I’ve had to move to the US for personal reasons and for now our Madrid adventure is over.  So Planeta Vino will not be offering any wine classes for the foreseeable future.  I will, however, continue to update my blog on Spanish wines and especially my favorite Madrid wine places list.

Please see below for my list of suggestions if you are in the Madrid area.  PLease feel free to contact me at info@planetavino.net

Favorite Madrid Wine Places

I feel your pain!  There are really no wine tasting opportunities in English in Madrid (actually not many in Spanish either!).  Here are my top picks for wine lovers visiting Madrid:

1.  Casa Lucas at Cava Baja 30, near Plaza Mayor.  My favorite wine bar in Madrid.  Not only because the wine selection by the glass is excellent and the tapas outstanding, but especially because the service and the welcome is unfailingly warm and inviting.  These guys are awesome!  My favorite tapas are the Cariñena tosta, the Arroz cremoso, the carpaccio de pulpo and canelonis de curry….really unique and delicious food…but really anything on the menu is amazing.  I tend to order wine by the bottle and they always have new and great recommendations…but by the glass is great too.  Go early, they open at 8PM,  to get a seat if want to order food.  (Make sure you don’t confuse them with the famous Casa Lucio across the street…very pricey…definitely not my favorite!)  Generally Cava Baja, the street Casa Luca is on, is great for tapas places, but it’s still pretty dead early at 8PM…peak time is between 9 and midnight!

2.  Taberneros at Calle Santiago 9, near Plaza Mayor:  Excellent wines and excellent tapas in a gorgeous setting, though the service is never what it is in Casa Lucas.  It has remained one of my favorites over the years…love the cecina, the scallops, the potatoes and eggs with truffles and many more.  Great selection of dessert wines by the glass…very hard to come by in Madrid. One of my favorite Spanish dessert wines by the glass, a botrytis Chardonnay, Caligo, is usually available by the glass here.

3.  Mercado de San Miguel, also right by Plaza Mayor:  Really beautiful renovation of a historic market into a market/tapas place and one of the most popular places in Madrid! One of my current favorites…I almost always seem to end up here these days!   It is not perfect, can be overcrowded, and sometimes it can be closed for private events, but Pinkleton, the wine bar in the Mercado has some of the best wines in Madrid.  I love to go there with my friends…we usually order by the bottle, but the by-the-glass selection is excellent.  These guys know their stuff and can recommend a great bottle of wine for a good price…almost always have an English-speaking staff member.  Last time we didn’t spend more than 20€ a bottle.  If you like the bottle you can even buy one at a reduced price to go.  Grab a table and go around the market and get a few tapas to go with your wine.  The cheese stand is outstanding as is the olive stand.  My personal favorites are the Sorlut oysters at the oyster stand.  A new favorite in December was the fried fish stand where you can get fantastic fresh, crispy fried fish and seafood in the Andaluz style.  Lots of choices at different price ranges. Open till very late.   Love it…a great addition to central Madrid!

4.  El Corte Ingles Gastronomic Space:  A new space in the basement of the Corte Ingles Goya (metro Goya)…the Corte Ingles department store chain is the ultimate shopping destination in general in Madrid.  Great selection of wines and gourmet food to sample and you can buy it all to go!  My favorite stand is the oyster stand/wine bar….you can sit, order some top Spanish wines or Champagne by the glass and get Sorlut oysters, or order some smoked fish from the stand across the way to enjoy with your wine, or some jamon and cheese. They even have a corkage concept…you can get a bottle from the wine section and for 3 euros over retail price they will open it for you to enjoy with your tapas.  Open 7 days a week…only limitation is that it closes at 10PM with the store…and it is in a department store basement!  No tipping on the bills allowed per Corte Ingles regulation.  Only crowded on the weekends, but nowhere approaching Mercado de San Miguel crowds yet! You can do your shopping and then sample great wine afterwards!

5.  A new favorite is the Cheese Bar from the folks at Poncelet, one of my favorite cheese stores.  Beautiful space, amazing selection of artisanal cheese and wines.  Not super cheap but worth every penny.  Spectacular!  Also a bit off the beaten tourist track up on Calle Abascal, 61.  http://www.ponceletcheesebar.es/

5.  The wine store Lavinia at Calle Ortega y Gasset 16.  On the golden mile luxury shopping area near Corte Ingles Serrano.  It a modern, beautiful store, pretty pricy, but with a lovely restaurant and bar upstairs.  You can get a bottle in the store and drink it at store price upstairs.  Also there are autoservice Enomatic wine dispensers to try some really great Spanish wines.  You get a card at the register and charge it with some money and then you can help yourself to some tasting pours of some top wines…lots of fun and unique in Madrid!  Usually someone on staff speaks English…

6.  Taberna La Cruzada:  C/ Amnistía, 8.  Near Plaza de Oriente and Opera.  Only had a little of their food, but what i’ve had has been nice.  The big draw here is the wine!  The wine selection by the glass is spectacular…some of the top, most pricy wines in Spain by the glass….a unique opportunity.