Hola, MadridMan!

Are you a wine lover by any chance? (Duh, stupid question; you spend time in Spain!)

We will be north of Madrid in the Ribera del Duero region for two days this June, and would like to tour some wineries (and taste, of course!).

In California, you just go from winery to winery trying the wines in their tasting rooms. No appointment required. However, I am guessing that Spain doesn't work this way. So far I haven't been able to find out how winery tours work in Spain. Are they by appointment only? Are fees charged? Any chance of an English tour?

Any info you could provide would be greatly appreciated!!!

Hello El Viejo! (I doubt you're THAT old)

YES! I am a lover of wine...but ONLY wine from Spain, of course.

I'm honestly not familiar with tours to wineries around Spain, but I did read something in a recent in-flight magazine... can't remember which, but they said that some places take reservations while others allow walk-ins. Not so sure you'd be lucky enough to get a tour in English, but it's possible.

I just did a quick search on Amazon.com and didn't find anything specifically useful however there are a number of books about wines in Spain. I have a few of them listed @ http://www.madridman.com/market/books/food.html

I'm always testing the new wines from Spain that my local imported wine store carries and have found most of them to be very good and extremely affordable!!

Have a wonderful time in Spain!

Saludos, MadridMan

The tours that I have been on have had English tours available. These were Osborne and Terry in El Puerto de Santa Maria. Smaller wineries may not afford that luxury, though.
Try checking a web site of the particular one you will visit.

El Viejo, JUST today I bought a bottle of red wine from Spain's Ribera del Duero region and can't wait to try it.

I also bought a bottle of Rioja and will take them for consumption when I go to New Mexico to visit some friends next week.

It's true, Spanish wines are really fantastic! I'm so fortunate to have a market near me that specializes in imported wines and they carry about 25 different Spanish wines and these don't include the 5 kinds of sherries or champagnes from Spain!! I'm always trying a new one.

Here are the ones I've tried recently:

Sumarroca: Vino Tinto '97 from Penedés, Cataluña. This one was pretty good, very well-rounded red wine.

Oristan: Vino Tinto '95 Gran Reserva from La Mancha. These Oristan wines are EXCELLENT!!

Viña Borgia: Grenache '98 from Campo de Borja. A decent and cheap table wine.

Viña Almazán: Vino Tinto de la mesa (aged: days..hehehee) from .... who knows. Really, a very good, fruity wine and VERY cheap (like $6).

Gran Peromato (one of the Fariña wines): Vino Tinto Reserva '95 from Zamora. A decent red.

Tinto Zamora (another Fariña wine): Vino tinto '96 from Zamora. A TERRIBLE wine! YECH! Hated it! Cheap and not even worth what I paid.

[I'm not an expert in wine but they say "Cermeño" from Toro (Zamora) is good. Note that there are bad wine in every region. It depends on how much you spend]

Gran Casa Barco: Vino de la mesa red, aged days from all over Spain. Decent table wine and very cheap - about $7.

I know. I know. You're all asking. "Where are all the Riojas???? Well, I drink them a little less often and haven't saved the bottles as I have with others. Plus, I generally take the Riojas to people's houses to which I have been invited for dinner and the bottle gets left there.

MadridMan LOVES wines from Spain!!!! I can't wait to return and drink it EVERYDAY (hic!).

Saludos, MadridMan

[This message has been edited by Antonio (edited 05-21-2000).]

Thanks for the recommendations. A couple of my recent favorites are:

Tinto Pesquera from Bodegas Alejandro Fernandez S.L.

Condado de Haza from Condado de Haza S.L.

Teofilo Reyes Tinto Cosecha, from Bodegas Reyes S.L.

They all come from the Ribera del Duero region, and all are a little pricey (around $30) but good. I hope to visit a couple of these bodegas when I am there next month.

I don't know for sure, but if it were me I would try to contact the Bodega in Soltillo de la Ribera as soon as I got in the region. I have a 'poster:' Vinos Nobles de la Ribera del Duero and it has a photo of the Bodega in Soltillo ('bodega tipica'). There's also a 'Bodega Experimental' in Pedrosa de Duero. I imagine all the wine producers in the region use it in one way or other.

¡[censored]! ¡Vinos!

i agree with you gentlemen about your passion for spanish wines! but i have to argue the point that the wine world makes regarding Ribeira del Duero having the best wines of Spain... they are good wines, i understand by having tried many of them, but hear me on this:

of course the region around Cataluña and Navarra has excellent wines, but there is very little information out there regarding the most productive wine region of Spain: La Mancha. La Mancha, meaning "stain," refers entirely to this region's fame in the golden age for its wines and the shape of a wine splatter that La Mancha has if you look at a map.

