Playing hooky in a cave, marques de riscal, Al fresco dining

True to form, I can’t do the planned thing for 5 days straight. Planned meals, prepicked options for meals, not choosing your own beverage…it’s too much for me and I needed to break loose. This is not a critique of the tour at all, I just cannot do it 😂

First, we went to the spa to do hydro massage…with rosemary oil so we smelled like focaccia all day 😊 who doesn’t like focaccia? Then we looked for caves. The town of LaGuardia has 600 caves under the houses, previously meant for defense but then for wine making and storage. At a perfect 14C, it is a magnificent way to age a few thousand old bottles. We found one of the few places left that does such a thing. Sampedro has 30 minute tours and tastings in the cave. You can request in english if in advance. Again, this is Tempranillo land. They use carbonic fermentation which means the entire grape bunch is tossed in the vat for fermentation. This is different than separating stems and other particulates, the oldest of methods. The wine makers can debate all day if maceration should come before fermentation, if stems should be separate, which natural yeasts and bacteria are ideal for the process. I prefer to taste it. So? We had a couple tastes. This place is incredibly reasonable for wine prices, and their Gran reserva is pretty darn good. If you can get a reserva for $15 that doesn’t taste like communion wine, get it. (to be clear, communion wine was one of the reasons I couldn’t get into religion. If you can’t even serve a good sip of the saviors blood, well, crap)

Next was pintxos time. Everyone is different with their preferences on travel hand holding, but I like to choose my food. With a group, especially if prepaid, you cannot do that. If I had another piece of cod I might have stabbed something, so pintxos. Again, this is a personal preference. If you are a nervous traveler or new to international travel, please try a tour to get your feet wet. There is nothing wrong with cod or anything else ordered. I’m just…special. Bizetec was adorable and had beautiful pintxos. A little messy, but beautiful. Huge plate and 2 drinks was 20 euro for the two of us. It was a perfect afternoon. We met back up with the group via taxi at Marques de Riscal…a crazy modern art hotel and winery in the middle of subdued 16th century architecture. I wanted to hate it because the decor clashed so much with the surrounding it reminded me of people with too many lawn ornaments. Seriously people. Tacky. But then again, art invokes emotions, right? Mine was: the wine is great, why create a big modern art structure like that. Alas, the tour is wonderful, the campus is gorgeous, and wine is amazing. That evening, we had a lovely dinner under the stars with the group and in a massive blogger failure, I have lost the name. Doh.