A spindly crocodile lies asleep across a wide expanse of land on the other side of the valley.Itshead rests on the ground facing west, while the tail stretches to the opposite side, endless, covered with scales and protrusions like a dragon. The image reminds us of a children's illustration, a mythological animal, a book of fierce and naive monsters.
Whenever we go up to Viña Muriel, in the area known as El Gallo, in Elciego, we look at that large beast lying down. There are days, especially in autumn and winter, when the fog hides the view; but when a powerful anticyclone settles on the west of the Iberian Peninsula, as has happened during a good part of last February, it is openly on view. As we examine it, we observe the roughness, the stretch marks and the spots on the skin of this colossal body that rests in the distance.
At times, the Sierra de la Demanda mountain range also remindsus of a film set. Its skyline set against the blue sky at midday, its blueish contour, the perfection of the silhouette of Mount San Lorenzo, with its strikingly pyramidal peak that reflects the light of the winter snow to the rhythm of the sun's movement.
The image of the mountain range is inserted in our retina since childhood. It is such a familiar sight, always present when we observe this view from the vineyards or through the car windscreen as we drive through Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Alta, that it sometimes ceases to be a landscape. As the philosopher Alain Roger says, farmers are so immersed in their territory that they are the last to realise the beauty of the landscapes around them. Until one day, the excitement of a visitor or the gasp of an admiring customer who comes to explore our area makes us feel astonishment and aesthetic pleasure. And then we look again at the mountains to the south the Ebro valley with great interest and with the desire to share this view. We must never miss the opportunity to appreciate the privilege of having one of the most beautiful landscapes we can dream of in front of our eyes and behind our vines.
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