I´ve just returned from a 7 day trip around the Basque Country, (Bilbao, Donostia-San Sebastián, Hondarribia, San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, French Basque Country,…), mixing culture, food and drink, in the company of two very nice people from Atlanta, GA (pictures here). The last three days were intensively dedicated to wine, vineyards and wineries. We stayed in Laguardia (Biasteri in Basque), the capital of the Basque Rioja region, on the south of the province of Araba. A visit to the outstanding Marqués de Riscal winery, with its absolutely unique hotel designed by Frank Gehry, was a must. Then we visited the Museum of Wine Culture Dinastía Vivanco, in Briones (Rioja), in my opinion the best and most comprehensive wine museum in the world. Of course, we had some glasses of wine and some Idiazabal cheese to go with them…Next day, we went to CVNE Viña Real winery, the building is not much known but it´s really amazing. It was the surprise of the trip, a really neat building in the shape of a giant wooden barrel. The afternoon ended with a visit to Heredad de Ugarte, with its Nichos and Txokos, where you can keep your bottles of wine in a kind of  “cells”, waiting for you to drink them in one of the txokos with friends and food. Last day we went to El Fabulista winery, named after the famous Samaniego fable writer, as it´s excavated right under his place of birth in Laguardia. A very instructive visit to one of the 5oo wineries that are underneath the streets of Laguardia…

Oh yes, we also visited other interesting places, like the incredible XIV century timpane of St Maria de los Reyes church, in excellent condition, or Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of the Basque Country, whose beautiful mediaeval Old Town is shaped as an almond, or Labastida and its two churches, the one on top also a defensive fortress…

A great trip, even if we missed so many places that we didn´t have time to visit…It was nice to see how my guests found the Basque Country a place full of unexpected treasures…