Bodegas Bohedal: wine tourism pioneers

In the village of Cuzcurrita, the Tejada-Baños Bezares family runs one of Rioja’s pioneering tourism initiatives with a wide range of activities for visitors. In the village of Cuzcurrita, the Tejada-Baños Bezares family runs one of Rioja’s pioneering tourism initiatives with a wide range of activities for visitors. With a strong focus on families, Bohedal renews its range of activities every year in an effort to promote wine culture, which both Blanca and her husband experienced as children in the family vineyards by the Sonsierra mountains and in the family’s original bodega in the village of Briñas.

The fact that the winery is in Cuzcurrita is merely circumstantial, as the family vineyards, some 20 hectares, are all situated in the Sonsierra foothills: Labastida, Haro, Briñas and Ábalos. From Cuzcurrita, a village in the western end of Rioja, the family has successfully developed one of the most interesting wine tourism menus in the region with a peculiarity: all the tours of the winery and vineyards are run exclusively by family members, parents and children.

Bohedal became involved in wine tourism in 2004. Parents and children are all fluent in English and French: “We decided to set up what we now call Experiencias Bohedal [winner of a ‘Best of’ award for Wine Tourism], a range of activities aimed at recreating my childhood experiences and those of my children at the family winery,” explains Blanca Baños. “The fondest memory is the grape harvest, a real party back then, when we all worked together.” Blanca adds: ”We didn’t have the means and after helping in the vineyard, we went home with our wine-stained hands and feet to eat an afternoon snack.”

Bohedal offers experiences all year round: wine and chocolate tastings, white wine tastings, barrel wine tastings, wine and zurracapote (a sort of sangría) tastings —at Easter, as tradition dictates—, family harvest, blind tastings… Children are also welcome in this programme with one of the workshops held inside a winemaking vat, where the little ones can create their own labels. In terms of the wines, the Gran Bohedal range is particularly interesting, featuring a selection from the oldest vineyards, as well as Hebabe, a set of varietal wines made from Tempranillo, Graciano and Garnacha sourced from the family vineyards in the Sonsierra.