Every few months, Culinary Director Adam and Wine & Spirits Director Gretchen lead a handful of Barcelona’s managers and chefs on a whirlwind trip to Spain. The point of the trip is to experience first-hand the food, drinks and dining culture of Spain. Stamford’s General Manager, Stephen Penwell, tells us about a special winery and their time in Madrid:
We started our day off by departing Chinchón. We had about an hour and a half drive to Finca Los Alijares Winery. Just like the drive the day before, we really started to get into the desert feel of Spain due to the fact there wasn’t much to look at on the drive. Greg, Gretchen and I had a wonderful time bonding over life stories. This, along with all the food, wine and culture is the one part of the trip I would never give up. It’s amazing how you get to know people on another level after driving over eight hours with them. I’m calling this leg of the trip the “Sing-along Drive”, as the three of us have great taste in music (insert laugh here).
Graciano grapes on the vine
Out in the vineyard.
After a couple wrong turns here and there, we barely found the winery due to the fact there were no signs or logo. Just two large red buildings that looked like barns. Upon arrival, we were greeted by José Luís Pérez-Agudo, the winemaker/owner. José is a third generation of two of the most important winery families in the region. He has been achieving his goal of making top quality wines with organic grapes, made without artificial additives. After our meet and greet in the back of the Winery, we moved inside to the fermentation tanks. Here, we got to taste the wine right out of the tanks themselves.
For me, this was a real treat because I hadn’t done this at any other winery yet. One by one, we put our glass up to the spigot and got a small taste. First was the Moscatel, which was cloudy since it was in the middle of the fermentation process. The wine’s aromas had not fully developed yet, but it was still pretty tasty. Next we had the Viognier. This wine was almost done in the fermentation process and had wonderful white peach flavors.
Then we moved on to Syrah. With the skins still in the tank, and alcohol percentage at 14— this wine was right down my alley, and definitely my favorite of the tank wines tasted. Syrah number two tasted as if it had been picked last week and developed some pretty big tannins. Last but not least, we had the Graciano (pictured above). José talked a lot about this grape and growing it here. The grape is very small and the juice is also extremely dark, which we got to see first hand when we walked through the vineyard and ate grapes off the vines.
Since the Winery was organic, we also saw lots of rabbits everywhere we turned, which was something we had never seen before. At the Winery, José has 42 hectares and only uses 15% of his grapes for wine because he gets to pick the best of the best. The rest he sells.
We then went into the aging room with all the wooden barrels. In the room, there was a pallet of wine waiting to be shipped to Barcelona Atlanta, which was pretty cool. Before I knew it, it was time for lunch. We arrived at a small restaurant in the town of Fuensalida. We ate everything from brazed cheeks to croquettes. At the restaurant, you really felt at home. We all just told stories and had some great food.
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Adam and José Luís standing on top of a barrel (left), Luke with a pallet of wine headed to Atlanta (right).:
Next on the drive was Madrid. After going 45 minutes north we entered the huge city. What beautiful architecture Madrid has. After dropping everything off in the rooms, we walked the city, sat in the square and had some canas. We then regrouped at the hotel and walked to the Mercado De San Miguel. Mercado De San Miguel is a market that they turn into a huge restaurant space with vendors selling all different types of Spanish food at night.
Cheers on getting to Madrid (left), Crostini from Mercado San Miguel (right).:
We had a mix of crostinis with everything from salmon to dried tuna and large smoked anchovies. After getting a bottle of Cava and some canas we moved on to a tapas bar, where their specialty was tortillas. This was a very narrow restaurant with Yogi bear painted on the wall.
The Market turned restaurant at night
We then walked to the palace and took some pictures.
Palacio Real de Madrid
After that, we decided to explore Madrid nightlife. The scene was crazy—there were people everywhere and great music. It was a maze of bars and clubs before we ended up a Pacha (a very large club).
The popular Tupperware Bar
The next bar (left), Group photo, minus Luke…who went home early (right).:
We ended our night here and went back to the hotel.
Day 7 was a day of great wines and making friends for life. I couldn’t ask for a better day to blog about.