Super visit to La Rioja

Baigorri's glass cube

Samaniego

Tondonia's tasting rooms

Me and a favourite vine at La Rioja Alta

Vineyards through the Baigorri glass

Hillside ventas

Super visit to La Rioja
Tuesday 12th June
More pics here


With a showery forecast for Hendaye, we decided to take the trip to La Rioja where the forecast for this Tuesday was for marginally better weather. It wasn't blue skies all the way but it didn’t rain and we enjoyed the most fantastic wines between Haro and the medieval village of Samaniego.

The Spanish road system is just brilliant in these parts. We had been on the San Sebastian to Bilbao highway before but weren't quite prepared for the amount of tunnels when we turned off and headed for La Rioja, still on the toll roads. One of the tunnels, at 3405 metres, was the longest I have ever driven.

Haro, a small town, is regarded as the wine capital of La Rioja, as it was here it all started. Our first call was to La Rioja Alta, where they actually charge you for the tastings, anything from €1.50 to a fiver a glass. You don’t really want to be tasting glassfuls on a road trip, so we shared. Highlight here was the Reserva Vina Ardanza, priced at €15.49 a bottle. The lady who served us had polished off her English in Dublin!

Then off to the nearby Lopez de Heredia premises and their gorgeous tasting rooms. This is better known to us as Tondonia (though apparently Lopez has taken off in US). Highlight here was their incredible Tondonia Blanca Reserva (1996) and, of course, the lady who served us had learned her English in Dublin.

Then we headed towards Logrono looking for Bogedas Ysios but that journey was interrupted when we spotted the original glass cube of Bodegas Baigorri which marks their seven storey downwards building where much is done by the simple use of gravity. We missed out on a full tour but saw much of the operation.

And, of course, we visited the shop. Crianza, Reserva and “a vin d'auteur”, not the most popular with traditionalists, were bought and the lady that served us here broke the sequence. She polished off her English in Cork, having many happy memories of her stay in Little Island's Clash Road about three years ago!

Sunday was supposed to be very rainy in Hendaye and we did get 90 minutes of heavy stuff around lunchtime. Before that, we had walked the beach and seen the many surfers in action. Afterwards, we walked to Spain, as you would, if as here, it is just across a bridge. Checked out some of the nearby wine shops. Perhaps, we’ll call again.

Don’t think we call again though to any of those Ventas, the bargain places for French people, just on the Spanish side of the border. We did visit Ventas Ibardin on Monday. High on a hillside pass, with a great view of the French coast, including of St Jean de Luz, some years back they bulldozed away the trees and about 12 big buildings were set up for business.

They are mainly supermarkets, all selling much the same stuff, with some perfumeries and leather goods. We had been looking for shoes but the selection disappointed. Perfumes were priced much the same as on the ferry (Brittany Ferries) but bargains were found in one spot.

The alcohol outlets, some specialist, most in supermarkets, generally disappointed in terms of wine, though one specialist had a great selection of sprits. Did get a few bits and pieces but nothing worth talking about.

Indeed the only thing worth talking about was a spectacular thunderstorm that broke out while we were sitting in the car. We had come up through Spain and returned to Hendaye via France. Interesting but hardly profitable.

Jean Trimbach coming to Ireland

Iconic French wine producer Jean Trimbach is coming to Ireland this July to showcase his astounding wines

Come along to one of his unmissable tastings at Ely Wine Bar and
Harvey Nichols in Dublin and Ballymaloe in Cork

12th June 2012

Jean Trimbach of Maison Trimbach, one of the Alsace region’s most iconic wine producers, will be in Ireland this July to host a number of consumer tastings which will showcase a selection of the Trimbach family’s astounding wines.

Established in1626, Trimbach is one of the legendary names in French wine. Listed amongst the top 10 white winemakers of the world, this is an unmissable opportunity to enjoy an exclusive evening with Jean and sample some of their award winning wines.

Jean will be hosting a number of tastings around the country at the following locations:

Monday 2nd July at Ely Wine Bar, Dublin

Jean Trimbach will be on hand to guide consumers through the wonderful varieties and wines of Alsace, including two vintages of one of France’s greatest white wines - Cuvee Frederic Emile Riesling.

Tickets: €40pp
Bookings: Please contact wineclub@elywinebar.com or call 01 676 8986

Tuesday 3rd July at Harvey Nichols, Dundrum

At Harvey Nichols, Jean will be hosting an exclusive evening of food and wine. The evening will showcase five wines from his respected winery, alongside a specially paired menu created by Chef de Cuisine Philip Mahon.

