La Rioja and Navarre, from the vines to the Way of St James

From the vines of La Rioja to the mountains of Navarre

The road sets out from Logroño and heads straight into the vines. North of the Ebro, the Rioja Alavesa stretches out at the foot of the Sierra de Cantabria, which shelters it from the north winds. Laguardia can be seen from far off, a walled village on its hillock. The ground beneath it is honeycombed with cellars, one under almost every house. At Elciego, Frank Gehry’s rippling titanium crowns the Marqués de Riscal bodega. Near Laguardia, Santiago Calatrava designed the one at Ysios.

In Haro, the station district lines up great century-old wine houses, open for visits. The modern vineyard was born in the 19th century. From the 1850s, pioneers trained in Bordeaux brought in ageing in oak barrels. Then phylloxera ravaged the Bordeaux vineyards, and French merchants came to buy wine in La Rioja.

Further east, in Navarre, the landscape shifts within an hour from the vines and orchards of the Ebro to the damp mountains of the north. Pamplona, the capital, lives around its old town and its 16th-century star-shaped citadel, now a large park. It is best known for the Sanfermines, a festival Hemingway made famous in “Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises”. Every morning from 7 to 14 July, the bulls run through the streets to the bullring. West of Pamplona, the nacedero del Urederra is a spring of turquoise water at the foot of the cliffs of the Sierra de Urbasa. A path leads there, and access is limited each day.

Both monasteries have been World Heritage Sites since 1997. You visit Yuso, then go up to Suso by shuttle bus.

The Castilian and Basque of the glosses reflect the region, between Castile, the Basque Country and Navarre. La Rioja owes its name, so they say, to the río Oja, a river in the Ebro basin. It is the smallest autonomous community on the Spanish mainland. Yet its vineyards spill over into the Basque Country and Navarre. Navarre was an independent kingdom until 1512. It keeps a status of its own, inherited from its old rights, the fueros.

On the Way of St James

The Camino Francés, the main route to Santiago de Compostela, crosses the region from east to west. At Puente la Reina, the paths from France come together. They cross the Arga as one on a Romanesque bridge, built for pilgrims in the 11th century. Close by, the octagonal chapel of Eunate stands alone in the middle of the fields. Near Estella, the Irache fountain pours wine for pilgrims.

At Santo Domingo de la Calzada, a live hen and cockerel are kept inside the cathedral. They recall a legend: a pilgrim wrongly hanged is said to have survived the gallows, and the roast birds on the judge’s plate rose up to prove it.

What not to miss

1. 1LaguardiaA walled village above the vines, honeycombed with cellars.
2. 2Haro’s station districtCentury-old bodegas door to door, for visits and tastings.
3. 3The monasteries of San MillánSuso up the mountainside, Yuso on the valley floor, and the first glosses in a Romance tongue.
4. 4Santo Domingo de la CalzadaThe cathedral of the Camino, henhouse included.
5. 5EunateAn octagonal Romanesque chapel, alone in the middle of the fields.
6. 6The wine fountain at IracheNear Estella, a fountain that pours free wine for pilgrims.

La Rioja and Navarre in pictures

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A wine house in the station district, Haro.

The Riojan table

Rioja is graded by how long it is aged: crianza, reserva, gran reserva. In Logroño you drink it on calle Laurel, a street of pincho bars where each has its speciality: grilled mushrooms, skewers, pig’s ears.

Patatas a la riojana, potatoes simmered with chorizo, turn up everywhere, and pochas, fresh haricot beans, at the end of summer. Navarre adds its vegetables and its Roncal sheep’s cheese.