Palacio de Samaniago

Culinary Heaven in the Heart of Wine Country

Palace de Samaniago is one of my favourite hotel finds ever. Nestled in a small village in the heart of the vineyards in Rioja, it is a relatively unassuming building from the outside, and upon arriving we thought we might be at the town hall until we saw the little hotel plaque by the door. The building was discovered by Ariane de Rothschild in 2016, and a year and a half was put into revamping the interior to a luxurious but simple feel. 

We were welcomed in the reception area, which feels more like a lounge, and taken up to our room – one of 9 suites at the hotel. Each suite is named after a wine, and they are all spacious, with huge bathrooms, and fitted out beautifully. Large, comfortable beds, with colourful rugs artfully draped across them, various pieces of art around the room, a sofa, desk and table for any work you might be doing, and facilities to make tea or coffee. Luxury toiletries in the bathroom and a choice of big rainfall shower, or a huge bathtub. The rooms almost make you not want to leave them, were it not for how great the rest of the hotel is. 

Heading into the garden, there is a small pool in one corner, and then a large chill area overlooking it. I spent many hours here, in one of the comfortable chairs, with a glass of wine reading my book. The service was fantastic – with regular asks of whether we needed more tea / wine / water or snacks, and the staff were really helpful for organising anything else we wanted as well. 

The Food

The other key highlight of the hotel is the food. . . Starting with breakfast – there is a real spread of local delicacies – from pastries, to fruits, to bread and homemade jam. There is then a selection cooked breakfast or additional cold breakfast items. There are then two options to choose from for lunch or dinner – there is Ariane’s Garden – which as the name suggests is on the lower terrace in the garden. Here you can order a selection of dishes, from salads, to burgers, to croquettes. Everything was delicious and the portions were good. For dinner there is also the option of their Tierra y vino restaurant, which features in the michelin guide. You can choose from a tasting menu or a la carte. We did both whilst there and it was well worth it! The staff were also able to recommend some great wines to go with the food. As far as hotel restaurants go this was one of the best. 

Activities from the hotel

Wine tasting

Being in the heart of Rioja one of the best activities is wine tasting. There are a few family run vineyards you can walk to in the village – and the hotel helped ring some of them to ensure someone would be in to show us around and give us some wine to taste. I am always amazed in Spain how much amazing wine there is for such good value, and we were not disappointed here. 

Some of our favourite vineyards we visited were:

Bodegas Remirez de Ganuza

Bodegas Baigorri 

Marques de Riscal 

Ysios

E-Biking

The hotel has free electric mountain bikes the guests can use, so we spent a couple of afternoons cruising around on the mountain bikes up some of the trails and to some of the vineyards. The scenery is beautiful and there are some great trails going up some of the rolling hills surrounding the vineyards. 

Balloon Ride

We had an amazing early morning balloon ride up over the hills seeing all the vineyards from above. We organised this through the hotel and it was incredible.