Over 4,500 wine and food lovers have made their way to Haro Station Wine District to enjoy the 2nd edition of the Haro Station Wine Experience. A unique wine festival promoted by seven Rioja wineries: López de Heredia Viña Tondonia; La Rioja Alta, S.A.; Bodegas Muga; Bodegas RODA; CVNE; Bodegas Bilbaínas and Bodegas Gómez Cruzado.
Throughout the whole day, the people attending were able to visit the entire premises, of an exceptional cultural and historic nature; taste a selection of 14 wines, accompanied by seven Riojan tapas; participate in different activities related with the world of wine; discover the architectural features of the district; and enjoy live music performances.The wines offered for the occasion were Gran Reserva 904 2005 and Viña Ardanza 2007, from La Rioja Alta, S.A.; Viña Tondonia Tinto Reserva 2004 and Viña Bosconia Tinto Reserva 2005, from López de Heredia Viña Tondonia; Muga Reserva Selección Especial 2011 and Prado Enea Gran Reserva 2004, from Bodegas Muga; RODA 2011 and RODA I 2009, from Bodegas RODA; Asua Crianza 2012 and Cune Reserva 2010, from CVNE; La Vicalanda Reserva 2010 and Viña Pomal Rosado 2015, from Bodegas Bilbaínas; and Gómez Cruzado Blanco 2015 and Honorable 2012, from Bodegas Gómez Cruzado.
On the other hand, the people enjoying the activities found them to be both appealing and original. R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia showed his ‘Historical Exhibition’, in which they use photographs and centenary works to go through the winery’s history; CVNE invited everyone to visit the ‘Caro at CVNE’ exhibition, a selection of sculptures distributed around the winery, created by Anthony Caro, one of the leading British artists of the 20th century; Gómez Cruzado presented ‘Wine craftsmen: the wineskin maker’, an exhibition of the trade of goatskin flasks and wineskins for transporting and drinking wine; La Rioja Alta, S.A. offered the ‘Manual racking by the light of a candle’, an ancient technique carried out by the winery to clean wine sediment naturally; Bodegas Bilbaínas gave demonstrations of manual ‘Cava disgorgement’, a process for removing the lees that come from the second fermentation of cava; Bodegas Muga performed a demonstration of ‘Barrel stave bending’ to show the people attending how to make a handcrafted wineskin; and much to everyone’s enjoyment, Bodegas RODA opened the doors of their admirable cellar.
A workshop for professionals
Prestigious chefs and sommeliers, together with national and international press members of the wine sector, met up the day before the Haro Station Wine Experience was held. During the event, Pedro Ballesteros, the only Spanish Master of Wine, was named ‘Maquinista del Año’, a prize awarded to Tim Atkin in the previous edition.
Especially for the occasion Pedro Ballesteros, accompanied by the oenologists of the seven wineries, offered an extraordinary Master Class. An interactive and unrepeatable en primeur tasting that allowed the participants to discover the origin and secrets of the blended wines so characteristic of Haro District and which form part of the genesis of the Rioja wines produced today.
Haro, one of the world’s unique wine tourism destinations
There is no other place in the world like Haro Station Wine District, located in the heart of Haro (La Rioja, Spain) and home to the highest concentration of 100-year-old wineries in the world. Built around a central axis, a railway station, it is a magical spot for its most important protagonist: wine. It is considered the birthplace of Rioja wine, which first began to appear in the second half of the 19th century, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, as a consequence of using recently-invented trains instead of the traditional transport system of horses and carts. Hence the name of the place that, furthermore, due to successful marketing campaigns that have spread its name around the world, has become firmly established.
The first edition of this great festival, held in September 2015, was the winner of the ‘Best of’ prize for the best wine tourism initiative awarded by the international network of great wine cities, ‘Great Wine Capitals’.
