Beautiful Countryside, Great Wine & New Friends

We spent the day today driving around several little town near Madrid stopping at a few wineries, a couple villages and even an old abandoned castle. Jaime picked us up in the morning and we began our wine tasting tour at a small family run winery that has been in the same family for centuries. The most exciting part was being able to go waaaaay down into the hand carved caves below where they age their wine. Next we drove to another village and viseted and even smaller winery where the owner still processes the wine in century old giant clay pots. These are no longer made (last ones were made almost 100 years ago) and when they break they are irreplacable. She carefully cares for and produces the wine as it used to be done by her father and grandfather and even farther back. We also tasted some wonderful olive oil there. After that we stop at a typical small restaurant and had a delicious meal of croquetas, sopa, lomo & ternera accompanies by delicious warm pan and patatas. We finished it off with hojaldras con crema for dessert.

The last place we went to was the best. We met the owner of the winery Carlos (who looked incredibly like Anthony Hopkins!). He has a great love and passion for the wine making process and loves to share it. He took us to his lab and explained all the intricacies of the winemaking process. Then we walked across the street and enjoyed a wonderful tasting served to us by his wife. Here's to great wine and making new friends!

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