I've been meaning to try out wine-tasting for pretty much the past 6 years - but there's always been some 'valid' excuse not to (time, money, going teetotal for abit, no-one else wants to go etc). Don't get me wrong, a lot of wine has been tasted during my years in Madrid, but little attention has been paid to colour, to bouquets and to woody undertones...lol.. Well, the other day, one of the lovely girls at my yoga class suggested going for a lesson at the vinoteca she's been studying at and it was the most fun I'd had in ages! For the paltry sum of 10 Euros we had a lesson on the basics of wine tasting from the lovely Antonio, then got to taste one white and three reds - all the while excitedly jotting down notes on the forms he'd laid out for us. Contrary to what I'd been lead to believe about wine tasting - we swallowed everything and there was none of that spitting it out stuff that I'd seen on TV programmes. After the main technical tasting bit, the 8 of us were invited to polish off the 4 bottles which he accompanied with some great jamon ibérico, tuna salad, cured manchego cheese and the best preserved red peppers I've ever tried. Needless to say, by the end of it, we'd all made friends and were more than a little tipsy. In order to assist one of the tastings you have to either be a student at the school, or be invited by a student (as was our case) - but after having such a great afternoon I'm actually considering doing the beginners course which works out at 75 euros for 4 2 hour sessions - for anyone else who's interested you can check out their website - I know it all looks a bit basic, but it's because they're in the midst of moving premises and I can promise that the quality of the tuition and the wine was spot on :-)
P.s. It's right by metro Almendrales - no I'd never heard of the station either - but it's about 6 stops from Sol on the yellow line.
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9 comments:
Cool, thanks for sharing! I will have to check this out!
Metro Almendrales? Does it really exist?
Well, I hope you become an expert -and without spitting out-, you´ll have to teach us a bit, cause I don´t know a thing about this -not that we don´t drink wine, you know, but it´s not easy to distinguish..-.
Enjoy your half-holidays, with the jornada intensiva!
Kisses
Thank you! Spitting=waste so I don't like it :-))
You are more than welcome to come with me next time!
Besos
That sounds fantastic I´m definitely going to look into it!
Hey, so glad to have found your blog! I will be living in Salamanca, Spain, next fall teaching English. :=
Try it out Debs, I never imagined it would be so much fun!
Kalhendr, if you don't know it already, Salamanca is a gorgeous city, you're going to love it!
x
Umm, hi Nadya. I just found your blog. This post made me laugh because you are so well-written but have fallen victim to the "talking English as if it were Spanish" phenomenon that happens when you've lived too long in Madrid and your brain thinks in Spanish even when you're speaking in English. Let me guess: you dream in Spanish too, right?
You said "in order to ASSIST one of the tastings," which would make perfect sense in Spanish, but in English the word you need is ATTEND, because ASSIST means "help" (OK, I don't wish to sound patronising; you already KNEW that ASSIST means "help", as the English-speaking part of your brain will remember if you just give it a bit of a shake and a telling-off, haha!)
I understood what you meant because I'm bilingual, too, but your non-Spanish speaking readers won't so maybe you should change it!
It's not a criticism, just a friendly comment! I used to live in Madrid, too, and although I'm now back in the UK and my English has returned to normal, when I was in Spain I would catch myself saying such gems as "TAKE a decision" (instead of MAKE) and "a MARK of clothing" (instead of a BRAND) so I can identify with your funny Spanglish mistake! Hee hee!
Maybe this would make a good blog post for you - common Spanglish errors of so-called native English speakers who've lived too long in Madrid (or: how NOT to speak English).
Hi! It's funny you point that out, I was re-reading this post just yesterday and was like... er...'assist' that's not right, is it?! It's attend! After 8 years I make a whole load of other 'mistakes' too, especially with question tags - 'that's nice, no?' instead of 'that's nice, isn't it?' lol. Thanks for the feedback, I may well do that post you suggest!
BTW, I think take a decision is as correct as make a decision, no?(!)
OMG! Nadya I just saw this post and I am laughing so hard. I will have to send you a private message regarding this! It was so much fun this day! Spain won the world cup that evening as well! I see all is well in Spain wITh you David is here for a while so we are both happy and working hard! xxx..Paola
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