Javier San Pedro, the fifth generation of a winemaking family in Laguardia (Rioja Alavesa) grew up in his family’s wineries. As far back as he can remember he learned the jobs required to make a winery work. When the time came to start his own winery however, Javier knew that he wanted to take a different path than his ancestors.
His idea was to build a small winery with limited production where he and his wife could live a relaxed life. With his inquisitive, creative spirit, he set out to make a winery that felt like a home, not a production center.
Of course, Javier dipped his feet into wine tourism, which at first was: show visitors around the winery, try some wines, eat some cheese and hopefully sell a few bottles. But for a creative person like Javier, this soon lost its appeal. After all, Javier realized, when 400 wineries are doing the same thing, the whole exercise gets boring for visitors and wineries alike.
Javier San Pedro, the owner. Photo: Bodegas Javier San Pedro Ortega.
Five years after opening the winery to visitors, Javier and his team had their ‘eureka’ moment. Why not forget about the usual technical explanations. “What kind of oak, how many months’ ageing, fermentation temperature and so on is fine when talking to other winemakers. Why not create experiences where visitors can have a good time!”
After some team brainstorming, they came up with the motto “Piensa menos, siente más” (Think less, feel more). Javier says, “We do something intensely personal, with absolutely nothing held back. We show visitors who we are.”
When you arrive at the winery, facing the majestic Cantabrian Mountains, one of the first things you see is an old tractor buried up to the rear axles with the front wheels off the ground. The old machine points at the tops of the jagged thousand-meter range, fixing the beautiful scene in your mind. You walk past a small terrace with a few upturned wine barrels, each with a caricature of Javier on the tractor and some high chairs.
Once inside, you face a few armchairs and sofas that remind you that you are in a home, with a small wine bar on your left. (“Not a real bar,” says Javier. “Our intention is not to compete with the bars in Laguardia, where you have a quick glass of wine and move on to the next spot”. Here, visitors can make themselves comfortable, introduce themselves and choose one of two “Fast Tastings” of four wines each, or a taste or two of any of the winery’s range of products: 18 different wines, the winery’s vermouth ‘Todo el Rato’ (All the Time) or its gin brand Rickman.
There’s a menu card where visitors can choose from a wide range of dishes created by Íñaki Murua and Carolina Sánchez, chef/owners of the one Michelin-Star and 2 Repsol Guide “Suns” Íkaro, in nearby Logroño.
These dishes, along with the rest of the experiences, change each year in March, a challenge for the six-person team at the winery.
The March 2022-March 2023 experience, for which the winery won a Best Of Wine Tourism award from Bilbao-Rioja and the Great Wine Capitals Global Network, combined four activities (wine tasting, tapas from Íkaro, a unique sensory experience and an audiovisual presentation) in nine different settings.
The first setting is where visitors recline in chaises-longues where they experience each of the four activities. It might be tasting wine in a black glass at an unusual temperature, or eating a dish that may look like one thing but is actually something else.. The idea is to give the senses a workout.
Bodegas Javier San Pedro Ortega in Laguardia, Rioja Alavesa. Photo: Javier San Pedro Ortega.
Setting number two is in a room where the ceiling is intertwined vine shoots. Here, the team explains what happens in the wineries’ vineyards in each of the four seasons.
In setting number three ‘Welcome to the Kitchen, the senses continue to be challenged with both wine and food, with an emphasis on our senses of smell and taste.
Setting number four is about winemaking and number five, about the bottling process, with explanations about bottles and corks.
Setting number six is in the barrel cellar. Here, you can smell both oak and wine. The experience however consists of tasting the wine without being able to smell it first by drinking from a straw inserted into a hole in a covered glass.
Setting number seven takes the visitor outside to one of the winery’s vineyards where they try another tapa from Íkaro and drink wine the way the grape pickers do – from a ‘porrón’ (a glass flask with a long spout). You hold the porrón in one hand at eye level, tilt it toward you and drink from the narrow stream of wine coming out of the spout. It requires practice and has everybody laughing with the first drink!
Setting number eight (We’re a Herd) is where visitors learn about the principles that inspire and guide the winery:
Protect your Family
Honor the Elderly
Teach the Young
Be True to your Friends
Practice Teamwork
Express your Opinions
Maintain your Place
Play whenever you can
And always, Leave your Mark
The ninth and final setting is where everything comes together – where visitors eat and taste wine with their five senses. The winery team hopes that after these experiences, visitors will become ambassadors for the winery, or in other words, “be part of the herd”!
If you visit in 2023 however, don’t expect what has been written here. Prepare yourself to be surprised by completely new experiences!
Bodegas Javier San Pedro Ortega
Camino de La Hoya, s/n.
01300 Laguardia, Álava.
T: +34 945 600 550
E: Javier San Pedro Ortega
Text by Tom Perry, Inside Rioja
Learn more about Bilbao-Rioja Great Wine Capitals