After several days of hard core history, today we pivoted to agriculture; namely olive oil and wine. This Viator tour came highly-rated and we joined 12 other persons on this tour to the countryside surrounding Madrid.

There are several wine regions in Spain, and most of them also produce olive oil. In fact, Spain is the largest producer of olive oil in the world. While Italy and Greece claim to be the largest, Spain produces more by almost 50%. Not even close. And they will tell you here that Spain, unlike the others, has the perfect weather conditions. Indeed, the olive oil we tasted was very good.

And so was the wine. We visited three establishments, each small, family-owned businesses, and we enjoyed each of them. Val Azul is a small winery on only 23 acres. They’re very proud of the fact that they use no pesticides or fertilizer, using only the pruned vines to supplement the soil.

Peral is a six generation winery that uses caves dug in the 1500s to store their wine. Clay pots were originally used, now they use oak barrels for the flavor. The current generation has actually patented a process they use to make a unique orange-colored wine which we enjoyed.

Finally, we visited Bodegas des Jesus, a 5th generation winery that operates from a former convent. Here, they still use clay pots from the 15th century. They make an award-winning sparkling wine and the proprietor demonstrated how to uncork using a knife.

Back in the city, we enjoyed a pizza made with Spanish sausage, honey, basil and walnuts. The dough was made with activated charcoal, giving it the black coloring. It was oddly delicious.

Tomorrow: Madrid