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Fine wine and fiesta time
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This weeks feature
In the north west of the country, away from the bustle of high-rise resorts, Norman Wright and photographer Clive Nicholls discovered the magic of the real Spain.
As the church clock overlooking the cobbled square struck midday, the crowd went crazy and for 30 glorious minutes mayhem reigned as Fiesta took over. The rest of the chimes were drowned out as the brass band struck up and water, paint, clouds of flour and salvos of eggs filled the air. |
In Rioja the grey crags overlook the towns and the vines. |
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The fiesta, a time for fun. |
In the hour up to noon, the little square in the centre of the town had filled with people in fancy dress, youngsters in their oldest clothes with bottles of water, bags of flour, hundreds of eggs and plastic bottles full of paint. Many of the crowd were dressed in the bull runner’s outfit of white trousers and shirt, black beret and jaunty red or blue scarf at the neck. |
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Over in the corner of the square, under the shade of the town hall, were giant figures of king and queen mounted so they could be carried on the shoulders of four men. Next to that was a small stage made out of scaffolding poles and then, on the steps, the school band. |
...just after the egg and paint battle. |
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Grown men have to dress up in ridiculous outfits... |
The steps seemed like a good place to watch from. Lots of older residents in their Sunday best rather than old clothes gathered here. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but I didn’t like the look of the eggs, flour and paint . . . ! |
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As the tension built up, rival groups amused themselves by lobbing eggs high into the air for the others to catch. Then came the first fateful chime of the clock.
When all ammunition was used, the two figures were taken up and swayed out into the sunlight of the square. Then followed by the crowd, they were taken on a parade around the streets. Carnivals back home were never like this! |
A sight to behold... |
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The sound of the parade ebbed and flowed...
as the parade progressed through the narrow streets, until it eventually reappeared in the square. While it was gone, the street cleaners had moved in with hosepipes, brushes and mechanical sweepers to clean up the sticky mess of eggs, flour and water on cobbles and pavements. It was soon pristine again.
We had chanced on the town of Penafiel, led towards it by the sight of its superb castle atop a high ridge that dominated the whole valley. The town centre roads were closed to traffic, so we parked on the outskirts and walked up the rising cobbled lanes to the square. At that time, all was quiet. The odd bescarfed bull runner ambled past and I noticed some of the doorways had substantial steel barriers temporarily erected to form a bolthole. These looked fine if you were slim and snake-hipped but, for the more substantially built, running faster would have been a safer strategy. |
The bullfight remains a part of Spanish culture. |
I kept a wary ear out for the thunder of hooves and mentally prepared escape routes, but I needn’t have worried. The bull running comes on day two of the fiesta, apparently. Another town square is adapted as a temporary bull ring. And in the surrounding villages, residents were involved in their own week-long series of events. |
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We had come to this area set between the baking plains north of Madrid and the high slopes of the Pyrenees mountains to seek out a different Spain, away from the holiday regions and commercialisation that the British know and love. By chance we had succeeded spectacularly in witnessing a colourful slice of the real Spain.
Penafiel was a real find. The castle itself is an amazing sight from afar. It’s just what you expect a castle to be. High on a cliff with turrets and high stone walls topped with battlements. Closer to, you can see what an unusual building it is. Just 30 or so yards wide, it is more than 200 yards long, looking a bit like a ship from above. the fortress was founded in the 11th century and rebuilt several times - the walls and towers were constructed in the 13th and 14th centuries, while the keep is from the 15th. It has a double defensive wall. |
More Fiesta scenes... |
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The keep, more than 95 feet high, is flanked by two courtyards - one to the north, which contains the underground reservoirs and the store rooms, and one to the south, which currently houses the Provincial Wine Museum and was the site of the stables and guards’ quarters. The entire town was surrounded by walls that ran down from the ends of the castle, but only four round turrets, two to the south and two to the north, and several panels, remain. |
The castle at Penafiel looks the part; it was once a bastion in the Christian defences. |
It is a stiffish climb up the narrow streets to the castle entrance, but one worth taking your time over to visit the ancient building and to get a fabulous view across the landscape and down into the town. Penafiel was an important defensive point on the Christian line as the Muslims were halted in their sweep from the Mediterranean up through Spain. The church of San Pablo, founded in 1324, dates from those turbulent times. Nowadays the town is in the heart of Spain’s most up-and-coming wine regions, Ribera del Duero. As well as seeking out the real spain, we were also out to try some of the vino! |
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The vineyards are sited along the valley of the River Duero. Further west it crosses the Portugese border and becomes the Duoro, flowing through the spectacular rocky valleys and the terraced vineyards of the Port wine region, eventually finding the sea at Porto.
The Ribera wines have a dry smoothness that will be familiar to fans of Australian and Chilean reds. The area is around 760m (2500ft) above sea level and based on limestone and ironstone. The soil is quite open with the ironstone giving it a reddish colour. Nearer the base of the valley, by the river, the open soil becomes heavier with clay. Some 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares) are currently planted with vines. |
Weather conditions are a key ingredient, though not especially favourable to wine production. The growing season is quite short, as frost continues well into the spring. As the vines are producing their main growth and then ripening their fruit, the weather is very hot day after day, usually topping 100 degress Fahrenheit. Then, at night, influenced by the mountains, the temperatures plunge rapidly.
