Wineries visit - Valdepenas area?
 

Planning to stay 2 nights in Almagro + 3 nights in Jaen. I like the Rioja (Reserva) and the Ribera d. Duero fuller bodied types; never tasted anything from further south. Are there any recommended wineries which can be visited during that period?

Eli if you mean the area down in La Mancha then I'm sorry you are in for a dissapointment. You will either find worn out wineries making La Pais grape based wine or a few large flat industrialised wineries for which you need the local web sites. Now if you said Barcelona you could have gone to Torres

Eli,
I'm here to tell you that the wine scene in the D.O. Castilla-La Mancha has changed enormously, and the region is producing some very good wines!

Go to www.enoturismocastillalamancha.com and click on bodegas, then choose Ciudad Real on the map.

You'll see 5 wineries in this province that are open to visits, part of this new wine tourism venture by Divinum Vitae. A friend in the Spain travel business was just invited on a fam tour by the Castilla-La Mancha gov't to tour some of these bodegas, he came back impressed and recommended the following wineries to me:

Since you'll have 2 nights in Almagro, I suggest certainly that you visit the ultra modern Pago del Vicario winery just northwest of Ciudad Real on the road to Porzuna. This is a very nice complex, complete with 4 star hotel and restaurant. They give a one hour tour at noon (with prior reservation), ending with a tasting of 1 or 3 wines (for €6 or €10).

www.pagodelvicario.com

Also part of the Divinium Vitae enoturismo program is the Dionisios winery in Valdepeñas which also has a restaurant. They're open for visits Mon.-Fri. from 9-2 and 4-7.

www.labodegadelasestrellas.com

There are several bodegas as well in the Toledo province that belong to this new initiative, such as the Marqués de Griñón, about 43 km. west of the city of Toledo, in Malpica de Tajo, if you happen to be headed in that direction later on.
Or just outside the city of Toledo, there's the Viñedos Cigarral Santa María, part of the Adolfo group.

www.grupoadolfo.com/cigarral/

Maribel, thanks a million! I've always been a passive reader of your reviews for a long time.
Wondering now if we'll have any time left for some art and architecure during these 5 days ;-)