Day 10 -- Rioja day 2

Today we had an enligh (whohoo) tour of the Muga bodega. It was excellent. They showed us everything to do with the wine production and storage. They even make their own barrels here (very rare). That was really cool to see. They also walked us along the bottling assembly line where they add the labels and corks before going off to age.
Turns out the US is Muga's biggest market right now (that said we'll just buy some at home!)





We are so lucky to see this valley in the fall, the red and yellows and oranges are spectacular!



Frank Gehry's Ciudad hotel in Elciego was our next stop. Beautiful! Said to be modeled after a flamenco dancer's skirt. Security is super tight here. They have guards everywhere and wont let you walk around the outside even......unless you eat there. Soooo we made lunch reservations! Access was granted the next day for our lunch. The dining room is on the second floor where you can see the one lone window in the photo below. The food - amazingly good! The meal won for being our most expensive yet - but so worth i! They brought the chef out to meet all the diners as well, nice touch, he was surprisingly quite young, but cooks up some excellent hake fish and truffle meatballs! mmmm



Here we are upstairs at our table inside the hotel.