Taberneros is wine bar I used to visit often, but it somehow dropped off my tapas route.  Plaza Mayor in central Madrid…they have no website (!), but are on google maps.   We visited the other day with some friends and I was pleased to see that the basics were still in place:  great food and good wine.  Part of the reason I had stopped going there was because I felt the quality of the service and food had dropped off a little…the food impressed me anew but the service was still pretty indifferent.  Taberneros is worth a visit though because it offers unique tapas and wine.  It fits in style-wise in between the multitudinous traditional places and the “modern-elaborate” tapas places that have become trendy.  Taberneros puts sophisticated touches to classic Spanish cuisine but without losing that comforting comfort food taste.   We tried the cecina with olive oil and it was as good as ever:  tender cured beef presented as carpaccio with top quality olive oil, lemons, and sea salt.  Most cecina is tough and dry…this is perfect!  We had the creamy scallop gratin, soft tender vegetables topped with slices of scallop and béchamel…served on the shell.  Next up was the fried eggs and potato with shaved black truffle….a cholesterol fest, but so delicious.  The wine list is very complete, a bit pricy, but with some interesting inexpensive alternatives.  There is a smattering of foreign wines, but Spain is the focus.  The by-the-glass list is good and the best surprise is that there are 6 types of dessert wine by the glass.  The highlight of the night was my first taste of the botrytis wine Caligo.  The wine is from coastal vineyards close to Barcelona and is not included in any wine appellation.  This first vintage, 2005, is made from 100% Chardonnay, but there are plans to include Sauvignon Blanc and Albariño in future vintages. Botrytis is a rarity in Spain due to the climate and this is the first Spanish dessert wine with botrytis I have ever tasted.  Their website shows the unique mists in their vineyards that allow the noble rot to flourish.  Fascinating wine which I will revisit soon.  To sum it all up….Taberneros is a great stop on the upscale Madrid tapas route!

The second winery we visited is Descalzos Viejos, a traditional moniker literally meaning “old unshoed ones”, which was a common name for certain orders of monks.  The winery is housed in the church and grounds of the old monastery. The site was completely abandoned when 2 architects from Ronda acquired it and restored it.  The nave of the 500 year old chapel is a unique and charming setting for the winery’s fermentation room! 

In my classes, I always stress the huge gap that exists between Spanish red wines and white wines. For several years, I’ve been able to use a fun example to illustrate that point.  The most expensive red wine in Spain is Pingus from Ribera del Duero, which has a theoretical price of 600 euros, but in reality is seems to be much higher. Until recently. the most expensive still white wine in Spain was Chivite Coleccion 125 Barrel-fermented Chardonnay from Navarra at only about 50 euros!   I would venture to say no other country had such a disparity between the colors!