The unsung Spanish city where a glass of wine costs £1

After a few days in Logroño, I became determined to order a glass of wine more expensive than my favourite London latte. But each time the bill arrived, whether a house wine, an experimental pick from a chalkboard list or a personal recommendation from the bartender, I failed. There was just no need to splash out. Any glass of wine here – paired with a creative pintxo snack and served al fresco under atmospheric street lights – was delightful and exactly the reason I’d come.

Logroño, the capital of La Rioja region in northern Spain, is, foremost, a city of wine. Perched on the river Ebro, the city is at the intersection of the Basque Country, Navarre and La Rioja, with many places named in both Basque and Spanish – the winding border between the regions is nearly indistinguishable, changing valley by valley, field by field. Logroño hosts the La Rioja Wine Harvest festival – this year taking place on September 20-26 – and this part of Spain as a whole is wonderful in autumn, when the rows of vines turn shades of ochre and bronze, and temperatures hover pleasantly around 23C.

But Logroño has yet to become a fixture on the tourist circuit, compared with its popular Basque neighbours Bilbao and San Sebastián, where ever-growing crowds can mean hours-long lines to visit the Guggenheim, and throngs of people crowding around the same hyped pintxos restaurants (the local version of tapas). Long overlooked by sunseekers sticking to the coasts, Logroño has retained its traditional charm.

About the size of Cambridge, population-wise, the city centre is a walker’s paradise, with car-free sections to wander, lined with ruins of the 16th-century town walls and backed by the two towers of the Co-cathedral of Santa María de la Redonda. Colourful 15th-century buildings lead to the Plaza del Mercado, easily enjoyed with an ice cream from nearby Heladería dellaSera. Or trace the history of the city and surrounding region from Roman times to modern day at the Museo de la Rioja.

Logroño is also a stop on the Camino de Santiago route, with the Puerta del Camino welcoming pilgrims into town on the stately Puente de Piedra bridge, making hikers with hefty backpacks a common sight, enjoying breakfasts of churros and chocolate in the city’s cafés. For a day on the trails, you can join long-distance walking paths, including segments of the Camino, from the city centre – or simply follow the urban trail along the wide river Ebro, as it flows through the city into the wider Rioja region, criss-crossed with a patchwork of vineyards, mountains and canyons.

Using Logroño as a convenient base, I set out to explore La Rioja’s hundreds of wineries – many within a 30-minute drive of the city – luckily accompanied by a wine-wise friend with a deep love for the region’s bold reds. Although the vast majority of the wine in La Rioja is produced by just a few major marques, it is still possible to find artisanal gems. We veered into viticulture hipsterdom, searching for boutique operations and following whispers of revolutionary winemakers, unique bottles and moon cycles.

Just outside the city centre, family-owned Bodega Viña Ijalba was the first organic winery in La Rioja, with a beautifully crafted, cavernous bottle cellar full of ageing tempranillos and gracianos. From the grounds, we spotted the four churches of Logroño, spires framing the city around the Ebro.

At Bodegas Ysios, the building itself is a work of art, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava to resemble a wine glass from above and mirroring the undulating Sierra de Cantabria mountains on the dramatic walkway approach. The women-led winemaking team practises regenerative viticulture, with ungrafted vineyards dating back nearly a century. The Basque’s nearby Marqués de Riscal Winery was, like Bilbao’s Guggenheim museum, designed by Frank Gehry with graceful, colourful curves bringing a modern touch to the traditional landscape.

Our tour of biodynamic Bodegas Moraza led us through vineyards holding ancient secrets – we marvelled at the still wine-stained stones where Roman winemakers once stomped grapes – and the tiny village of San Vicente de la Sonsierra. La Rioja is rich in hilltop towns to explore, like the medieval-walled Laguardia, with tiny picturesque alleyways filled with boutiques and restaurants.

Above the towns, I stood on the edge of the Balcón de la Rioja, right on the mountain ridge that separates the lush green Basque Country from the famous wine region. The blanket of clouds rolling in from the northern Spanish coast stopped abruptly, dripping down over the hills like candle wax, but drying before they reached the valley – an intriguing spectacle called the Foehn effect that creates the warm, dry microclimate perfect for the red grapes of the area to thrive.

Back in Logroño, plans for each evening were simple – we opened our favourite bottle from an earlier tasting to sip while we watched the city come alive. The cobblestoned streets between Calle Laurel and Calle de San Juan are the main hubs for pintxos bar-hopping.

A sleepy city in the heat of the day, after sundown Logroño’s streets filled with fellow hungry roamers, ever so slightly tipsy, ready to snack the night away. We quickly learnt the method for claiming an empty table as soon as it was vacated, ordering at the bar, and carefully balancing two glasses of impossibly affordable wine with armfuls of creative pintxos. We ate piles of patatas bárbaras (a spin on the classic bravas, with skin-on potatoes) and beef cheek with truffle at quirky Umm No Solo Tapas, tuna and cod roe crostinis at foodie favourite Tastavin – which earned a Bib Gourmand in last year’s Michelin Guide – and ham and cheese croquetas at every stop.

I always ordered in Spanish; I rarely even heard English spoken while out in Logroño. I only met one other traveller from the UK, sitting in a café. “Isn’t it great,” she asked me, “not seeing any British people?” And it was; we were in on a lovely secret, as we sipped our £1 glass of rioja.

How to do it

Logroño is about 90 minutes by car from Bilbao, the closest international airport (flights from the UK starting at £14.99), or two-and-a-half hours via a slow but scenic train. To fully make the most of La Rioja, it is best to rent a car. However, there are various local bus services between the larger cities and to the touristic villages, for those keen to avoid driving on winding mountain roads. Taxis are easily available in Logroño, but best to book ahead for rides home from winery tours. In the city centre, Áurea Palacio de Correos has rooms starting at £198 (0034 913 342196), or Sercotel Calle Mayor starts at £74 (0034 900 938038).