Basque Country: The Long and Wine-ding Road

After the tour into the depths of the wine cellar, guests head to the airy tasting room at Marqués de Riscal. Kevin Revolinski

“Wine, not water, with a meal,” says José Ángel Carrero, winemaker and founder of Bodega Berroja. One of our group has asked for a glass of hydration during our post-tour lunch, but house rules are house rules. A winery employee, who looks like he could be Carrero’s son but is not, follows him throughout the visit and struggles to keep up with translation. At a couple of points along the tour, he gently begs Carrero to slow down. Carrero has a background in forestry and planted the vines at this Basque farmhouse estate back in the 1990s. He’s a real salt of the earth type, lacking any pretension, exuding a Bizitzeko poza—“joy of life” in Basque. Making wine is serious business, but drinking it should be light and enjoyable. Forget the water for now.

The sloping vineyards at Bodega Berroja. Kevin Revolinski

Carrero’s winery lies a 20-minute drive from Bilbao inside the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve, an eco-zone between Bilbao and San Sebastian. The reserve encompasses steep hills, abundant forest, notably conifers, and wetlands rich with birdlife. Also nearby are some historic Basque towns, such as Gernika, a significant cultural center for the Basque (and subject of Picasso’s famous painting of its infamous bombing during the Spanish Civil War). Like everything in this region, it reminds you that you are not just in Spain; you are in Euskadi, the autonomous community known as Basque Country in English. Wine, it turns out, is no small part of it.

Along the Coast

Txakoli, a traditional effervescent wine in Euskadi, was commonly made at home with a local variety of grape, and it was drunk fresh. But if you zoom in, wineries large and small pop up on the map in all directions. Now they are also producing aged varieties.

Bodega Berroja is an organic vineyard planted on a hillside that drains quickly, keeping the soil a bit drier than the normally wet coastal conditions would make it. The rows of vines also get a better angle on the sun, and the proximity of the Bay of Biscay keeps freeze risks minimal. It’s a dramatic view of hill and valley from the chateau, and I am with a group of visitors dining at a long table that looks out over it all.

We have sat down to eat lunch after spending time in the chilly lower-level fermentation room with Carrero doing vertical tastings, filling our glasses directly from the large stainless steel tanks. He reveals the progression from cloudy to clear as we move from younger to older. We finish with lunch, which featured rustic fresh bread and other traditional favorites such as anchovies and tuna.

Fast forward to another lunch at Bodega Katxiña, where I drink my first glass of txakoli out on the patio overlooking the Oria River. The difference is notable. Txakoli is taken up a level, being served alongside fashionably plated gourmet food—an outstanding lunch and another tour with an owner pouring samples right from the tanks.

A pour from an owner: Iñaki Zendoia (L) opened winery/restaurant Bodega Katxiña with his sister Izaskun in 2014 to commercially produce their father's wine, which had been a best kept secret at the family's restaurant for many years. Kevin Revolinski

A stop at the roadside Katxiña winery turns into an exquisite tasting menu as if the abundance of Michelin star restaurants in the region has compelled the rest of Basque Country to up its game. Kevin Revolinski

Back in Bilbao for the night, it’s dinner at Etxanobe, one of the city’s eleven Michelin-starred restaurants, serving an unforgettable series of tasting plates, each as beautiful as it is delicious, along with a Basque wine for each of them—the culinary version of a great road trip through Euskadi.

South of the Mountains

The next day I head south, just about an hour’s drive away, crossing through the Basque Mountains, a transitional range between the Cantabrian Range and the French Pyrenees, and the world changes. The landscape dries up, and I am in Rioja country, one of Spain’s best winemaking regions, producing wines bearing the prestigious DOCa (Denominación de Origen Calificada) classification. Vino has been produced here for over two millennia.

I stop for breakfast and gather intel at a visitor’s center inside the walled, hilltop medieval city of Laguardia—a fine place to stroll along cobblestones from another time without cars at your heels. From outside the wall, one can look out over the slow roll of the land and the patches of vineyards far off in the distance.

