Old Town Madrid Gourmet Tapas and Wine Tasting Walking Tour

The evening begins in a 19th-century tavern sipping on the aperitif of the city, “vermut de grifo”, which we will pair with olives and a traditional Madrid tapa: “Soldaditos de Pavía“.

Next, I’ll whisk you off to my favorite ham bar to taste Spain’s finest food: “Jamón Ibérico de bellota“, which we will pair with Victoria 2, best Spanish white wine (Gourmets Wine Guide). The wine has intense melon aromas and flavors that compliment the ham to perfection. We will also taste other iberico cold cuts like chorizo, lomo and salchicon.

Next comes the famous Spanish omelette. A dish hard to pair due to one ingredient: onion, which is a well-known wine killer. Luckily, Manzanilla, that is, the most original Spanish wine, pairs onion to perfection. We will taste my favorite: Manzanilla Solear Pasada en Rama (International Wine Challenge 2013: Gold Medal).

It is now time to go deeper into Old Madrid through its narrow cobblestone streets and make our way to a restaurant housed inside an 18th-century mansion!

We will sit down to taste Presa Iberica, Spain’s favorite cut of Ibérico pork, which accounts for a mere five pounds of the pig’s weight, hence the price of forty dollars a pound.

Now is perfect time to begin with the reds. We will start with the best wine in Spain (Wine Spectator), Rioja Viña Ardanza. Depending on group size I will open more premium red wines from the most exciting Spanish wine regions: Rioja, Priorato, Ribera del Duero and Toro.

To round off the night we will taste two unforgettable dessert wines:
• 25-year-old PX La Cañada, chosen many times the best sweet Spanish wine (Gourmets Guide). The wine will perform a miracle by turning vanilla ice cream into rum & raisins ice cream with a caramel note and a toffee finish.
• Alvear PX de Añada, one of the very few Spanish wines to achieve the highest honor in the world of wine: Robert Parker 100 points.

What we will have this wine with is so surprising that I ‘d rather keep it secret.