How I ended up in Northern Spain:

Some of my fondest memories abroad somehow always start off with a bottle of wine, kind of how most great stories begin. Every time my friends and I would go out on a Friday night, we’d start off by sharing our favorite 2 euro white wine that we’d purchase from the Supermercado right down stairs.

Lets just say, there was a lot of wine drinking during my time in Spain. But how could you blame me, it was cheaper than water! Well, not always, but you get what I mean.

With this newfound love for wine, I really wanted to see where the abundance of vino was coming from. Somewhere outside of Barcelona I knew there must be vineyards upon vineyards hiding out somewhere in the beautiful countryside. Once I started to do a little research, I found that majority of the wine was coming from the northern regions of Spain.

I saw a perfect opportunity to go check out a Spanish vineyard and maybe even do a little wine tasting. One of our first stops on my family vacation was in San Sebastian, which just so happened to be driving distance from wine country. Since I never got to go wine tasting in California for my 21^st birthday, (I was already abroad) I REALLY wanted to make sure I got to go in Northern Spain. Fortunately, we had a rental car to get from Bilbao to San Sebastian, which gave us flexibility during our three days in northern Spain. Now came the difficult part, which winery would we choose to visit?

In Northern Spain, they call their wineries Bodegas and they have hundreds to choose from around the country. Before going, you have to see which bodegas offer tours, which ones need reservations, and most importantly for the Americans, which ones can do the tour in English (which are slim pickings). We had driven to Pamplona to do a day trip, which was about an hour away from San Sebastian. From there we decided we would spend our afternoon in the Navarre Region. La Rioja is probably the most popular region for wine tasting in northern Spain, but for being limited on time, Navarre would be closer to get to.

We stopped in the tourist information office in Pamplona and got a list of near-by Bodegas with their corresponding phone numbers. Since we were winging it and didn’t do any previous preparation or research, we had to blindly call and see which ones could give us a tour on such late notice.  Here is a link to the LIST and a MAP.

We found one called Nekeas Bodega, who said they could accommodate us that afternoon. Thankfully, all of this went as smoothly as possible since my mom was able to make the calls in fluent Spanish. Let’s just say my Spanish (or lack of) would not be able to have done the job.

We drove for another hour outside of Pamplona till we were out in the boondocks of rural Northern Spain. Literally the only thing in sight were flocks of cows and worn out farms. This area of Spain is absolutely beautiful; in fact, parts of it reminded me of the lush rolling mountains of Switzerland. The endless land surprised me, I couldn’t believe I was still in Spain to be completely honest, but that just goes to show Spain has so much to offer.

Finally when we arrived, we quickly found out that our tour of the Bodega would be done in complete Spanish. Once again, my mom had to play the role of translator, but this tour was 3 hours long. I actually was able to understand a lot more than I thought I would, but 3 hours is a long time to be focusing on comprehending word for word of Spanish. I would phase in and out of paying attention, but it was still great to try and practice my Spanish.

We walked through the entire process of how they produce their artisan wines and olive oils, from harvesting to bottling. We even got to learn about how the company markets their wine around the world. Obviously being a marketing major, I was intrigued when I heard about marketing for a wine company (future career perhaps?!) Their labels and even company name that they print on the bottles varied depending on what country they were going to.

The best part of the entire experience was that it was a private tour and we had the entire place to ourselves. Half way through the tour we realized one very important factor. We never asked how much all of this would be costing us… whoops, but at this point, we were committed and would have to take the blow willingly. Turns out our personal tour and wine tasting afternoon only cost 12 euros per person! I would say that the kind of service we were given definitely felt like we should have been paying more, but hey, I’m not complaining.

Eight different families run this Bodega who all work together to produce their high quality wines and olive oils. We even got to meet the President of Nekeas, Paco, who was the most charismatic and entertaining man.

So after our three-hour Spanish lesson on wine, we finally got to go to the tasting room. We were escorted to a spacious living room with large open windows overlooking vineyards that stretched all the way to the horizon. It also had an outdoor patio with endless views of the surrounding hills and vineyards. During the tasting we were given a white, red, and two of their homemade olive oils. Along with our olive oil we were given fresh baguettes and Manchego cheese. This is definitely my ideal setting for a perfect afternoon, let’s just say, I didn’t want to be any where else in that moment in time. Finally reunited with my family, drinking wine, and in Spain.. yep, I was content.

After my mom became best friends with our tour guide, Virginia, we ended up buying one too many bottles of wine and then headed back to our home away from home of San Sebastian.

Even though we didn’t initially go to Northern Spain for the wine tasting, I am so glad we made it a priority to go check it out. In my opinion, it was 100% worth the extra effort. If you are even in the slightest a fan of wine, definitely take a trip to Navarre or La Rioja! I am almost positive you will leave with a greater appreciation for not only a good vino, but also Spain itself.

Salud!