Visiting the Rioja wine region with World's Best Vineyards

Hello, I'm Jamie Good. I'm in Logroño in Rioja and this is the river Ebro. I'm on the bridge over the top of it. I'm not actually in it. I'm here for the next few days to explore the vineyards of Rioja and to see some of the wineries and taste some wines and see what's going on here in terms of wine tourism too. Of that of course is this amazing region and over the next three days we'll be hosted in nine spectacular wineries. The wonderful thing about Rioja is that its culture is totally immersed in gastronomy and its links with wine and tourism. We've been making a lot of efforts not only in regards to the winemaking and distribution but also in the world of tourism. Right now we are one of the top wineries in terms of tourist attraction. We have a very well-known cultural program throughout the I will put them back. Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own, you asked why I was there for, you heard me singing I pray for, someone I really could care for. The first city in Europe with light was London, the second one was Paris and the third one was Paris. I mean we are talking of a village with 20,000 people today. So just for you to understand that economic expansion at the end of the 19th century. I like to stop in here because this is the first cellar that we always visit and it has an entrance and an exit. Let me show you how we light up the winery at that time. It was with this device that we have here. So imagine that we are at the end of the 19th century. We just had one cellar in 1879. Probably this cellar was where alcoholic fermentation took place but also probably we had the barrels in here being the first cellar. So what we found in here a month ago here. These are all the barrels that we have for Imperial Reserva and Great Reserva as I was saying. And being you know the barrel cellar for us is very important but also it has this historical importance. I discovered the pasteurization system. They are starting to build this kind of machines and if you can take a look at the whole machine you know manometers and screws and everything you can easily see that is from the end of the 19th century. You can see the humidity here in the walls. I think you got a view of who we are and where we are. The Barrieras I think is a unique place I could say or I think we could all say in the world. There's no place where you get centenary wineries, family owned wineries, wineries with two top quality worldwide wines. We are close together and we open our wineries to the tourists and we think it's the focus. People when you come to know Rioja you come to the Barrio La Estación and you come here and you get to see you've got the mountains, you've got the vineyards which surround us, you've got the river Ebro. And then you walk inside and walking distance it's a two-minute walk from one winery on to another one, six wineries. So the brand started to become known since 2004 and I have to insist that all of our wines under the Banco brand come from a selection from our own estate vineyards which is not quite common at all in Rioja because wineries tend to be very dependent on buying grapes from wine growers. It's everywhere you know for keeping the trustability of all the vineyards and all the you know we use this special fruit menu. Some flax and photovoltaic. As you can see it's barrels, steel, concrete, different barricas, barrels 225 euros, boots 500, 3,500 possible. In this the majority is friends because it's for reservas and grande reservas but we use American barrels, friend barrels, mixed barrels, and mixed barrels are this is American and this is French. So crianzas are always in mixed barrels. Grandes reservas in French oak barrels. Other wines six in American, six in French, six in American. Hoyriga are basically wine bars on the mighty Calavera. Number 13 and I'm particularly particularly delighted to see this one here because we're moving from Argentina back to Argentina from sorry from Europe to Argentina. This is number 13. Unlucky for some as we all know but not for this winery because what a year they've had. It's 1720. It was also here by happy accident that the Speetlazer style was created. We always remember that this estate has gravel soils providing idle conditions for the reduction of both top class red and of course white wines. And James here too. He said it's a double act. And it's taken the award with a flash of architectural brilliance. And also we would like to thank the organizer for making all this possible. We've been in Rioja for four days now. From here we can see what we call the magic of Rioja. The magic of Rioja is where we are located in in Spain. Rioja is in the north of Spain 100 kilometers from the Atlantic sea. So we are in a cold area of Spain but with really sunny days but not high temperature. That is the magic of Rioja. Why is that? We have the main reason is this chain of mountains in the north. Sierra de Cantabria. All the clouds that come from the Atlantic stopping that in that mountains. The humidity and the clouds goes to the upper the high areas from the atmosphere and when the cold wind goes down goes down very dry. That is what the vines need. A dry climate, a cold temperature and sunny days. And thanks to this chain of mountains we have this condition in Rioja. Also it's very important in Rioja we have the Ebro river. It's one of the biggest rivers in Spain. The Ebro river goes from the west to the east of Spain. And when you are near the Ebro river you have a little bit influence of the Mediterranean. What are we gonna do today Sylvia and Isios? Hi everybody first of all welcome to Isios. How is the day? How is it going on? Of course now we are going to talk about what we are going to do today. But first of all just let me give you two different details. The first one is that we are receiving thousands of visitors a year. We are talking about 20 000 visitors more or less coming from all over the world. We consider that our house. So we have a really really big enthusiasm and illusion to receive them. Do you like the wines? Well this is gonna be you're gonna feel like the grapes also because the winery was also in order to focus on the grapes. That's where we pick all the grapes and where we are right here. What are these leaves? So all of these leaves are at the top of all the fermentation tanks. So all the grapes are coming here thanks to the gravity. So as I was explaining our philosophy in terms of winemaking it's a lot of respect to what we have surrounding us. But just a few words about why this area of Rio Calabesa is so important. We think there are respectful methods to produce the wine and to age the wine. And that's why for us in Rio Calabesa you have beautiful juice for winemakers but you have like double-edged sword you know that that that could be if you have in Rio Calabesa high acidity if you had a lot of concentration you can have a beautiful wine or you can have a complete mess. Last stage in the journey Bodegas Isios. This is a beautiful spot in Rio Calabesa. It's been a really fun time spending four days here in the and this is the last stop and it's one of the very best. Is anything like basic? Medium?