Wine tour in Ribera del Duero: Discover one of Spain's most exciting wine regions
— Ribera del Duero has quickly become one of Spain’s most famous wine regions. It is also one of the tempranillo grape’s best strongholds. Here, the grape is alternately called tinto fino and tinto del país. The wines are often very characterful from grapes that grow at high altitude. The wines are full-bodied but always with nice freshness. For a long time only Vega Sicilia, Spain’s most exclusive wine, was known from here. Now a number of new projects in Ribera del Duero are attracting attention.
Tour Highlights
- 4 nights
- Private tastings, ca. 10
- Valladolid
- Stay in beautiful monastery from the 12th century
- Price: [sample programme]
- Innovative winemakers
- Organic vineyards
- Spanish gastronomy
- High altitude wines
- Spain trendy wine region
Please Note: This Is A Sample Programme
This is a sample programme, an example. Every wine and food tour that we organise is different and specially adapted for the season and the circumstances. Details in the programme, e.g. which producers we visit, will be different each time.
- This tour is sometimes available on our scheduled wine and food tour programme
- It can be designed specifically for you as a custom made private wine tour.
Next Wine Tour To Ribera del Duero
- Contact us.
Ribera del Duero is an exciting mix of old and new. This is where you find Vega Sicilia, which was founded in the 1860s and which later became Spain’s most exclusive wine. But when Ribera del Duero received its DO status (denominación de origen) in 1982, there were only nine wine estates in the region. Since then, a lot has happened. Many people have realised the potential of the area, where vines grow at high altitude. Many winemakers have found their way here and today the region has around 300 bodegas. The wines are highly sought after on the international market.
1975 marked the beginning of the modern development in Ribera del Duero. That was the first vintage of the successful Pesquera wine. A number of new projects saw the light of day. The 1990s saw a rapid increase in the number of bodegas (the name used for wineries). Today there are around 25,000 hectares in Ribera del Duero, mostly tempranillo. The high altitude gives cool nights, which in turn gives wines with lively acidity and good backbone. Ribera del Duero receives attention and praise for its concentrated, intense and structured wines.
Ribera del Duero is located in the greater region of Castilla y León, 190 kilometres due north from Madrid.
We meet in Valladolid where we stay the first and last night. The other two nights we stay closer to the vineyards, in Europe’s best-preserved Cistercian monastery with a history stretching back to the 12th century.
We recommend flights to Madrid. There are good train connections (with one change) from the airport to Valladolid. The journey takes around 1 ½ hours.
The tour is led by one of BKWine’s expert guides.
Programme — Ribera del Duero wine tour
Preliminary programme.
Contact BKWine for more details.
Sample programme
This is a sample programme, an example. You can find the wine tours currently on the schedule here, or you can explore a custom designed wine tour by contacting us.
There may be changes to some details of the programme, e.g. which wineries we visit. We put great effort into making your visits both exceptional and memorable. For this reason we often visit other than the most obvious, big-name producers (where there are often a number of guides employed). Instead we chose to give you a more unique, personal experience at our carefully selected estates, often (but not always) meeting the owner or the winemaker.
Programme overview
- Day 1, Wednesday — Arrival in Valladolid
- Day 2, Thursday — Ribera del Duero — out into the vineyards
- Day 3, Friday — Around Aranda de Duero
- Day 4, Saturday — Around Pesquera de Duero
- Day 5, Sunday — The tour ends
Wednesday, Day 1 — Arrival in Valladolid
Arrival in Valladolid. Check-in at our centrally located hotel. Time to explore the city.
Valladolid is a city of around 300,000 inhabitants with a beautiful and lively centre. There are a multitude of restaurants and bars here. In the old town centre, a short walk from the hotel, there are many stately Baroque and Renaissance buildings, the mighty Catedral Nuestra Señora de la Asunció and the Gothic church of San Pablo. Nearby is the Royal Palace where the Spanish kings lived in the early 17th century. You can also admire the huge Plaza Mayor, a perfect place for a pre-dinner drink.
Free evening to discover Valladolid.
Thursday, Day 2 — Ribera del Duero, out into the vineyards
After breakfast we get on the bus, with our luggage. We will start our journey of discovery in Ribera del Duero. We start by going straight east, towards the vineyards.
