I’m taking my Mom to Madrid and Barcelona this summer for her 70th birthday. One thing she’s requested to do is a winery tour and wine tasting. I’ve seen many tour options and have read many reviews. It’s overwhelming trying to decide. I’d like to ask here if anyone has done a tour from Madrid they’d recommend or really enjoyed? 1/2 day or full day with stop in Toledo? Other choices?
I would really appreciate any recommendations. I’m hoping to make this a special birthday celebration.
To be frank, the Madrid region is not the best place for winery tour/wine tasting, La Mancha (DO) is more quantity and less quality kind of stuff. I'll make two suggestions instead:
In the middle of the highspeed trainline from Madrid to Barcelona is the city of Zaragoza, a true hidden gem with much history. Just south of Zaragoza is the Calatayud (DO) wine region and westwards is Rioja (DOC) wine region. Why not spend a few nights in Zaragoza and day trip out to these better wine regions?
Or you could just do your winery tour out of Barcelona instead, nearby Priorat (DOQ) wine region is very highly regarded and has much more quality.
Link to an article that further explains what Carlos mentioned.
Thanks for the link. I’m not a big wine fan, so all info is welcome!
A tangential suggestion: In a land of drinkable cheap wine in grocery stores, the curated selection of good wine shops is vastly superior while barely more expensive. These guys are a well-regared shop in Madrid, just a few minutes from Sol or Plaza Mayor. They do at least two wine tastings a day, starting at 15euro. https://www.madriddarracott.com/en/wine-tastings/
(I want to do a vermuth tasting when I'm back there in July.
Thanks for the suggestion @Scudder! This looks like a good alternative. I appreciate it.
My husband and I did an amazing wine tour from Madrid with winetourismspain.com. It was a private tour, 3 wineries and had the best meal of our 2 week Spain vacation at one of the wineries. We still talk about the pork we ate! We also stopped in Segovia for about 1/2 an hour for coffee and to see the aqueduct. It was not cheap, but the quality and quantity of the wine and food as well as the amazing guide, was very worth the cost. It was a long day, I believe we were picked up at 7:30am, our tour guide recommended a bar for drinks and dropped us off there instead of our hotel upon returning to Madrid around 17:30. He also called a restaurant for us and made a reservation for lunch for the next day. Fantastic service. Have a wonderful trip.
@berries-Their website is great and looks like they’ve got good tours with excellent reviews. Do you remember the exact name of the tour you took?
