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Like us, we know you appreciate delicious food and fine wines.  There is nothing more relaxing than enjoying a good meal and a glass of your favourite wine at the end of a long working week.its the best way to let steam off. Drinking a good wine delivers a real sense of place and character and brings a little slice of the vineyard into your own home.

First hand experience of La Rioja

Imagine how much more your appreciation would be enhanced if you could experience the sights, sounds and flavours of your favourite wine region first hand.you don’t have to be a massive wine connoisseur, just a fan!   There are dozens of wine tasting holiday packages available, ranging from the commercial tourist treks that  whisk you  through the terroir on an air-conditioned coach to the more intimate walking holidays that give you the space and time to walk through a wine region, drinking in the atmosphere and sampling the local food as well as tasting the wines.

La Rioja

We think an active holiday for wine buffs is best done at your own pace.  For a truly personal holiday, we like companies that offers tailor made packages to the smaller, beautiful and often underappreciated regions of Spain, such as La Rioja for example.going with a small group of friends and a trust worthy guide will help you appreciate wine even more.

Why La Rioja

The gateway to La Rioja is Bilbao, famous for Frank Gehry’s titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum and the magnificent Mirador de Tolono is less than an hour away with magnificent views across the wine growing region.you can indulge in some of the finest region’s restaurants whilst be enjoying the best wines in the La Rioja area.The local food comprises of seafood from the northern coast and meats from the plains to the south of Rioja.sommeliers serve up each course with a different wine to compliment the food.

going to a traditional winery gives you sample of how much care and attention goes into making a bottle of wine.one the oldest wineries called Muga uses traditional methods in winemaking, using only oak barrels and casks.If your a wine lover and enjoy active holidays then La Rioja is the perfect place to go.you can experience the lifestyle behind the wines and enjoy the history of the region and culture. Packages of varying lengths can be booked, but if nine days walking in the countryside, even if it is to drink some superb wines, sound like too much effort there are shorter weekend options that take in the main attractions and deliver a more intensive, but equally rewarding, experience.

At Classic Wine Direct we’re pretty upfront about what we do – we can’t compete with supermarkets on price so we offer wines from off the beaten track instead. We believe that these wines are more interesting and quite simply, tastier. However, it can be difficult for wine drinkers to understand the true value of a wine.

Back in 2006, Jean-Manuel Spriet, the then chief executive of Pernod Ricard UK, sent shockwaves through the wine trade by admitting that many of the “half price” wine deals in supermarkets were actually a rip-off.

The fact that a leading player in the wine business had admitted that consumers were being conned caused many a raised eyebrow.

half price deals are not in fact deals at all according to Spiret. Put simply, a bottle reduced from £7.99 to £3.wines are more likely to be worth £3.99.99 in the first place.

they mark up wines at selected regional outlets for a short period to cover them legally then mark it down. wine customers will believe they are getting a bargain price. Confused? the general idea is.

the wine industry is believe the main wine drinker is obsessed with the £3.99 price tag.the cheap price to customers affects the ways the suppliers are producing their wines.

Spiret thinks consumers know they are getting misled and they get use to it. this leads to the wine trade not havng any money.

Spiret’s gives us an inside view of the true tricks in which wine is sold by the big retailers. More worryingly it gives us an insight into what the big retailers really view their customers to be, namely lazy and ignorant.

the wine industry is not the only industry where these marketing practices happen.

two thirds of the wine sales are taken up by the supermarkets.

If the regular wine drinker believes that he is getting £7.99 of value from a £3.99 bottle then it follows that it will be much harder for the independent wine retailer to sell something whose real value is (and always was) £7.99.

There is, of course, no end in sight to this type of price fraud – the subjectivity of a wine’s value leaves this particular sector open to all sorts of underhand practices.

However, if the political mood continues to be against discount selling for alcohol, it will be interesting to see how the big retailers find a real price for wines they have knowingly mis-sold for the last 10 years.

Spanish wine tasting is an experience every wine advocate should try, although it can be quite a drizzle. But the taste would be no different than giving into just another wine. On the other hand, Spanish wine tasting carefully suggests that it is quite a different experience to try the taste of wine the Spanish way.

First, to really feel the ambience, one must incorporate a real Spanish red wine. There are certain kinds of flavors of Spanish wine that one must and must not consider. Professionals of wine get that every type of red wine is attractive however there is no control over selecting the grape used. For those who haven’t developed a palette in choosing the right wine for their buds, it is suggested that one must go through different tests in order to realize the flavors of a Spanish red wine.

Some of the most commonly suggested Spanish red wines are: black fruits, vanilla, earthy, red fruits, herbal, balsamic, animal and vegetable. These flavors will erupt and can be easily noticed by your tongue once you have appreciated its content. The trick in tasting Spanish wine is not the flavor that you have tasted but how well your taste buds remember the flavor of what you have tasted even if a couple of years has passed.

Now, when it comes to trying out Spanish wine for the first time, here are some of the basic tips where you are most likely to find in common grounds with other wines.

1. Overfilling is a no-no. A wine is something that goes a long, long way. It is not malt beer or soda that you can just spill out the contents in your mouth if you feel like you haven’t had enough. You would wonder why wines are offered in glasses that are only filled with only a quarter of the size. Wines served in this manner are wines that are worthy. After being poured onto or given, tilt your wine glass against a light or white surface and observe the color.

2. In order to release the flavor, swirl the wine content around the glass. Now, if your glass is totally full, do you still find it possible to swirl your glass? It is only in this way that a wine’s real flavor is released. For professional wine drinkers, swirling is a breeze but for beginners, it is quite a deal. If you are having a hard time swirling your drink in a proper manner, try putting the glass on top of the table then gently swirl the glass in either a clockwise or counterclockwise manner. Tables, in this manner, give you more control and lessen the risk for spills.

3. Get addicted with the aroma. Smell the beautiful scent of the Spanish wine. Let it stimulate your olfactory senses for few moments. Make your nose work and sniff hard. Drink. Give yourself the opportunity to taste the sweetness of your labor. To get the most out of drinking wine, let it linger around your mouth for some time. Another trick for appreciating Spanish wine tasting is to suck a little air while drinking the wine.

Through air sucking, you can get a sense of the strong yet rejuvenating effects of wine on your mouth. Before giving into another sip, appreciate the aftermath of the wine left to stay on the sides of your inner cavity.