The Ribera del Duero wines are made in a number of villages located along the Duero River, the one that changes its name at the border with Portugal where it is called Duoro. The 25,000 hectares are located on a stretch of 110 kilometres from east to west. In width, the district measures around 35 kilometres. The vineyards are at a high altitude, between 750 and 1000 meters. But we are on a high plateau, so the whole landscape is at an altitude. The climate is continental. Summers can be very hot and winters cold. Autumns are often beautiful. The harvest usually starts right around this time of year, in early or mid-October.
We start with a visit to Bodega Viña Mayor, where winemaker Almudena Alberca makes intensely fruity and juicy wines that have received a lot of attention in recent years. Despite the name, the vineyard is small, around 10 hectares. It will be an interesting visit where we will learn more about the winemaker’s philosophy and of course we will taste the wines.
We then continue our journey to the slightly larger Emina Ribera Matarromera, an impressive establishment with beautiful wine cellars filled with French and American oak barrels. Oak aging belongs to Ribera del Duero, just like in Rioja, although the wines are completely different in style. Emina Ribera’s modern winery was built in 2005. We visit the the cellar, we taste and then we are served a delicious lunch with carefully selected specialities.
The afternoon offers another visit and then we go to Valbuena de Duero and check into our extraordinary hotel, the five-star Castilla Termal Monasterio de Valbuena just outside the village of Valbuena de Duero, a very special hotel with a historic atmosphere. We will stay here for two nights. The hotel also has an exclusive spa.
First, you will have some free time and later we will meet for dinner in one of the hotel’s excellent restaurants.
Friday, Day 3 — Around Aranda de Duero
We’re heading a little further east today, away towards Aranda de Duero, which is roughly in the middle of the Ribera del Duero district.
Ribera del Duero has developed enormously since the 1980s. Before that there were a lot of small grape growers and many of them belonged to a cooperative. There are still a large number of grape growers, around 8,000, but today there are many who instead sell their grapes to one of the approximately 300 bodegas.
Among the visits today is the interesting Bodega Cillar de Silos, one of the pioneers of “single vineyard wines” in Ribera del Duero. It all started in 1970 when Amalio Aragón began buying up small vineyard plots that he selected for their potentially high quality. He founded the winery in 1994 and the first wines arrived the following year. Now Cillar de Silos is a celebrity both at home and on the export market.
During the visit we see e.g. the historic cellars from the 17th century. We taste the wines and we also have a lovely lunch on the property.
On the way back to the hotel, we stop for a visit to Bodega Cepa 21 in the village of Castrillo de Duero. The family who owns it are third generation winemakers and with Cepa 21 they have created something that is very modern with an exciting avant-garde architecture, something that the Spanish wine world has become known for.
Early evening, we are back at the hotel and the evening is free to take a stroll in the small village and perhaps have a bite to eat in the hotel’s restaurant or tapas bar.
Saturday, Day 4 — Around Pesquera del Duero
We check out of the hotel and pack ourselves and our luggage into the bus. Today we stay quite close to Valbuena and we go to, among other things, the village of Pesquera del Duero and visit one of the most innovative producers in the area.
We head out among the vineyards where the grapes are surely starting to look really ripe. Tempranillo, the big grape in Ribera del Duero thrives very well here and even if some producers blend in some other grapes, tempranillo always dominates. Other permitted grapes are cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec and garnacha tinta. Recently, they were allowed to also make white Ribera del Duero and the white grape they use is albillo mayor, an old, local grape.
We visit a producer who invests heavily in sustainability in everything they do and also in new technology such as e.g. drones to map the vineyard’s different plots of land. But sometimes old methods apply, e.g. they use wild yeast for the fermentation. They also reportedly have a very special clone of tempranillo that should be extra good.
There will be exciting discussions about all aspects of wine here and after the visit and tasting we will stay and have lunch at the winery. Maybe it will be their famous grilled lamb.
The last visit will be in Tudela de Duero, near Valladolid. We visit a bodega founded in 1980 by Mariano García. The vineyard is 90 hectares big and yields a very low harvest of around 4000 kilos of grapes per hectare, which is typical for the entire district. That means around 28 hectolitres per hectare, perhaps one of the reasons for the fine concentration in the wines.
