Haro and the Bodegas

It's been days since we were in Haro and I still haven’t written the post.  I blame the sangria de sidra.  It's tempting to rush on and tell you about the long and windy roads of the Picos, but Haro was fabulous and deserves some attention.  Mr Beethoven, that's what I'm calling our host at Beethoven apartments, spoke almost no English but he still told a good story with my bad spanish and a lot of mime.  He showed us around his restaurant until his wife arrived to check us in.

We had previously booked a tour at Bodegas Lopez de Heredias.  Herman, our guide, looked like he'd been in a bar fight, but it was just a football injury.  He started with a brief history.  About 150 years ago, the family had to emigrate to Chile, then to France and finally to Haro where the vineyards were planted.  We saw the cellar - 3 million litres of wine in barrels deep into the mountain - the cooperage where about one barrel a day is made, the big barrels where they make the wine, and the tasting room.  The cellar is lined with mould, penicillin I think, which moderates the humidity, and spiderwebs as they control the insects.  The best wine is 6 years in the barrel and 6 years in the bottle before selling.  We were given a bottle of this each at the end (Vina Tondonia). 

We dined at Las Duelas that evening.  It's part of a hotel that started as a convent in the 14th century and has been a garrison, a prison and a hospital. The croquettes were fabulous and the cod very nice.