We visited several Basque wineries with Atlantic Ocean views producing the high-acid, slightly-spritzy, and totally refreshing Txakoli white wine poured out of the bottle high above the empty glasses. We even paid homage to Basque cidermaking traditions with a tour and lunch at an authentic ciderhouse sampling that year’s hard ciders right out of huge oak storage vats. 

And it was a trip made all the more special by sharing it with fellow home winemakers passionate about wine and winemaking while exploring villages, stunning countrysides, and the unique culture of one of the world’s most famous wine regions.

We’ve just announced Tuscany, Italy, as our latest WineMaker trip location taking place during the September 2025 grape harvest. Visit www.winemakermag.com/trip for more details. Salud and Topa!