Until recently, even the tiny pueblo of Valdepeñas had as many as 100 bodegas, featuring La Mancha's own Macabeo, Airén, and Céncibel grapes, which are all cousins to Bordeaux(macabeo), Bordeaux(airén), and Champagne(céncibel). my favorite is one from my friend's family vinyard, Zaurdón, of the Vitinícola de España cooperative. it is a rich and deep red wine with a sugary bite that reminds you of the dry landscape of La Mancha, aged for 2 seasons, i think. it is as good as any Ribeira del Duero for 1/4 the price. another good one is Señorio de Guadianeja of Manzanares. Nuestro Padre Jesús del Perdón, a coop of Manzanares has many good ones to like Lazarillo and Yuntero. They also have, by the way, spain's first organic wine, but i don't remember the title of that wine.

but my favorite bodega, 3 or 4 years gone, but bearing my family name, is Bodegas Luís Megía of Valdepeñas. what a nice collection of wines that was! if you can find the bottles they are worth money (I will buy them!!).

In Madrid there is the best wine shop between metro stops Lavapiés and Atocha past
Reína Sofía museum tucked away in the neighborhood. it has wines for very cheap from all parts of spain, and has the best collection i have seen of La Mancha wines. it has been a long time since i have gone to it because now i live in Los Angeles (i'm from spanish family, but i'm american).

anywho, that is my tidbit on wines!!

¡VIVA ESPAÑA!

whoops! i meant to add that as far as tours go, i do not know much about the valladolid/ribeira del duero areas... but as far as La Mancha, most bodegas will set up a tour a week to a couple of days in advance. i know that the bodega Felix Sólis of Valdepeñas will offers daily tours in
English and in Spanish, as well as maybe french... but call ahead to make sure.

¡bon apetít!

[This message has been edited by real_megia (edited 06-08-2000).]

[This message has been edited by real_megia (edited 06-08-2000).]

[This message has been edited by real_megia (edited 06-10-2000).]

Eddie, thanks for the tip about Sotillo de la Ribera; I'll check it out when I get there, which is now only a couple of days away.

Real_megia, thanks for your comments also. (Do you happen to remember the name of the wine shop near Reina Sofia? I looked at a map, and I am afraid I could get lost looking for it.) By the way, I do agree that there are many other fine wines to come out of Spain; I have been concentrating on Ribera del Duero recently because I will be there next week, and was hoping to be able to take a few tours and do some tasting. As a veteran of many trips to Napa and Sonoma, I was hoping to do the same thing in Spain.

Things are not so promising, however. Getting the list of wineries in the Ribera del Duero region was easy. I sent mail to info@do-ribera-duero.es and within a couple of days they sent a complete list of all registered wineries in the region. They were very gracious (in Spanish).

I then sent off faxes to a half dozen or so wineries (most don't have email). So far, nearly all have ignored my faxes (in broken Spanish), except for Bodegas Penalba Lopez, who was quick to respond in good English. They offer a 1.5 hour tour and a tasting for 1.000 pesetas per person, which seems like a reasonable deal to me. They also have a luxury hotel nearby which they own. Bodegas Theofilo Reyes turned me down, and Bodegas Alejandro Fernandez only offers a .5 hour tour, Spanish only, no tastings.

I hope when I get there next week that my B&B host will be able to point me to bodegas that are interested in tourists; otherwise my tasting tour of Ribera del Duero will be rather short...

el viejo,

good luck on your tour! it sounds like a
lot of fun... unfortunately, i think that
the wineries here in california are more receptive to tourists than the majority of bodegas in Spain...

i know that in la mancha many of bodegas are not even open each day of the week, and when they are open they might have only one or two people around doing work (family owned). so i think that consequently they are not as disposed to public viewing as the big bodegas would be (like Felix Sólis of
valdepeñas)

don't be put off by lack of response because the truth is that many spaniards do not even speak a word of english, and it could be that a smaller bodega simply does not have a "marketing" department to field faxes and tourist requests. instead, when you get to the ribeira area, look in a phone book and call them and they may recieve you more graciously because you are there. and also the truth is that the smaller bodegas have a more traditional method than the larger ones, so in my opinion they are more interesting to see... but that's only my opinion!

i wish you the best of luck and i am SURE you will enjoy what you are able to see!

¡VIVA ESPAÑA!

ps> i do not remember the name of the street where the wineshop is. but it is the street at the intersection of where atocha station is. stand there and face atocha and to your right will be "el bar brillante." turn around and walk past the entrance to metro atocha, and around the corner keeping to the left. walk straight up this street and the shop will be on your left. I hope i got it right!! the wine is cheap and they
have an EXCELLENT selection!

real_megia,

I appreciate the additional tips, and will make some local calls when I get there. Perhaps the B&B owner can help out also.

I'll also let you know if I find the wineshop. Your directions look pretty good!