Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
L
$$$
New Hotel Palace,
Via Lungo-
Florio,
1 Via Vincenzo Florio, Marsala
(
&
39/923/781-111;
www.cantineflorio.it).
(
Palermo (72km/44 miles).
mare Mediterraneo, Marsala (
&
39/923/
719-492;
www.newhotelpalace.com). $$
Hotel Carmine,
Piazza Carmine, Marsala
(
&
39/923/717-574;
www.hotelcarmine.it).
Europe
340
Lopez de Heredia
A Big Splash
La Rioja, Spain
Try not to arrive in Haro, the medieval capi-
tal of La Rioja, on June 29. As soon as you
step on the street, complete strangers will
douse you in buckets of wine, all the while
cackling with glee. You have inadvertently
walked into the town's famous Wine Battle,
an annual orgy of wine-throwing that makes
a cafeteria food fight look like child's play.
Thousands gather on the city's streets
armed with buckets, basins, trash cans,
giant water pistols, and even back-mounted
crop sprayers, all with the firm intention of
drowning each other in wine.
Every year, the good folks of Haro appar-
ently go through 13,000 gallons on this one
festival day. Everybody is dressed in white,
but they don't stay that way for long. Soon
the teeming, screaming masses of people
are covered head to toe in purple, with
sticky hair and stinging eyes. More savvy
veterans cover their cars' seats with plastic
and their cameras with cling film; some
even wear goggles. The whole affair is
accompanied by brass bands and tractor-
drawn floats, and culminates in a nighttime
fiesta on the town plaza, complete with
fireworks and more wine ducking.
Just down the road from all this madness
sits the top source of Haro's wine, Lopez de
Heredia, one of Spain's most historical and
prestigious wineries. Lopez de Heredia is a
family-owned operation originally estab-
lished back in 1877. The winery itself
appears as somewhat of a surprise—archi-
tecturally it resembles an old English rail-
way station more than a Spanish villa, with
its tidy stone walls, carved roof eaves, and
solid gables pierced by little round win-
dows. In fact, as you'll soon discover on
your winery tour, the winery was actually a
train station at one point, complete with its
own platform, so that Lopez de Heredia
could dispatch wine to all corners of the
country and farther afield.
Within the bowels of the building, you'll
find an impressive vaulted cellar lined with
ancient casks. Like a lot of traditional Rioja
wineries, Heredia is known for aging its
wines, sometimes for up to 8 years, in bar-
rels. This practice is slowly changing to
meet the tastes of modern consumers,
who increasingly prefer their wine young
and fruity, perhaps containing just one
varietal. Here in Rioja, however, the cus-
tom is to blend the rich and fruity Tempra-
nillo grape with the darker, more alcoholic
Grenache. The Lopez de Heredia Reserva
is a heavy, lush wine that will jolt your pal-
ate into life. This is one wine you won't
waste by throwing it in a stranger's face.
Lopez de Heredia,
Avda. de Vizcaya
3, Haro (
&
34/941/310-244;
www.lopez
deheredia.com).
(
Logroño Airport (60km/37 miles).
L
$$
Casa de Lgarda,
Briñas (
&
34/
941/312-134;
www.casadelegarda.com).
$$
El Hotel Rural Villa de Abalos,
Plaza
Fermin Gurnino No. 2, Abalos (
&
34/941/
33-4302;
www.hotelvilladeabalos.com).
