La Rioja, Spain: Marques de Arviza

It's a bit of a drive to go from Balbao to Madrid in Spain, so it's always a good idea to take a break along the way. One possible stop is at a winery - because there are plenty of them in that part of the world.

Our tour took us to Marques de Arviza, and it was a good choice. First of all, there's plenty of history involved. The company has been making wine since 1874, which makes it the second-oldest winery in the region. 

However, the business goes back a lot further. There are some caves below the surface of the facility that go quite deep. Those holes in the ground, so to speak, have been in use for wine aging for a few hundred years. On our tour, we actually got to visit those caves. (The photo is from that trip.) This really caused the visit to be unique as compared to other visits to wineries. It's usually really dark down there - just the way they want it - although a few lights were turned on for a few minutes during our stay. And there's a little mold, so be careful. 

After reemerging from the depths, the winery hosted us for a nice lunch - including some samples of their product. No one went away hungry or thirsty; I'm not sure anyone had much of a dinner later on.The rules are complicated about trying to figure out how to get wine back to the United States. But at least the people have the name of the company if they are inclined to make a purchase later on.