Madrid to the Basque Country | Wine Road Trip
This is an amazing road trip from the Spanish capital Madrid to the Basque country; quaint villages, differing cultures, languages, and even countries, the ancient and the modern, varied cuisine, the mountains, the coast, the people, and most of all, the great wine!
We will take you from Madrid to San Sebastian, or vice versa, showing you so much en-route. From the many guises of Tempranillo to the very unusual wine of Txacoli. For the sake of this program, let’s assume you start in Madrid. Below is an overview of what is included, but remember we can modify the schedule to include or exclude anything you wish.
In our opinion a Flamenco show is a must-do while in Spain
- While in Madrid, enjoy tapas & visits to the wineries of the region
- Drive to Ribera del Duero visiting lovely Segovia en-route
- Enjoy two great wineries in Ribera del Duero with lunch
- 1st and 2nd overnights in La Rioja, a wide choice of lodging
- Two full days in La Rioja, visit a wide variety of wineries
- Historical, cultural and walking tours of picturesque villages
- Travel La Rioja to the Basque country, overnights in San Sebastian
- Gastronomy, history, and culture in San Sebastian
- Tours and tastings at Txakoli wineries, a Basque specialty
- Options to extend into France, a combo with Bordeaux for example
Everything we do is tailor-made, customized to your dates, budget, and tastes. The ideas below are just that, ideas. At the end of the day, you decide what you want to do and then let us put it together for you. Below is an idea of what each day can include, you can as many days as you wish if you want some downtime in one particular place.
Day 1 – Madrid | Tapas and Wine
Madrid is a fantastic city to spend time in, you could spend many days enjoying its attractions (and we have!). But here let’s just talk briefly about leaving the city for the wineries close by.
For a full description of what’s possible today click here
One of the most imposing squares in the world – Plaza Mayor, Madrid
The first winery we visit is the previously Royal-owned establishment, who had a modest house on the estate which you see below! The production here is very simple, two lines, and we will try them both. We will walk through the maze of underground cellars then enjoy a private tasting with local cheese and sausage.
Our next port of call will be the Jesus Diaz and sons winery in the town of Colmenar de Oreja. This whole area was well-known for making clay pots and huge urns for storing wine and olive oil. With the increased use of stainless steel, concrete, and plastic the industry has almost died, but a number of the wineries still use the clay vessels – Diaz is one of those.
These clay vessels are huge, 7000 liters each and they have 17 of them, some 100 years old. A member of the owner’s family will show us around, and you will hear the history of the place. There are some deep underground cellars, which were used to escape bombing in the second world war. Now they are full of barrels and wine resting on racks. Our hosts will open an old bottle of red or white that is gathering cobwebs and fungus down in the bowels of the earth. This is a pot luck chance, the wine could be good or bad, but what excitement!
Then leaving Diaz we head the short distance to the Solera winery, another place that is true to tradition and which has a number of huge clay pots for its white wine, plus the use of some concrete and stainless steel.
The owner or winemaker will show us around the production and aging areas, explaining their vision and ethos. We will sit in the winery patio surrounded by machinery and people working to try two or three of their wines.
This is the perfect way to round out our day, eating some cheese and sausage, sipping great wine, sun beaming down on the lovely old village and wineries with so much history, and so close to Madrid without feeling it. We will now say goodbye to Solera and head back to Madrid, after the day you have had you will probably doze off on the way back.
Day 2 – Ribera del Duero + more
You will leave Madrid after breakfast and your next breakfast will be eaten in La Rioja, but there is plenty to do between these two meals. A 90-minute drive from the Spanish capital allows a visit to the beautiful, historic town of Segovia to marvel at its impressive Roman aqueduct. We will have a quick look at this ancient engineering marvel and then head off into the Ribera del Duero wine region. We will visit two or three wineries in Ribera plus have some lunch (the number of wineries is dependent on how our schedule is shaping up), before continuing to our hotel in La Rioja. Below we detail three of our favorites.
Our first winery, Dominio de Cair, which you can see has an innovative barrel-shaped atrium. This is a modern new-build and fairly high-tech with nicely developed infrastructure for visitors’ enjoyment. The tasting you see below is designed to show you the results of French and American oak on Tempranillo (a.k.a. Tinto Fino). This oak exercise is fun and instructive; you can also feel the differences in oak texture with stave samples and you can see the varying levels of toast that barrels are subjected to.
Cellar air shafts for the Val Sotillo winery 
Try different barrel toast levels at Cair
As with most of the wineries in this area, Dominio de Cair has some old vines, 60 to 100-year-old vineyards are being used in many of their wines. The oldest vineyards with low yields are being selected only for premium lines such as grand reserve and special creations by the winemakers. But even some of the ready-to-drink-now table wines are often produced from vines which are over 40 years old.
