Plan a Rioja wine tasting trip with 8 standout wineries in Haro, Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa, plus tasting highlights, drive times and private tour ideas.
Part of our guide Discover Spanish Wines: A Complete Guide to the Best Regions, Varietals, and Traditions
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Rioja is one of Spain’s great wine destinations, with historic bodegas in Haro and vineyard-focused estates across Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa. These eight wineries are among our favorites, combining excellent wines with memorable tastings, vineyard experiences, and a real sense of place.
Vineyards, villages, and monasteries below the Sierra de Cantabria create a stunning backdrop for winery tours. Home to Spain’s oldest protected wine designation, Rioja offers endless wineries to visit.
Each winery we highlight offers wine tastings and experiences that immerse you in Rioja’s terroir and essence. We also include practical details on where to base yourself and approximate drive times to each winery.
Before we dive into our favorite wineries, let’s explore the region’s captivating history and background. Rioja is Spain’s most historic wine region, with grape cultivation and winemaking dating back many centuries. Rioja became Spain’s first Denominación de Origen in 1925 and the first Spanish wine region to receive Denominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa) status in 1991.
The DOCa Rioja regulatory council upholds the region’s wine quality through rules covering yields, permitted grape varieties, aging, and other production standards. Rioja’s traditional aging categories include Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva, while labels may also identify geographic origin through zone, municipality, and Viñedo Singular classifications.
Understanding Rioja’s classification system will help you appreciate this region’s winemaking and the quality of the wines. It also helps you choose tastings or visits that include their most premium selection. Read more
Best forBoutique Rioja wine tasting
Gómez Cruzado, founded in 1886, is a boutique winery in Barrio de la Estación, Haro, that produces exceptional wines. It makes fresh, elegant wines from old-vine vineyards at higher altitudes in Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa. Today, the Baños family owns the winery.
Best forVineyard-focused wine tourism in Rioja Alavesa
Bodegas Luis Cañas is a well-known winery in Rioja Alavesa, producing wines here for four generations. They practice sustainable, responsible farming methods to safeguard the environment and support the local community. In 2023, Tim Atkin MW named viticulture director Rubén Jiménez “Grower of the Year,” recognizing his work in varietal recovery and erosion prevention. Great wine starts in the vineyard, and this winery is doing it right.
Best forResearch-focused wine experience seekers
Bodegas RODA was founded in 1987 in Barrio de la Estación in Haro. They create exquisite Riojan wines, and the winery is known for its emphasis on research and innovation. The wider group also includes AUBOCASSA, its olive-oil estate in Mallorca.
They demonstrate their serious dedication to winemaking through CIRSION, made from selected bunches that achieve exceptional ripeness in the vineyard.
Best forIn-depth winemaking technique enthusiasts
Founded in 1989, Remírez de Ganuza is one of those wineries that pays attention to detail. The winery wasn’t built overnight! Fernando Remírez de Ganuza spent years selecting old vineyards in Rioja Alavesa. They’re all about making great wine with minimal fuss, so they developed innovative winemaking techniques to achieve that, including separating the shoulders and tips of Tempranillo bunches and the patented extraction system used for Trasnocho.
Best forSingle vineyard terroir enthusiasts
Ostatu is a family-owned winery in Samaniego. It showcases Rioja Alavesa terroir through its parcel and single-vineyard wines. The winery takes its name from the old roadside inn that once occupied the family property; today, the family works a patchwork of small vineyard parcels around Samaniego.
Best forFamily-tribute wine experiences
Amaren means “of the mother” in Euskera and honors Juan Luis Cañas’s mother, Ángeles. She played a pivotal role in the family winery. The project began in 1995 with Amaren Reserva Tempranillo, a 100% Tempranillo from old-vine parcels created in her memory. A separate Amaren winery followed in 2016, built around concrete, stone, and wood.
Best forClassic Rioja Gran Reserva enthusiasts
In 1890, five Riojan and Basque families founded the Sociedad Vinícola de La Rioja Alta in Haro’s Barrio de la Estación. Doña Saturnina García Cid y Gárate was its first president, while the Frenchman Monsieur Vigier became the house’s first oenologist. The winery adopted its current name, La Rioja Alta, in 1941.
Best forScenic estate vineyard experiences
Situated below the Sierra de Cantabria, Torre de Oña is an incredibly scenic winery with stunning views of its high-altitude vineyards at 630 meters (2,066 ft). Part of the La Rioja Alta, S.A. group since 1995, the estate is based in Páganos in Rioja Alavesa and focuses on parcel-led wines such as Finca Martelo and Finca San Martín.
Explore the historic heart of Rioja’s wine culture in the Barrio de la Estación, a distinguished district in Haro, lined with prestigious wineries and rich in history. Originating in the 1860s with the introduction of the railway, this area became a crucial hub for wine transport, especially during the phylloxera crisis when it facilitated the export of Spanish wines to France.
It hosts some of the oldest wineries, including R. López de Heredia y Landeta and Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España (CVNE). The neighborhood has evolved into a vibrant destination for wine enthusiasts.
Mikel Ruiz de Viñaspre, a renowned wine professional from La Rioja with over 20 years of experience, has launched exclusive super premium wine masterclasses. Mikel has tailored these classes for a select group of partners, including Cellar Tours, and hosts them in his stunning 15th-century stone birthplace in medieval Laguardia. Mikel comes from a family of wine growers, bringing deep industry knowledge to these intimate sessions.
Cellar Tours can organize a fully private, tailor-made Rioja wine tour around your interests, tastes, and pace. We can arrange winery visits and private tastings, chauffeured transport, hotels, and dining, while also planning around dietary preferences or restrictions, mobility requirements, and any other practical considerations.
Accommodation can be tailored to your style, from boutique hotels such as Palacio de Samaniego and Palacio de los Ángeles to the striking Hotel Marqués de Riscal and charming rural properties among the vineyards.
Between the unique tasting experiences at Riojan wineries, the delicious cuisine, vineyard landscapes, and more, Rioja offers so much to discover. Traveling to this region awakens all your senses and offers an immersive experience. Each time you open a bottle of Rioja at home, it leaves you with lasting memories of this jewel of Spain.
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