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For the last ten years I have been working on a walking tour that would put together the most beautiful part of Madrid, my favorite restaurants and the "not to be missed" foods & wines of the country. This adventure has resulted in a walking tour of Madrid's oldest neighborhood: The Madrid of the Hapsburgs - El Madrid de los Austrias. In small groups, we visit three restaurants to taste their specialties paired with RARE WINES EXCLUSIVE TO THE TOUR. Well, if this is the sort of evening you would enjoy, write to me at: info@walksofspain.com What are those "not be missed" items that the tour includes? They are: 1) Top-notch red wines: Most are put on the market years (sometimes decades) before their peak. I, however, get red wines from collectors who have cellar-aged them for years. That is why we have recently tasted jewels like: San Román 2000, Finca Terrerazo 2000, Sierra Cantabria Colección Privada 1998 and Raimat Vallcorba Reserva 1994 If you check with Madrid's largest wine shop: http://www.lavinia.es, you will see that the market ran out of those vintages many years ago. 2) Paella: This representative dish takes 30-40 minutes to prepare. If you order it at a restaurant you will either have to wait all that time or put up with a microwaved version. I time the tour so that we can try the real thing at the third eating stop. 3) Pale Sherries: These are the only biologically-aged wines in the world and therefore, unique to Spain. They, unfortunately, are brutally filtered so that they can last longer in the bottle, which compromises their otherwise fine quality. We will try that 0.0001% that is bottled with its soul intact, namely, "en rama" (unfiltered). 4) Jamón Ibérico de bellota (Acorn-fed ham): Is the best cured ham in the world. It is unique to Spain and Portugal. But only 4% of it is of the highest possible quality due to the costs involved. The Acorn-fed ham you will eat on the tour ranges from very good to that sublime 4%. 5) Cava (Spanish Champagne): This wine has managed to become an inexpensive and inferior alternative to French Champagne. Four large companies produce most it. But there is also a cottage industry vying to produce Cava as good as French Champagne. We will try my favorite, which has a deep golden color, aromas of roasted apples and honey, very small bubbles and a pleasant aftertaste unheard of in other Cava, the result of more than 60 months of aging (the average is 9 months). 6) Whole grape fermentation wine: The aromas of strawberry chewing gum, violets and pears are unique to this wine, product of the oldest wine-making technique, which many trace back to the Egyptians. It was predominant till the XIX century. This technique is still popular in Spain but the wines are not exported due to their sort life. Another wine you must taste. 7) Pedro Ximenez: It sometimes baffles me how people visiting Spain taste so little of the country. What Sauterns is to France or Tokaji to Hungary, Pedro Ximenez is to Spain. Still, who has tasted it? No one. Well, people joining the tour will. 8) As for The Madrid of the Hapsburgs, an image is worth a thousand words: photo 1, photo 2, photo 3 9) The guide is a member of the Spanish Wine Tasting Association. He tastes 400 wines every year. The best ones you will also taste on the tour. 10) The people who join the tour, that is, people with an interest in fine foods & wines, are pretty fine themselves. They have above average sensitivities, minds and manners, which makes them great company for a night out. Every time I visit a new city I feel overwhelmed by the number of
neighborhoods and restaurants, not to mention the country's army of
different wines and dishes. I always try to find a local with a passion
for their city and the foods&wines of their country, to show me the
"not to be missed". I never find them. All I get are
big corporations like Viator that offer vague food&wine tours that
I find expensive and lacking. . |