Bodegas Franco-Españolas: Pinkies Out Everyone!

As you can see, I had my fair share of vino with the many, many pintxos; however, a trip to wine country wouldn’t be complete without a trip to an actual winery. When I travel, I am primarily looking for beautiful places, like this and this, but I also like to incorporate some thing particularly educational or cultural. It makes me feel like I am getting a more well-rounded experience and that I’m working my brain in addition to my clicker-happy index finger. (Sometimes I snap too many pictures, oops!)

So I figured going to a winery counts right?
1.) It’s educational: I promised I learned more than how to drink it (I had a pretty good handle on that beforehand)
2.) It’s cultural: Spain and wine practically go hand-in-hand

So there. I mentioned that Logroño is right in the heart of wine country so it should come as no surprise that they have a Ruta Enoturísrica (wine tourism route). If I had more time and a car, I might have tried to hit a couple more but when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all, am I right? I’ve been to many breweries over the years (should I be admitting that?) and I can say that they all seem vaguely the same and I still couldn’t tell you how to make beer.

Anyway, I crossed the Puente de Hierro (Iron Bridge) and went to Bodegas Franco-Españolas. That bridge that you can in the distance is the Puente de Piedra (Stone Bridge). Remember that because it will come up again later. They conveniently have you pick up your tickets and wait in the gift shop. They had a lot of award-winning wines for sale but since I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference anyway, I knew that I wouldn’t be leaving there with any of those heavy hitters. My palate is very well accustomed to the 1-3€ wines. But before you scoff, let’s be real, I’m in Spain so the 1-3€ wines are actually quite good.

After a couple of minutes the tour began, in Spanish. It was Semana Santa so there weren’t a whole lot of options available period, never mind in English. With that said, because I don’t know the technical terms associated with wine making in English, I can probably talk about wine better in Spanish than I could in English! Hmm maybe not.

We started with a brief history of the winery itself which has nothing to do with Francisco Franco, but rather the winery’s French roots. In the 1850s eager European botanists brought American vines home with them to study. Surprise! These vines were covered in phylloxera, tiny bugs, which by the end of the 19th century destroyed most of the grape growing industry in France. Since the French need their wine, some hardy winemakers moved in search of a new place to cultivate wine and landed in Logroño in the La Rioja region. They officially opened Bodegas Franco-Españolas in 1890 marrying together French wine-making know-how with the Spanish setting and resources. One year later they had their first harvest, resulting in wines such as Diamante, Royal, and Estilo Borgoña (which would later be renamed Estilo Bordón). In its 125 years of operation, the winery has played host to many an important figure, including King Alfonso XIII and Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was actually a big fan and came to winery often. I’m hoping that some of his writing prowess rubbed off on me. And I just used the word prowess so it seems to be working!

But back to the winery.

We started in the barrel room where the first fermentation takes place. The barrels are kept elevated so that they can be adjusted for climate as necessary. If it is too cool for the fermentation take place, heaters can be placed below the barrels. If it is too warm, coolers can be placed there to slow it down. Pretty neat huh?

Next stop was the room where the second fermentation takes place. The crest on the back wall is the crest of the winery and includes the building itself, the crest of Bordeaux and the crest of La Rioja, symbolizing the marriage of the two cultures.

From there we went wandering around the winery, passing barrel after barrel after barrel of wine. There is even a statue of the Virgin Mary in one of the rooms so I guess you know it’s good.

After the wine has been aged in the barrels, there is a little bit of residue left over. Hmm, what to do with that? Put it on your face of course! It makes do a great red wine scrub which will leave you with healthy youthful skin. Lesson learned: wine does a body good on the inside and the outside.

Down in the wine cellar, there are thousands of bottles. In fact, along that wall with the pipes along the top, the bottles are actually stacked back-to-back so whatever you think you see, there is actually about double!

This room is designed to have a homey feel so there are decorations throughout, including these signs and that chair with a tree sprouting through it. The tree-chair is meant to represent all that goes into wine-making, including what you see (the vines) and what you don’t see (the roots).

And because, obviously, a house isn’t a home without a Velázquez there is replica of Las Meninas along one of the walls. Only in this one, the setting is the winery itself, reflected in the pipes along the top. Those look familiar right? Oh and Velázquez himself is also hanging out downstairs. Be sure to give him a wave when you leave.

From there it was more barrels. You think you’ve seen a lot of barrels already? Well lets talk about this row of barrels here. Remember the picture earlier that I took from Puente de Hierro, looking to over the Puente de Piedra? Yeah, this row of barrels spans the distance between those the two bridges. Now that’s a lot of wine!

Next on the trip was some old advertising which I always find interesting.

First was how the advertising for Diamante had changed over the years. Originally it had been marketed toward the limited, elite class and then was gradually introduced to the masses.

Second was an old advertisement for the winery in general; however, it wasn’t just any regular old advertisement. It was an ad on the beach! That’s right, not at the beach. On the beach! This picture was taken in 1925 when the winery hired people to etch advertisements into the sand at Playa de la Concha in San Sebastián. (Keep your eyes open for that beach in the next post!) I’m not sure how economical it was considering that the tides go in and out and wash it away but it sure is unique.

Last but not least, the bodega contains an old treasure. A really old treasure. It is a vine that survived the phylloxera plague in the 1860s!

Finally the fun part: the cata (tasting).

We got to try two wines: the Rioja Bordón Reserva and the Barón D’Anglade. A little background on the two wines:
1.) The Rioja Bordón was aged in American barrels for 18 months. The pores of the wood of the American barrels are larger so that the oxidation happens much quicker
2.) The Barón D’Anglade was aged in French barrels for 24 months. The pores of the wood of the French barrels are smaller so, you guessed it, oxidation happens much more slowly.

We were at a winery so of course we went through all of the appropriate steps. After the pour, we first examined the color by holding it up to the light and placing a white napkin behind the glass to check out the color. I’m told there was a difference in the color although they pretty much looked the same to me.

After that, we smelled the wine which was actually a two step process. First we smelled it without moving around the contents of the glass. Then we smelled it again after giving a swirl. For the first wine, the Rioja Bordón, there as a definite difference in smell after swirling. The distinct odor of alcohol was noticeably diminished after giving the glass a swirl. The Barón D’Anglade had the same effect; however, the hint of alcohol was much less pronounced in both stages anyway.

Finally, finally, we got to taste it. Except that tasting it is actually a lot harder than expected. We had to take a sip, hold it in our mouth while breathing in through out mouth, then finally swallowing the wine and breathing out of our nose. When our guide first said the procedure I had visions of myself choking on the wine while taking that inhale but luckily someone else in the group did that instead of me. She was a good sport about it though. If it had been me, I would have turned a ruby red as the Rioja Bordón!

After the tasting they brought out some charcuterie and picos to accompany the wine and we were put to work finishing one of the bottles that had been opened during the tasting. I’ll take that, please and thank you. And so went my visit to the winery. I already feel more cultured.

Tune in next time when I take you to the Playa de la Concha! Alas, there will be no wine advertisements; only surfers!