Overview
Four days in Haro, the wine capital of Rioja Alta, chosen for one overwhelming reason: the Barrio de la Estación. Seven historic bodegas — López de Heredia, La Rioja Alta, CVNE, Muga, Roda, Gómez Cruzado and Bodegas Bilbaínas — sit within a few hundred metres of each other around the old railway station, all receiving visitors. You can walk between world-class cellars in less time than it takes to park a car. Nowhere else in the wine world offers that.
October in Rioja is also the warmest and sunniest of our twelve options — often 18–22°C — and the vineyards turn extraordinary shades of ochre, rust and gold. It is comfortably the best value too.
Getting There
| Outbound | Friday 23 October — BA, Vueling or easyJet, Heathrow/Gatwick/Stansted → Bilbao (BIO), ~2h, from ~£45–80 |
| Return | Monday 26 October — Bilbao → London, evening, from ~£45–80 |
| Airport → Haro | Bus or pre-booked minibus transfer through the Basque hills, about 1h15–1h30. Roughly 5 hours door to door — the longest ground leg of the twelve |
| Alternative | Fly to Bilbao, train or bus to Logroño, then 40 minutes on to Haro — cheaper, slower, more changes |
Day by Day
Friday 23 October — Arrive & the Barrio de la Estación
- Morning flight to Bilbao; transfer over the hills into the Ebro valley, arriving in Haro early afternoon.
- Straight into the reason we came: an afternoon in the Barrio de la Estación. Start at R. López de Heredia — cobwebbed 19th-century cellars, wines released after a decade in barrel, and a Zaha Hadid tasting pavilion grafted onto the front like a spaceship on a farmhouse.
- Walk two hundred metres to Muga, where they still fine the wine with fresh egg whites and make their own barrels on site.
- Evening: pintxos and a glass of Reserva around the Plaza de la Paz.
Saturday 24 October — The Ebro vineyard circuit
- Collect bikes and ride the classic circular from Haro along the Ebro — around 27km through the vineyard villages of Rioja Alta, rolling rather than flat, with the Sierra de Cantabria rising as a wall to the north.
- Long option: continue to Laguardia, the walled medieval hill town that is the capital of Rioja Alavesa, ~35km one way, passing Frank Gehry's titanium-ribboned Marqués de Riscal at Elciego and Santiago Calatrava's Bodegas Ysios on the way.
- Lunch in Laguardia — a town built above a honeycomb of 300 medieval cellars, still in use beneath the streets.
- Minibus back with the bikes if legs are done; otherwise ride home into the sunset.
Sunday 25 October — Cellars, and the slow lunch
- Clocks back overnight — one more hour of Rioja. Morning: a gentler 20km loop through Briones, whose hilltop silhouette is on half the region's wine labels, with the Dinastía Vivanco wine museum at the bottom of the hill (genuinely one of the best in the world — Picasso, Roman presses, 3,000 corkscrews).
- Afternoon: the long Spanish lunch. Chuletillas al sarmiento — lamb chops grilled over vine cuttings — at a Haro asador, taken seriously and at length.
- Late tasting at La Rioja Alta or CVNE back in the Barrio.
- Return bikes.
Monday 26 October — Home
- Morning in Haro: the Wednesday-and-Saturday market if timing allows, otherwise coffee and a last walk round the Barrio.
- Midday transfer to Bilbao — or an hour at the Guggenheim if the flight is late enough.
- Evening flight to London.
Festivals & Local Events
San Mateo / Fiesta de la Vendimia Riojana — around 21 September
Logroño's week-long harvest festival: the first-must offering to the Virgin of Valvanera, grape-treading in the Paseo del Espolón, and the city's Calle Laurel pintxo bars at maximum volume. Three weeks before our weekend.
Batalla del Vino, Haro — 29 June
Haro's own festival is the famous wine battle, in which several thousand people climb the Riscos de Bilibio at dawn and drench each other in red wine. Emphatically not October, and probably for the best.