Tickets: €60pp
Bookings:  Please contact first.floor.reservations@harveynichols.com or call             01 291 0488    

Wednesday 4th July at Ballymaloe House, Co Cork

Ballymaloe will be hosting a very special food and wine evening with Jean Trimbach. Jean will be on hand to talk consumers through his family wines while two of the iconic food producers of Ireland, Sarah & Sergio Furno of 'Cashel Blue and Crozier Blue Cheeses', and Giana and Fingal Ferguson of 'Gubbeen Farm, Cheese and Cured Meats', will be sampling some of their delicious produce.

Tickets: €15pp
Bookings: Please contact colm@ballymaloe.ie or call             021 4652 531    

A new drink for the repertoire

Txakoli

Pacharan! The new one for me.

Made a first call last evening to the Chez Kake. The Basque menu above, five courses for 20 euro, was the attraction. 

The starter was superb, a great variety of charcuterie on the one plate. They had run out of the first part of the main dish but we got extra of the beef mince and those spuds were balls of flour! Then followed the cheese course, the Etonki with the cherry jam. The Gateau Basque was the best we've come across this trip, just a narrow band of the creamy custard, between two slices of almond flavoured pastry.

And then came that drink, Patcharan (sometimes Pacharan), new to me. It is a lovely warming aniseed flavoured drink, with an ABV in the early 20s.

Purchased some more of it in a local wine store the following day (Saturday). Saturday in fact was something of a day of rest, almost: a trip to the market, expanded for its Saturday session in the port, a swim in the pool, a call to the tourist office to book a bus trip to San Sebastian, then a walk along the rugged cliffs (the path was pretty rugged also!), later a call to that wine store where we were served by a guy from Cardiff, then to the beach to see over a hundred surfers or more do their stuff, then back to see some of Euro 2012 on a fast talking Spanish station. And that will take us through to Sunday for which the forecast is pretty dire, so that Ireland v Croatia game could come in handy!

The Basque Heart of Oak. And messin' about on the river.

The Basque Heart of Oak. 
And messin' about on the river.

Before I was born, Nazi aircraft, at Franco's request, bombed and machine-gunned the small Basque town of Gernika-Lomo, better known to me and many more as Guernica, mainly because of Picasso's painted tribute to the hundreds and hundreds of dead and injured. 

For centuries before that, Basque leaders assembled under an oak on a hillside near the town. It was over 300 years old when it caught fire in 1860. Now the petrified truck stands in a guarded place of honour. A place to be visited and I'm glad that I did even, if I had only a few minutes as the security had to go off to lunch at 2.00pm and wouldn't be back 'til four.

The town itself, with a population of about 16,000, is a busy spot. Must say, I have never seen so much double parking as I saw here!

More pics here

After the visit to Gernika, we headed up the twisty high roads and then down at the other side to the beautiful coastal town of Lekeitio (7,500). It has a lovely harbour and a beach alongside with an island, San Nicolas, that may be walked to when the tide is out. The Gothic church of Basilica de la Asuncion de Santa Maria overlooks the harbour.

We were entertained here for a while by a group of children being taught how to handle canoes in the harbour. They had two adults in charge but showed great confidence on and in the water as they went through their exercises. Seemed to be quite a lot of sports training going on at both sides of the border, to an extent not seen in Ireland.

The last coastal call we made was to the town of Ondarroa. Don't know if we caught it on  a bad day or a bad year or if we came in on the wrong side but this wasn't a pretty place. Pretty grim really, with too many high rises. Still the kids played and the dogs ran. 

But the camera didn't come out until we were about to depart when a big women's bike race came in. Traffic was stopped but there seemed little local interest as the riders flashed by.

After that, it was back to the motorway and, after a fill of cheap petrol, back to France.

Dinner at La Cabane du Pecheur

Thursday June 7th

Back at The Cabin


For the second time in a week, we were back for dinner at La Cabane du Pecheur on the Quai de la Floride with its views over the port of Hendaye. Once again, two happy customers left to take the short walk back to our apartment.

Foie Gras de Canard des Landes

Soupe des Poisson

Filet de Daurade Sauvage (Bream)

Chiperons a la plancha facon luzienne (Squid)

La verrine mascarpone

Mi-cuit au chocolat

Kite Surfers: Skippin' on over the ocean

Corniche Basque

Cool drink in KC pub

Wind rises the sand!