The Rioja region is divided into three parts: Rioja Alta, Rioja Oriental, and the smallest and only area still with Euskadi, Rioja Alavesa. Named for Álava, one of the three provinces that make up Euskadi, it is home to more than 200 wineries, including Bodegas Ysios. You can’t miss this winery’s organic modern design by Santiago Calatrava, evoking the mountains beyond. Within, however, it’s steeped in tradition, and you can sit among the aging barrels, sampling the bounty.

Álava province, the heart of Basque Country's share of the Rioja region, is characterized by vineyards and small towns, such as Eltziego, the home of the vineyards of Marqués de Riscal. Kevin Revolinski

Down the road, I see what looks like a spacious glass lobby without a building. But the winery is actually built on seven levels, descending the hillside behind it. Bodegas Baigorri uses only gravity, no pumps, as they can have negative effects on wine. Each floor represents a production step, and the wine flows down until the finished product arrives in barrel storage. Just beyond that chamber is daylight: a restaurant looking out over the vineyards at the bottom of the hill.

The vines themselves are curious. Rather than climbing along trellises and wires as they do near the coast in order to air them out and prevent rot and mildew, these are pruned lower to the ground and rounded, giving them the name “goblet,” or “en vaso,” and offering some conservation of moisture in the more arid environment. I sample a modest pour of a different wine with each tasting course in their fine restaurant.

The gleaming metal curves reminiscent of Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, the work of architect Frank Gehry, mark the next stop. A luxurious modern hotel is part of this distinguished 1858 winery, Marqués de Riscal, once named European Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine. A tour of the cellars reveals dusty vintages dating back to the 19th century, reserved for posterity and only the most special occasions of the winemakers. Back outside and into a bright and airy tasting room, I sample the Rioja Reserva from 2018, made from 90 percent Tempranillo, 10 percent Graciano and Mazuelo, and aged in American oak barrels. Spectacular.

After the tour into the depths of the wine cellar, guests head to the airy tasting room at Marqués de Riscal. Kevin Revolinski

I stay in Hotel Viura, not at the center of vineyards but tucked in among a small town. In fact, the hotel shares a public pool. In the morning, I rise early and take a stroll through the quiet streets. The houses are huddled close together, but along the edges are slopes with grass and trees. I stand looking out to the horizon, clouds swelling along the mountaintops as if a storm might be brewing. Yet there they remain, as if unsettled to step forth over the arid plain. I make a mental note of the value of not standing apart when traveling. Of watching a town come to life, seeing doors opening, someone sweeping a stoop, feeling the rising heat pushing the chill into the shrinking shadows.

Return to the Sea

With so many wineries, one could spend weeks here, but I return to the Atlantic coast to San Sebastian to spend a night. And though another 11 Michelin eateries are on offer in town, I stroll through the old part of the city, from pintxo bar to cidery, nibbling gildas, bites of olive and anchovy, and eating Basque cheesecake. I watch as my server pours my txakoli from the bottle held above his head and it tumbles into the glass on the bar, raising some light bubbles. The Basque conviviality is on display, and it sweeps me away like I belong here.

But my final night up in the mountains was at the Nafarrola Hotel, a modest guesthouse with a long view down the verdant hills to the sea and the fishing port of Bermeo. I aim for a tranquil night with stars above and cool breezes, and that’s exactly what I get. What I hadn’t counted on—but perhaps should have by now—was someone in the kitchen turning out magnificent, photogenically plated tasting dishes and a final series of Basque Country’s delicious wines.

If You Go

Fly: Your best bet is to fly into Bilbao, itself a destination for a couple of days or more.

Getting Around: While trains do run, for a journey like this, a car rental is a good idea—even better is a designated driver or chauffeur.

Portions of this trip were supported by the Tourist Office of Spain and Euskadi Confidential by BasqueTour