Savouring Europe - Spain (Rioja)

Our guide Robert Golden takes in the sights and tastes of Spain, arriving to see early autumn glow over the folds of a river valley where grape vines are harvested. Rioja is celebrated the world over for its rich, curranty wine, but we hear little of its food. This guide celebrates well-known dishes such as potatoes cooked with chorizo sausage to specialities like Menestra de verduras. The rivers are teaming with trout, which become trucha con jamon, trout stuffed with cured ham. In autumn, the harvesting of the grapes is celebrated by villagers who bake a suckling lamb in a wood oven. All of this is played out against a landscape of wildly beautiful sierras, studded with Romanesque churches on the pilgrim trail to Santiago de Compostela.