Hendaye

Hendaye beach

St Jean de Luz

The Corniche Basque & the Kite Surfers
Thursday 8th June
More pics here


Having seen a fair bit of the Basque Coast on the Spanish side, today was the day to head north and have a good look at the Basque Corniche on the French side. We had driven and walked bits and pieces of this spectacular coast but this was our first decent run at it, not that we went too far!

Started off with a swim at Ciboure. Temperatures were around the 26 degree mark but the water was flipping Atlantic cool. Still, feeling good and refreshed, we headed to its bigger neighbour St Jean de Luz. The towns share the same sheltered harbour.

St Jean has a beautiful big beach and we got parking in an underground facility nearby. While its population is bareley bigger than that of our base Hendaye, it has much more of a holiday resort feel to it, many more restaurants and shops.

A wind whipped up a sandstorm as we walked the beach so we headed into the town for a look and a couple of crepes. Then we were on the road again, this time to nearby Guethary. Didn’t see too much of this but came to a beach on the outskirts where we saw some spectacular kite surfing. Taking about skipping on over the ocean like a stone!

As we headed back, we were trying to find a viewpoint, Pointe de Ste Barbe at the northern end of St Jean de Luz harbour. And, with no help from the Sat-Nav but with good eyesight and a bit of luck, we found it. Here we enjoyed a lovely walk to the small hill, so well laid out with paths and seats, and had a fantastic view down over both St Jean and Ciboure.

On the way back, had a nice cool drink in the KC Pub near the Hendaye marina.

Easier to get Anal Jelly than Fresh Milk

Lesaka plaza, living quarters left and right

Gorgeous rabbit

Lesaka

Etxalar and its discoidal headstones

Zugarramurdi

The Grand Cavern of Zugarramurdi

Rear of oratory on Aita Donostia

"Monumento a Aita Donostia" by Oteiza

More pics here

Easier to get Anal Jelly than Fresh Milk
A Traiteur at last and the Witches of Zugarramurdi


What is France coming to? The butcher up the street fecks off on holidays for most of June. What is the holidaymaker supposed to do for a traiteur? And, worse, while I’m at it. This is quite a country. There are even 24 hour automated convenience booths where you can get all kinds of things, including Anal Jelly, but it is almost impossible to find a bottle of fresh milk!

Anyhow, I’ve solved the traiteur problem. The traiteur is a French institution and often overlooked by Irish on holiday. Hendaye is divided into two parts, we are in the beach area and it was in the older area that we found a top class traiteur this morning while visiting the weekly market. Here we bought enough Lapin Fermier (Rabbit) for dinner.

Happy that we had the rabbit and its sauce in the bag, we set off for Spain and the Basque hills and mountains again around lunchtime. Saw Menu del Dia for less than a tenner as we drove through Ergoien on our way to the national park area of Aiako Harriak.

We reached the border with Nafarro province (Navarre) at the 439m Aritxulegi tunnel, went past the big San Anton Reservoir. There are dolmens in the area of Agina and also a walk to the hilltop site of Aita-Donostia where stands a rugged work by Basque sculptor Oteiza.

Wound our way down to the pretty town of Lesaka. It has some historical places but I was very impressed by the modern Plaza Eltzetako. Then on to Etxalar, a beautifully maintained village with an old church with quite a collection of discoidal headstones in the churchyard.

Still one more call, as we headed up and then down on a very windy mountain road towards France, and that was the town of Zugarramurdi, a major centre of witch trials during the inquisition. The witches were supposed to have met in nearby caves, now the small town’s major attraction, even if it does little to let you know where they are. You have to walk the best part of a mile from the car park.

As a result, we just made it before they closed; the courteous girl at the reception looked at her watch but went on to give us every help. There are walks and a viewing point but the main attraction is the biggest of the caves, quite a massive one, very impressive indeed.

Then back to Hendaye and to that tasty rabbit, not to mention a gorgeous Gateau Basque with cherries (not the usual custard), also a nice bottle of red from Navarre, a Crianza, blend of Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon. Think I deserved it!

Coastal Mouse and the Slope-way to Heaven.

The Monument

The Church dominates the town

The Mouse

The lighthouse at the end of the "mouse"

Getaria. Town in middle of two beaches.