After we have enjoyed our tour and tasting at Dominio de Cair we will wind our way through the rolling countryside of Ribera del Duero for 20 minutes or so until we arrive at the Val Sotillo winery.
The very well respected Protos winery is the most visited in Ribera del Duero
At this historic Ismael Arroyo winery, you will be shown around by one of the Arroyo family. The first thing that you will notice on arrival are the chimneys on the hillside which provide ventilation for the underground cellars, some of which are 30 meters under the surface.
Facebook album of our Ribera del Duero trip
We will then try this historic wine which is now garnering awards and high scores in many quarters, we will taste a few examples from the Val Sotillo portfolio before driving to a local restaurant for some lunch (and a glass or two of the wine of course).
After a hearty lunch in a local restaurant, we will have the chance for one more winery on our Ribera del Duero tour schedule, and what a view it has. The Legaris winery has a view of the spectacular Peñafiel Castle from the terrace. This beautifully restored 11th-century castle serves as a lovely backdrop as you taste excellent wine, basking in the Ribera del Duero sunshine.
After all this excellent wine tasting we will head off to our final destination in La Rioja, we suggest a hotel and winery in the heart of La Rioja Alavesa. We have a number of great lodging options but this one is a great choice, not only to stay and use as a base to visit the region but also to experience their own winery.
Days 3 and 4 – La Rioja Exploration
We will visit spend 2 whole days exploring this world-famous wine region, you could easily spend a week here between wineries, historical villages, and gastronomy but in two days you will have a very good overview. From your base at the Eguren Ugarte winery (or another winery, hotel, or B&B), we will travel out to show you many contrasts across the region. Large scale and boutique wineries, the high-tech and the rustic, those with multinational high investment, and the homely family-run places. This will give you a great overview of La Rioja wine. A full description of La Rioja visits can be found here and if there is something that particularly interests you please let us know.
We tailor the visits to suit your interests and maybe there are La Rioja wineries you normally drink wine from back at home and have always wanted to visit? Our suggestions in the link above are just that, suggestions. We will get you to three wineries per day unless you want a very much more involved visit at one of them, then we may have two longer visits. Lunch will be enjoyed en-route, which may be at a winery or at a traditional restaurant in a quaint little village like Laguardia. We will let you loose to roam in the town for a while one of the lunchtimes, soaking in the views with a glass in hand. We will wander the streets of Haro also, the epicenter of historic Rioja wineries. Why wouldn’t you?
You will have enjoyed 3 nights in La Rioja by the time your second exploration day has come to an end, hence you are not packing and unpacking all the time. Tomorrow we head across the Cantabrian mountains to the Basque country and a completely different style of wine awaits us, plus almost an entirely new country.
Days 5 and 6 – Basque Country | Txacoli and Pintxos
Its time to say goodbye to La Rioja after breakfast as we head off into the heart of the Basque country. We will drive through the Cantabrian mountains heading towards wineries producing an unusual, and often unheard-of wine called Txacoli. Pronounced “Cha-coli” this dry, white, low alcohol wine is generally created to leave a slight spritz in the bottle. This light effervescence creates a foam when the wine is poured into small glasses from a height, as is the tradition. This in itself is an interesting variation on how to serve and drink wine!
We will visit a Txacoli winery on our way to our final destination of San Sebastian. There will be a tour and a tasting at this Basque winery and a chance to learn about and try this regional wine, and we assume it will be your first taste of the Hondarrabi Zuri grape? The wine is very food-friendly and later in the day, we will be pairing it with traditional “Pintxos” which are the Basque equivalent of Tapas. After our winery visit, we will head to the town of San Sebastian for a walking tour which will include the aforementioned Pintxos and Txacoli experiences.
San Sebastian, (or Donosti in the Basque language), is located on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, just 20 km from the French border. We will tour some of the main attractions of the city, including enjoying a viewpoint over the famous La Concha beach. You will learn about local culture and tradition, plus enjoying a gastronomic treat as we try Pintxos in a couple of places deep in the old streets of the city, plus more wine of course. After all this, we will deliver you to your hotel with a pick-up time for tomorrow.
The impressive seafront with the La Concha beach in San Sebastian
You choose how you wish to spend your time in the Basque country, there is so much to see and do. We can take you into France if you wish, visiting some of the lovely towns and villages along the coastline towards Biarritz. There are many gastro-treats along the way, fishing villages with great seafood-based pintxos for example. Hondarribia is a lovely little place to wander in.
And for those wanting a more cosmopolitan feel, we can take you to the nearby city of Bilbao, home of the famed for the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim Museum. From Bilbao or San Sebastian, we can fly or train you back to Madrid or you can continue into France of course, just let us know.