Penafiel was once the main town of the area, but Aranda de Duero is now the biggest place. It’s an industrial town, though with a pleasant centre and lots of squares and little restaurants. With fiesta going on around the area, there was entertainment in the main square of the old town, with a comedy tightrope act and a troupe of clowns. |
Penafiel Castle completely dominates the Duero Valley. Now it guards only vines after a much bloodier past. |
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Elsewhere in the region there’s a host of pretty villages and more than 200 bodegas, with most offering tastings and selling their wine from the cellar door. Burgo was another nearby town ready for fiesta, with a fenced off route for the bulls from the holding paddock outside town up the narrow streets to the centre. Fiestas in this area are happening all the time, but the main events are in August. |
Sunflowers are a major crop in this part of Spain. |
Tip: Take a phrasebook and brush up on a spot of basic Spanish as few people will speak much, if any, English. They are friendly people, however, and we had no problem in muddling through with the help of the phrasebook. There is more English spoken in the adjoining region of Rioja, where we headed next. It is a much better known wine area and the British have been travelling here for many years. |
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On to Rioja
Like Ribera, Rioja is set between the baking plains north of Madrid and the high slopes of the Pyrenees mountains. It is 50 or so miles north east of Aranda. To get there, drive through the mountains rather than use the motorways, if you have time. It’s a spectacular landscape and not too difficult a drive, despite the hairpin bends, and especially if you have most of the day to spare.
Granite cliffs and towering peaks are a real feature of the higher area of Rioja to the east and north of the capital of the region, Logrono. This area known as Alto Rioja is a plain about 1500m (4900ft) high, bordered by the Sierra De Cantabria to the north and the Sierra de la Demanda and Las Cameros mountains to the south.
Rioja follows the River Ebro and a couple of its tributaries and is divided into three areas - the higher Rioja Alaves (45,000 acres under vine) to the north of the centrally situated Logrono; Rioja Alta (24,000 acres) to the south east of Logrono; and the eastern Rioja Baja (41,000 acres), which has a hotter, more Mediterranean climate. |
Haro, 15 miles to the west of Logrono, is the wine ‘capital’ of the Alto region. Many of the bodegas with the best reputation are based here, or in the villages on the plateau that stretches out to the mountains. The plateau is covered by sweeping vineyards with, every so often, a craggy rocky tower rising out of the gentle curves of the plain. Many have a village clinging to the rocks.
La Rioja is some 90 miles long and 40 miles across, but it has been fought over throughout history, with Phoenicians, Romans, Moors, and finally Crusaders winning its rocky landscape. The area was even the scene of a famous victory for El Cid! |
Lots of space in modern Logrono, but the old quarter is much more interesting. |
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Logrono. |
Logrono is the region’s capital. It is a very pleasant, small city with impressive plane trees throughout the centre. In the old city there is a network of small streets full of restaurants and bars, perfect for the Spanish tradition of late evening promenading and eating. The magnificent cathedral of Santa Maria de la Real and its cobbled square is the centrepiece of the city. Storks nest on the lofty heights of the cathedral roofs and towers. |
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The wine capital of La Rioja is Haro. The streets are full of wine shops, bodegas for tasting and other reminders of the area’s principal preoccupation. Again, it is full of restaurants and tapas bars that come alive after 9pm. |
Wine display in Haro. |
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Fiesta time is based on religious festivals. The church at Haro was well attended on the opening day morning. |
Unless you are a real wine buff you would probably only want to spend three or four days in the area. But there are plenty of places to visit in this north-west corner of Spain. On the Atlantic coast, there’s Bilbao, with its magnificent Guggenheim gallery, and San Sebastian with its old-fashioned sea front. You can also follow the pilgrimage route across the region and into Galicia to Santiago. |
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North is the Basque region and places like Pamplona and Loyola, where the Jesuit order was first formed. It’s a world away from the Costas, but this is a Spain off the beaten track that’s well worth sampling. |
The impressive main doors of the cathedral. It’s a beautiful building with a dozen storks nesting on the towers. |
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An early stroll near the cathedral in Logrono | Getting there
We flew Ryanair to Biarritz on the Atlantic coast of France, close to the border with Spain, hired a car and used the motorway network to cross into Spain at Irun, skirt Bilbao and head to Ribera. On the way back we drove over the Pyrenees passes and down to Biarritz for the return to Stansted. (www.ryanair.com) |
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Bilbao is the other most useful airport, with flights operated by Easyjet. (www.easyjet.com)
An alternative route to Biarritz is via Eurostar and TGV trains to pick up a hire car. (www.eurostar.com) If you have time, take your own car and make a leisurely drive down from the Channel ports, or take the 24-hour ferry/cruise, departures Wednesdays and Sundays, from Portsmouth to Santander which is close to Bilbao. (www.brittany-ferries.co.uk) |
Getting around
To fully enjoy this area, you do really need a car. Hire is reasonable and the driving is straightforward. In the mountains you need to take your time and stop in parking places to enjoy the views. |
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