After getting answers to our last questions, we drive to Valladolid and check in for one last night in Valladolid.
Free evening to go for a walk in this charming town.
Sunday, Day 5 — Heading back home
The tour ends after breakfast. Departure.
There may be changes to some details of the programme, e.g. which wineries we visit. We put great effort into making your visits both exceptional and memorable. For this reason we often visit other than the most obvious, big-name producers (where there are often a number of guides employed). Instead we chose to give you a more unique, personal experience at our carefully selected estates, often (but not always) meeting the owner or the winemaker.
Go For It!
We’d love to have you with us.
More travel information
Here are some useful pages and guides about this travel destination:
Even more info
We have written a lot about Spain and about wine touring in the Spanish wine regions, what to do and what to expect.
- Read more about travelling in the Rioja wine region on our wine travel blog.
- You can also find more information on BKWine Magazine on the wines from Spain, our online wine magazine.
- Our YouTube videos on Spain.
Wine books
We have written more than ten wine books. They have won both national and international wine writing awards.
No other wine tour organiser has a comparable knowledge, competence and experience.
Tour Details — Ribera del Duero Wine Tour
Dates: [this is a sample programme]
Price per person: [this is a sample programme]
Single room supplement: [this is a sample programme]
Sample programme
This is a sample programme, an example. You can find the wine tours currently on the schedule here, or you can explore a custom designed wine tour by contacting us.
Included in the price:
- 4 nights hotel accommodation, double occupancy, including breakfast:
- 2 nights in Valladolid at four-star Hotel Valladolid Recoletos
- 2 nights in Valbuena at five-star Castilla Termal Monasterio de Valbuena
- Meals as described in the programme above (*):
- 1 gastronomic multi-course dinner including several different wines
- 3 gastronomic multi-course lunches, including several different wines, at a wine producer or local restaurant
- Start point: Valladolid
- End point: Valladolid
- Bus transport during the whole trip in comfortable bus
- All vineyard and winery visits
- Private, top quality tastings at wineries, approx. 2-3 per day
- Translation from Spanish as needed (some visits may be in English)
- Wine guiding and wine tutoring by an expert BKWine guide
(*) See below for more important information on our meals.
Not included:
- Travel (flights etc) to the destination and back to your home location.
You are responsible for organising your travel to Valladolid and home.
If you would like assistance organising your flight tickets etc, please contact us.
We warmly recommend that you plan a few extra days here if you have the time. It is a very interesting place and well worth some regular, non-wine related tourism too. We can assist you with booking additional hotel nights as needed.
For this tour to take place we must have a minimum of 4 participants registered by the “book before” date. Maximum number of tour participants: 8.
Book This Tour
Book before: [this is a sample programme]
Booking is confirmed by paying the booking fee of [sample programme, this varies by trip]. Full payment should be received at the latest [sample programme, usually one month or 60 days, depending on the trip] before the departure date (see our terms and conditions). Details on how to pay will be sent to you when you register.
It is important that you read our travel booking terms and conditions.
We also invite you to read more on why you should travel with BKWine, about customer protection, and about what you can expect from our wine tours in the section below “More on our wine tours”.
You book by contacting Britt Karlsson, BKWine:
- phone: +33 1 58 88 04 66 or +33 6 80 45 35 70 (+33 is the country code for France)
- Skype: “bkwine”. Call us on skype.
- email: info@bkwine.com, or use the contact form below
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More on our wine tours
Why travel with BKWine?
We are Britt and Per Karlsson. We are specialists in wine and food tours and wine tourism, but also experts in wine in general. We are internationally published wine writers and have written ten award-winning wine books.
No other tour operator has a comparable knowledge and experience of wine, wine regions, wine tourism and gourmet travel.
We have organised hundreds of wine and food tours, and this is what we love to do. We take it very seriously – it is not a sideline or a hobby – and what we want more than anything is to share all these wonderful experiences with you.
All our tours are led and managed by guides who have in-depth wine knowledge, and in many cases we lead the tours ourselves.
Read more on why you should choose BKWine for your wine and food tour.
Thousands of happy customers
Over the years, thousands of wine lovers have travelled with us. Many come back to tour again and again with BKWine to new wine regions. Our record-breaking client has been on more than ten BKWine tours. We are happy and proud to have such faithful customers.
