The wine offers thousands of possibilities and enjoying its intense bouquet and flavor in a glass is only one of them. For the enthusiast of this drink, nothing better than to lodge in the exclusive hotels that many wineries have constructed, establishments that are an authentic delight for lovers of the good food and wine. Usually there are hotels with a reduced number of rooms, very well decorated and with a charming enviroment. They also have a restaurant where the visitors will be able to combine house wines with delicious plates.
A total immersion in the world of wine, that will allow the visitor to forget the noise, the fatigue and stress for days. Most of these kind of hotels are concentrated in Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Rias Baixas zones. For example, Bodegas Palacios, in La Rioja Alavesa, were one of the pioneers in this zone to fit out their cellar in a magnificent lodging for the lovers of wine. Thus in the nineties the "Hotel Bodega Don Cosme Palacio" was created, an establishment with 13 well-taken care rooms whose names correspond to different varieties of grape, being the suite well known as Tempranillo. The hotel also has a magnificent restaurant and a winter garden.
In the Ribera del Duero zone it is situated the Torremilanos hotel, a cosy four stars building, property of the Peñalba López family. The winery, whose wine tradition goes back to 1903, is one of the few that keeps together the "bodega" and the vineyards next to the hotel, breaking the Castilian tradition that keeps them separated.
And far away to the west, belonging to the origin denomination Rias Baixas it is located El Pazo de Almunia, a XVII century construction. It is a small hotel of rural tourism that has ten rooms. Although in this case the entailment between the wine and the lodging has emerged in an opposite way than the usual one because the main objective of the establishment is to lodge the visitors. But next to the hotel it has been constructed a little "bodega" where the owners elaborate a wine that is commercialized inside and outside of Spain.
And recently, there has appeared a great newness in the spanish enotourism outlook with the opening of Marqués de Riscal wine city in September, in Elciego (Alava), and which has been designed by the famous architect Frank O. Gehry. In the enclosure of one of the oldest wineries of Rioja, it has been built a luxury hotel with 43 rooms, each one of them with a different design, a tasting room, a museum, a beautiful restaurant and a wine spa. A city of design where the wine lovers will be able to discover all the pleasures of the Rioja tradition.