Letter from Haro 6: Under the Calvary Cross
Friday, September 21st, 2007Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Moving southwest from San Vicente de la Sonsierra, just across the Ebro River, you will soon come across another mid-valley hilltop village, Briones. (On a clear day, from the balcón in the Sierra de Cantabria above Sanmaniego, you can make out all four hilltop villages of winemaking Rioja in one east to west sweep: Laguardia, San Vicente de la Sonsierra, Briones, and Haro.)
Yesterday, I asked Ivan Alberdi, enologist at Bodgeas Benjamin Romeo, about the two towns when were standing in a vineyard equidistant from both. Thinking I was onto something, I said, “Would you consider Briones and San Vicente sister villages?”