Wine

TALK of property taxes and home repossessions is dominating our airwaves, but spare a thought for Spain where home owners seem to be in even worse trouble.

Spain’s building boom also took hold in some wine regions, particularly Rioja, where some of the most extraordinary wineries ever built began appearing in the early 2000’s. Star architects such as Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Santiago Calatrava were commissioned to create some truly wondrous buildings and a quick google of “Rioja Architecture” will show you exactly what I am mean.

Rioja producers did get ahead of themselves a little in those years and began to price themselves out of the market but, thankfully, they saw sense and good value Rioja is now easy to find. Of course you will have to pay more for the top end producers such as Muga, Murrieta and Riscal, but even these producers have wines at all price levels.