I would like to visit some vineyards around Madrid in April. Has anyone visited vineyards in Spain? Appointments needed? Purchase expectations, one or more bottles?
General info of any kind appreciated?

There's a fabulous website dedicated to Spanish wine. They provide links to different wineries. You might be able to find what you are looking for here: www.elvino.com

Hey -- I am leaving TOMORROW on a trip to Two of Spain's most famous wine regions: Ribera del Duero & Rioja. Both are north of Madrid -- Ribera is closer, about 100 miles away.

Anyhow, I though I'd share some of my recent research on the topic... First of all, Spanish wineries as a whole don't share the same view on wine tasting as their Napa & Sonoma valley counterparts. In Spain, much like in Italy, many of the bodegas are family-run, and they take great pride and satisfaction in making their wines. They regard themselves as artisans and for this reason they de-emphasize the flashy marketing strategies that many of the American wineries use (e.g., tour the beautiful proprety, drink free wine, live the lifestyle, etc.). As such, most winery tours in Spain must be arranged in advance. Furthermore, winery "tours" are intended to be just that -- a tour of the facility so that the guest can observe the process of making their wine. Tasting their products is a nice bonus, but not necessarily a given!

I found the following websites to be helpful:
http://www.elmundovino.com (in Spanish) http://vino.eunet.es/vino/ (in English)

On both sites, you can find lists of wineries for each region, as well as their contact numbers, addresses, website links, etc. ** Note that phone & fax are the most effective means of arranging visits -- e-mail isn't too common yet, although some bodegas do have it.

In Rioja, Spain's most well-known wine area, they are a bit more commercialized and offer a touring and tasting experience geared toward the tourists. Head for the city of Haro which is the center of the wine trade in Rioja.

So, in summary, touring the Spanish bodegas can be a great experience if you plan ahead and know what to expect. And, it really helps if you can speak some Spanish, too!

I will post a full report when I return. Feel free to send me an email if you have specific questions.

--Rob

rkennedy17, PLEASE(!) follow-up this thread upon returning for your firsthand experiences!! This sounds like something MANY people would like to do. Thanks!!

I popped in for a quick visit to the Torres bodega/winery south of Barcelona earlier this spring. Other than it being a not-so-exciting time of year to visit (ie, not harvest time, no grapes even growing yet!), the tour was pretty interesting. They showed us a movie, drove us around on a tour, let us wander through the storage cellars and then we got to taste 4 wines at the end (too bad I'm pregnant! I did have a sip of each though).

A few years ago my friends and I went to the Feira Do Viño Do Rosal in Rosal, Galicia. There were venders there from all over Galicia and it was tasting heaven. We struck up conversations with each, tried the wine, bought many bottles and ended up drinking a few there too. They had seafood, pastries, and wine for sale. We enjoyed ourselves immensely (a bit too much I think) and it was nice to get to try so many wines from the region. It was the 26-30 March so if anyone's in the area, it may be going on as we speak. It's an annual event so keep it in mind for next year if your travel plans include Galicia.

Two years ago when my parents went with us to Spain, we headed toward Barcelona...We visited the winery owned by Moet Chandon that makes Cava. My mother works for Chandon in Napa and called the winery in Spain and they provided us with a private tour...The tour was so interesting and our host was very gracious...They said that they don't usually give tours but the Cordiniu/Frexinet companies do...Cava and Methode Champanoise(sp?) of making wine is quite different from traditional wine making, it is very interesting if you can make it to one of those wineries to see another side of winemaking.

Well, we're back from Spain! 8 wonderful days of sipping red wine, having dinner at 11PM, and speaking very little English certainly does the body good...

Anyhow, one of the major themes of our trip was to visit Ribera del Duero and Rioja, as I indicated in my earlier post in this thread. We visited 3 bodegas: Cillar de Silos, Bodegas Mauro, and La Rioja Alta. The first two are located in Ribera del Duero (south of Burgos and east of Valladolid). At each of these places, we had a great experience due in part to having a "friend-of-a-friend" inside connection that we shamelessly used to get "VIP-type" treatment.

At Cillar de Silos, we arranged for a Saturday meeting when the bodega was otherwise closed. The vineyard manager met us and gave us a tour (in Spanish) of the grounds including their caves where they age the reservas -- very interesting indeed. We tasted 4 wines, including 2 not-yet-released wines straight from the barrels! The winery is located in Quintana del Pidio, about 10 minutes from Aranda de Duero, which is a town of approximately 300 people, 95% of whom are in the wine trade.

Then, last Monday, we visited one of my personal favorites: Bodegas Mauro, located in Tudela de Duero. The town was slightly larger, yet it still had a very wine-focused culture. The bodega is located in a restored 17th century house, that had an underground cave as well. Our guide, whose name was Mauro incidentally, said that back in the old days many of the inhabitants of the town made their own wine and stored it in their underground cellars. And, the taxes they owed would vary based on the quality of wine each person produced!! Sounds like a good incentive to me... Here, we sampled 3 wines -- again, straight from the barrel! Their total production is about 100,000 bottles per year -- very small by most standards (the big Napa producers like Mondavi probably spill that much each year!) & their product is very good.

Then, on Thursday, we visited La Rioja Alta which is a much larger winery located in Haro. Again, we had a private tour (in Spanish -- they probably speak English here too, although I didn't ask) and we tasted 2 wines at the conclusion: the Arana and the Baron de Ona, both of which are excellent (not to mention cheaper and easier to find in the EEUU).

Haro is a great place to purchase wine -- there are many great wine shops located within a block or two of the main square. Rare wines as well as older vintages can be easily acquired. Also, el Corte Ingles in Madrid has a surprisingly good selection of wines & the prices were competitive. The one at Plaza de Callao has a supermarket with a gourmet section stocked with wine (they even had Mauro! -- although their inventory has gone down slightly due to my visit and a strong dollar!).

On the return flight, my wife and I had 17 (not a typo) bottles of vino in our CARRY ON bags...

Of course, we listed the wine on the customs form and amazingly we were not required to pay anything! They are so preoccupied with foot & mouth disease, I suppose they could care less about collecting a couple of bucks worth of taxes!

So, feel free to e-mail me if you have questions or are considering a visit to the areas mentioned above.

Saludos,
Rob

Nevado:
Thanks for the info on the Rosal wine feira. It's too late this year, but maybe in 2002.. On a 1999 trip to Galicia (for Santiago) We were lucky enough to have a wine merchant on the Talgo with us. He taught us much about the wines of the Minho valley as we travelled from Ourense to Tuy - first there's Ribeiro, then Albariño and finally the best and most expensive: Rosal. My wife's first cousin (primo hermano) has a home in Rosal, but we usually stay in Vigo when we visit Pontevedra. The last time we were there he was going to go to a neighbor's to get us a few bottles of Rosal to take home with us but it was raining very heavy (it rains a lot in Galicia). The next time we will probably stay with her cousin or in LaGuardia and we will schedule it for the end of March. We may even have to spend a month there - we also would like to be in Pontevedra for the Gaita competitions (in late April?)
BTW
I have two 750ml bottles of Rosal (Quinta de Couselo '97 - from a Cisturcian Monastery in the Valley - by Monks) that I have been saving for a special occasion. Maybe that's today!
P.S.
Rosal is a very small wine producing area in Pontevedra. Don't expect to find vino de Rosal or even Albariño at the duty free shops at the airport or even at most wine shops in Madrid or Barcelona. Some say that these wines don't travel well - or could it be that the people of Pontevedra want to keep these excellent wines for themselves?

[ 04-15-2001: Message edited by: Eddie ]

Eddie, I'll be right over!