Coastal Mouse and the Slope-way to Heaven.
Tuesday 5th June 2012
More pics here


Temperatures were in the mid to high twenties as we arrived in the Spanish coastal town of Getaria, between Bilbao and San Sebastian. El Raton de San Anton (the mouse of St Anthony) caught our eye immediately, a mouse shaped one time island, now linked to the mainland.

The other main attractions here are the Iglesia de San Salvador (whose floor slops upwards to the main alter and is built over a tunnel), the monument to the Basque seaman Juan Sebastian Elcano) who serve with Magellan) and even a museum to fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga.

It is also the centre of production for the Txakoli wine but we didn’t see any sign of that. Didn’t particularly look for it either as we are finding the wine without any problem and enjoying the prickly bubbly juice.

We walked out to the lighthouse on the Raton, enjoying splendid views over the little town, its harbour and beaches and also out to sea and indeed right up to the large golden beach of Zarautz, the next town. Quite an uphill walk in the heat but well worth.

Then back to the church, a 14th century contraction and that strange sensation of walking uphill towards the altar. Then up the narrow street to the main thoroughfare and the very large monument to the sailor where, on one side, a fronton had been incorporated and some young lads were playing pelota, with rackets this time.

Didn’t bother with the fashion museum and headed along the coast to Zarautz, before re-joining the tooled motorway towards France. But still one stop to make and why not? Petrol here was just €1.29 per litre, about forty cents cheaper than across the border. EU harmonisation still has some way to go!

Hope Local Basque Priest Wins the Lotto

Village of Errezil

Lunch starter

Medieval carvings in danger

Lunch coffee

village of Errezil

San Ignacio de Loiola

Hope Local Basque Priest Wins the Lotto
Tuesday 5th June 2012
More pics here


When we arrived in the Basque heartland village of Errezil, in the Gipuzkoa, we little thought we’d be there for over two hours. A chance meeting with the local priest was responsible.

Earlier, we had crossed from the French border town Hendaye into Spain, heading for Tolosa, intending to loop around a few of the villages in the hilly interior before making our way to some of the coastal villages between Bilbao and San Sebastian. It turned out to be a great day weather-wise and a surprising one otherwise.

Our first “target” was the Bidania Pass (510m) and then the village of Bidegoian, the highest in the Gipuzkoa. No problems there and soon we were heading for the next pass, the Iturburu (550m) and, just below it, the Balcon de Gipuzkoa, high above the green valley in which Errezil village is situated. The views up here were just magnificent, really beautiful: sheep and cows and goats grazing and a scattering of farmhouses over the slopes of the valley with the village the main focal point.

After one or two photo stops, we headed down to see the village and its church of St Martin de Tours in particular with its large wood carving of the Saint on horseback. As we entered the darkened church (from the early middle ages), we were greeted, from behind, by the priest.

It turned out that he had worked in Liverpool, with Irish helpers, in the sixties and indeed had once been to Ireland, calling to Limerick on a voyage from Liverpool to Bilbao. He had excellent English and proudly showed us his church and its many carvings, some as old as five hundred years. But the works were deteriorating and, with a declining population, there was no money to repair them. He was hoping the lottery would help. Hope he wins.

He recommended a little restaurant under the shadow of the church (by the way, we forgot about asking to see St Martin on his horse). The bar/restaurant was more or less anonymous – you wouldn’t have thought it was even a commercial property. But it was and we enjoyed a three course meal, with wine, water and coffee, for twenty euro for the two of us.

No it wasn't haute cuisine but it was very good indeed. Our Spanish is even more limited then our French and the lady of the house was obviously unused to outside visitors. But we managed and she came up trumps.

Starters were a terrific vegetable stew with a boiled egg on top and Macaroni with Chorizo. The mains were meat balls with fries and a Bavette steak, also with fries. Dessert was Crème Caramel. Forgot to say, the wine was a full bottle as was the water. Add in two cups of excellent coffee, all for twenty euro. Incredible.

Now, under the gaze of the Izarraitz Massif, we headed for the town of Azpeitia and, from there followed a tree lined avenue to the 17th century basilica of San Ignacio de Loiola, the birthplace of the founder of the Jesuit movement. The church is huge but we had to be content with a view of the outside as it was closed for lunch hour and would not be open until 3.30pm, a bit too late for us.

And so we left and headed for the seaside and for the beautiful village of Getaria in particular.