Cata del Barrio de la Estación — June, biennial
The Barrio's own grand tasting, when all seven bodegas open together for one enormous event. Held in June; the cellars are open individually year-round.
Late October: mushrooms and quiet
Rioja's October is a working month rather than a festival one — which is exactly why the bodegas have time. It is also peak season for setas and boletus in the Sierra, which show up on every menu.
The Region in Brief
A little history
The Ebro valley has made wine since the Romans, but Rioja as we know it was created by disaster elsewhere: when phylloxera destroyed Bordeaux's vineyards in the 1860s and 70s, French négociants crossed the Pyrenees, brought barrel-ageing and Bordeaux technique with them, and built their bodegas beside the new railway at Haro so the wine could travel. That is why the Barrio de la Estación exists at all — it is a 19th-century industrial cluster that happens to have become sacred ground. Haro also claims to have been one of the first towns in Spain with electric street lighting, in 1890.
October weather
The warmest and most reliable of the twelve: typically 10–21°C in late October, often bright, with the vineyards at full autumn colour. The Sierra de Cantabria shelters the valley from Atlantic weather.
The wines
Tempranillo, aged in American oak, and classified by time rather than terroir: Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva denote years in barrel and bottle before release. López de Heredia's Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva is released after a decade or more and tastes like nothing else on earth. Alongside: Garnacha, Graciano, and increasingly serious white Rioja from Viura.
The food
Chuletillas al sarmiento (lamb chops over vine cuttings), patatas a la riojana, piquillo peppers stuffed with cod, pochas beans, and the pintxo culture of the Basque country an hour north. Late October brings wild mushrooms and the first of the season's game.
Where to Stay
Hotel Los Agustinos
The cloister has been glazed over to make an extraordinary covered courtyard. Central, and the obvious choice.
Hotel Marqués de Riscal
Frank Gehry's titanium wave over a 19th-century bodega. Expensive, unforgettable, and 15km from Haro.
Hospedería Los Parajes
If you would rather wake in the walled hill town — beautiful rooms above a medieval cellar, though fewer of them.
The Wineries
R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia
The most romantic cellar in Spain: mould-furred barrel halls, hand-made barrels, wines released after a decade, and a Zaha Hadid pavilion out front. Tours daily, book ahead.
Bodegas Muga
Still fines with egg whites and coopers its own barrels in-house. One of the most instructive tours anywhere.
La Rioja Alta S.A.
Classical, long-aged Rioja — the Viña Ardanza and Gran Reserva 904 are benchmarks.
Dinastía Vivanco
Working bodega plus the Museum of Wine Culture: Roman presses, Picasso and Miró on wine themes, and 3,000 corkscrews. Allow two hours.
Eat & Drink
| Friday | Pintxos and Reserva on the Plaza de la Paz |
| Saturday | Lunch in Laguardia, above the medieval cellars |
| Sunday | The long asador lunch — chuletillas al sarmiento |
| Monday | Coffee in Haro; Bilbao if time allows |
Useful Links
- Barrio de la Estación, Haro — the seven bodegas, with links to each one's booking page
- Rioja DOC official site — the appellation — classifications, producers, visiting
- La Rioja Turismo — official tourism board — routes, events, bodega visits
- Rioja Alavesa Tourism (Laguardia) — the Basque half of Rioja, for the Saturday ride
Practical Notes
- Book the bodegas now. López de Heredia and Muga run limited daily tours in English and fill weeks ahead. The rest of the trip can wait; these cannot.
- Cheapest of the twelve for food and lodging — Spain in the shoulder season, with three-course menús del día at prices that will startle a London group.
- The transfer is the price of admission: 1h15–1h30 from Bilbao. Pre-book a minibus for three plus bikes rather than relying on public buses.
- Cycling is rolling, not flat — no long climbs, but few flat kilometres either. Hybrids fine; e-bikes make the Laguardia run trivial.
- Spanish hours: lunch at 14:00, dinner from 21:00. Plan rides around a long lunch rather than fighting it.