We had a nice breakfast again at our hotel. But it would be good to have a choice sometimes. Our plan today was to head first to the wine museum at Briones, and then visit Baigorro and La Guardia. However we didn't manage to achieve everything.We drove to the Vivanco wine museum outside Briones and got a reduction for seniors. It was a very comprehensive museum on several floors, with most of the captions in Spanish but with some English notes. First we saw the extensive vineyard outside, which we explored later. We looked at many exhibits of wine bottles dating back to Egyptian, Greek and Roman times, which reminded us how old the wine industry was.
Then we discovered the history of viticulture, learnt which terrain was suitable, the types of grape, how the vines grow, different tools used in the wine-making process such as the presses, ploughs, baskets. We learnt about the symbolism of wine, saw some examples of old tools, read about wine laboratories, the different types of press, harvesting oak for barrel-making, saw the cork-making process and looked at some examples of wine in art. We also tried a smelling test but I wasn't very good. We also saw the museum's own wine cellar, Vivanco winery. It was a fantastic exhibition which took over two hours to view.
Then we stopped for a light lunch with beer in the cafe before exploring the extensive vine collection outside and heading off. Everything seemed to be closed on Sunday afternoon though. We drove to Bodegas Baigorri, which looked impressive but was closed. Then we headed to Ysios winery at La Guardia but it was also closed. So we returned to the hotel through the wonderful scenery, and rested for a while.
We then went for a swim in the hotel spa's pool, which was very pleasant. But on the way to try the jacuzzi, I slipped on the wet tiles and hurt my foot and jolted my back. Later we had dinner in the hotel bar - I had salmon tartare and pasta with egg, plus a 2017 Verdejo white wine.
Back in our room we did the Guardian cryptic crossword on our phones as there was nothing on TV.
