wine tasting in ribera del duero

Ashley and I decided to go wine tasting one saturday while she was here. The Ribera del Duero region  is a close competetor to Rioja region (which is the best region of spain for wine) after a day of collecting tips from my co-workers about which wineries and areas are the best, we reserved a rental car (first time!), planned our route and were super excited.

Luckily, i´m a freak, and made the car reservation for very early in the morning. like 8 am, or somethng ridiculous like that. I hadnt driven in 7 months (ashley in a year!) and of course the car was a stick so that eliminated ashley as driver, and luckily, i have had 2 cars that were stick, so i naturally, was driver. ashley was navigator which is good because i am awful at that. so the car rental was at atocha renfe which is RIGHT by the highway, and we had decent maps and directions prepared, but it still took us AN ENTIRE HOUR to get on the highway going the right direction because in spain, the signage is HORRID. they dont give you signs that tell you WHEN the exit is approaching, they give you signs that tell you ONCE YOUVE MISSED your exit...so thoughtful! or there will be a sign that marks the exit without any warning before hand so you have no time to switch lanes. then we got stuck in a tunnel for 10 minutes going the wrong way and apparently exiting a highway and just trying to take it in the opposite direction isnt so simple in spain, then throw in roundabouts and spanish drivers and ashley and shayan laughing and you have an interesting situation. we finally made it on the right highway going the right direction and were still half an hour late for our appointment at the first winery which was for noon. and ya, spain makes you make reservations for wine tasting at wineries...we were expecting the american method of dropping by, sampling wines outside with snacks to pick at...no, we arrived late and were almost not allowed to try the wine, but then the bartender said hed just let us try the wine, so we did, and it was really good! this winery was Arzuaga Navarro, and was my favorite, my favorite wine there was la planta.

throughout the day we visited other wineries but didnt try anymore wine. we went to a little village called aranda del duero where they are famous for their wine cellars. and we toured one, also we stumbled upon a mideival fair, that was neat.

eventually we made it to protos winery where we had a reservation for 6 pm, we had heard so much about this winery everyone recommended it. i was excited because i knew that the architecture was really beautiful. we arrived and were told that we had to go on a 2 hour tour before we could try anywine. it was getting late and we still had about a 2 hour drive home. we decided to skip the tour, and just buy a bottle of wine to enjoy back home in madrid. (which we took on our picnic in the park by my house, but didnt think was that great in the end)

the ride back was easy and we were really pleased with ourselves for having tackled the spanish roads, driving and navigating in a foreign country... so i'll end on this note:

"If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good." 
-Dr. Seuss

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