Read more on what travellers have said about our tours.
Awards and Mentions
We’re pleased and proud to have received many accolades, including:
- “World’s Top Wine Tours”, Travel+Leisure Magazine, the world’s biggest travel magazine
- “Best wine tasting holidays”, AOL Travel’s list of top wine tours
- “Recommended Wine Tours”, Munskänkarna, the world’s biggest wine appreciation association
- “World’s Best Wine Book for Professionals” as well as “Best Wine Book of the Year”, Gourmand International awards, and many other book prizes
- Three OIV book awards, International Organisation of Vine and Wine
- “Wine Personality of the Year”, an honour bestowed on Britt Karlsson by Munskänkarna in 2011, the world’s biggest wine appreciation association
- Inclusion on the Wine Media Power List, by Wine Business International magazine
About the wine producers and wineries we visit
Our aim is for you to experience some of the very best and most interesting aspects of the wine world, in terms of wine and food.
We put great effort into creating outstanding winery visits, and in this way we are quite different to many wine tour organisers. It is not always the most renowned, internationally known estates that offer the best experiences. Organising a wine tour featuring famous names of the wine world is relatively easy: it is merely a question of making lists and ticking boxes. On those kind of “bucket list” wine tours, you rarely meet the winemaker or the owner. You will simply be one of thousands of visitors they receive each year.
We do things differently. With BKWine Tours, you will meet the people behind the label, often the winemakers and/or the owners. Thanks to them, you will have a unique, truly personal experience and an insight into the wine world that no one else can offer. When you travel with BKWine, you are more like a special guest than a tourist.
We have personal connections and unparalleled knowledge thanks to more than 20 years as wine journalists, with 10 wine books published, and as wine tour organisers with more than 30 years’ experience. You can be sure of getting the best wine travel experiences with BKWine Tours.
Read more on the wine producers and wineries we visit.
A true gourmet experience: food and gastronomy
For us, wine and food are intimately linked, and this is a fundamental part of our wine travel philosophy. For this reason, a wine tour with BKWine is always an outstanding culinary experience both for the wine enthusiast and for the gourmet. A BKWine tour is a gastronomic voyage that explores the deep relationship between food and wine.
Read more On Meals: Food and Gastronomy on Our Tours.
Customer Protection, Financial Travel Guarantee, and Terms and Conditions
You can always feel safe when you book your tour with BKWine. BKWine has a bonded bank guarantee that gives full protection according to EU and Swedish law. BKWine is a Swedish limited company and as such is regulated by strict rules.
Read more on Customer Protection, Financial Travel Guarantee. and our Terms and Conditions.
When you book a tour it is important that you read the terms and conditions. BKWine’s booking terms and conditions follow the guidelines developed by the Consumer Protection Agency.
Health, vaccination and allergies
Our tours have no particular health requirements although inevitably we will be walking a certain amount in wine cellars and vineyards. Sensible footwear is a must.
Most of our travel destinations have no particular health guidelines or requirements for vaccinations or medical certificates, but if in doubt, you should always consult a medical professional, vaccination centre or relevant embassy in your country of origin.
We can always accommodate food allergies. However, in order for us to manage such requests you must let us know about any allergies before the tour starts.
Read more in our FAQ and in our Terms and Conditions.
Travel insurance
BKWine does not sell travel insurance. If you want travel insurance, check if your regular home insurance policy includes some kind of travel insurance, or contact your regular insurance company or a travel insurance specialist.
Custom Tours
We also offer custom wine and food tours if you want to travel on different dates, or if you want something different to what we currently offer on our scheduled tours. This tailor-made service can be offered for individuals, companies, professionals, wine tastings clubs etc.
Important information
Our groups are always small. The number of people in the group may vary. The maximum can range from 8 to around 20; check the details in each programme. But our groups are always modest in size. This is important because it guarantees a quality experience and a personal welcome at the wineries we visit.
Read the BKWine Booking Terms and Conditions here. They are important to you!
You are expected to organise your travel independently to the destination for most of our tours, but once you are at the location, we take care of everything.
For more inspiration
Read our wine travel blog. For more, read our online wine magazine the BKWine Magazine with articles from all over the wine world.
And also:
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