An Enological encounter

For various reasons, Willy and myself are heading off on another brief road-trip. This time in Spain and focussing on wine and food, strangely enough. Our first port of call was a town called Laguardia in La Rioja Alavesa. That’s the Basque part of La Rioja wine region. After a tortuous escape from Madrid we finally entered the Province of Logroño via the Puerto de Piqueras and the spectacular canyon that is Viguera. Straight through and on to Laguardia where we checked in to our hotel, in a vineyard. In fact the hotel is the old winery. A small and very personal hotel and we were shown to our room, the best one in the house, therein lies a story but I’ll tell you when I see you. It’s a ten-minute hike uphill to get to the town but well-worth it. This is serious wine territory and everything is local – no dud or dodgy stuff here. I don’t really know a lot about wines, colour of the label and price are my criteria, but I’m willing to learn. The Essex Youth Orchestra was in town, playing in one of the churches, Essex girls playing the flute – love it. Back down to the hotel for a slap-up meal. Apart from producing great wine, the local produce is also top-class and, we were invited to a bottle of the special House reserve. Happy days.