Like you I presume, over the years, I have consumed many bottles of wine. It started with the occasional celebration bottle of wine. Now wine is the accompaniment to food at all meals – well, at least not with breakfast!

Then I went on to explore the world of wine and educate my palette in the process. And what a world that is now. Take a look at the number of countries producing wine by casting your eyes over the shelves on the next visit to the supermarket. The names of the wine producing countries now it seems, cover the letters of the alphabet. I became involved with Spain and later with La Rioja, after marriage to a (then) young woman from San Sebastian. I visited La Rioja for the first time many years ago and was taken by my in-laws family to meet with and experience from the inside the simple, but at the same time, complex world of wine production. I found it enthralling. Especially as at that time the wine from La Rioja was almost unknown, especially outside of Spain.

Over the years, my many friends have also enjoyed the wines from La Rioja which I have served with the meals we shared. For many years also, I said I would take them there to enjoy the encounter I had experienced years before. From those origins began the idea of GRAPE ESCAPES. Now it exists and through it I would like to share with you the many pleasures La Rioja has to offer the discerning wine-drinker, gastronome and traveller. So, if you have a fancy to leave behind the Costa’s with their sun, sand and particularly, the sangria and move on now to experience something very different, then this is exactly what we have to offer you.