Bodegas de Los Herederos del Marques de Riscal

We stayed at the hotel and didn’t want to miss the opportunity to tour the bodegas that made this place famous.
As guests of the hotel, our tour was complimentary. They guide was friendly and engaging. The tour itself is about 2 hours long, with some time at the end to sample two of their wines (the Verdejo and Reserve).
My absolute favorite part was going down to the wine library. The library holds bottles of wine from the very fist vintage year of 1858 — of course, we weren’t allowed directly into the library, but we were able to stand in front of its doors and peer inside to all the bottled treasure.
This is not a small winery, but a fairly large commercial establishment. Even so, the small tour size and the access we were granted made it feel like a small boutique winery.

The Village of Elciego (6 km SE of Laguardia) is the home of the historic Marqués de Riscal Winery Complex (AKA La Ciudad Del Vino) and founded way back in 1858. Gayle and I took the Tour and for 10 Euros each, it was worth every Peseta. This is a first class operation all the way, starting with the Frank Gehry (of Bilbao Guggenheim Museum fame) designed visitor complex, proceeding onto various Winery operations, finishing up with a few tasting room pours, and not «letting» us leave until I found a cool item at the Gift Shop. This Winery Tour was one of the overall highlights of our Spain trip, and we only wish that we had more time to explore the Rioja Area and certain other places (like Ysios).
The Frank Gehry design is an amazing sight and somehow all those modern titanium ribbons blend in well with the rest of the stone-​aspects of Marqués de Riscal Winery Complex and the surrounding Village of Elciego. The silver, gold, and «dusty rose» sheets are Gehry’s response to the unbroken landscape of vineyards and the associated rich tones. There is also a Luxury Hotel and Spa within the Complex.
One part of the tour featured the Reserve wines that have been laid down for years. Our guide (we took the Spanish language tour) pointed out that the Winery honoured Frank Gehry by pouring a bottle of wine that was bottled the year he was born (1929) and showed us the old direct flame way the wine bottles used to be opened. This illustrates the fact that the Winery may be modern, but at the same time remains faithful to the Bodega’s «old fashioned» rigorous tradition of quality. and of course those who wish to aspire to a sophisticated nose and refined palette.