Wine Bus, visit wineries around Madrid without having to drive

Founded by Ignacio Segovia, Wine Bus takes groups of up to 20 people on day trips to wineries around Madrid every Saturday. And as its name entails, passengers are welcome to drink as much as they like, because someone else is driving.

Owner and passionate guide, Ignacio Segovia, or Nacho, fell into the wine business as “a way to reinvent himself”. He worked in marketing for many years, but started to write about wine on his website, Vende Vinos, in 2008. As he began visiting wineries around Madrid, he soon discovered the magic that was being kept secret. He got to know the men and women who ran the wineries, saw the land where the vineyards lay, and the surrounding towns that have been preserved in time. Ignacio knew that’s where he wanted to be. He’s been organizing tours to these wineries since 2011.

What makes Wine Bus special, according to Ignacio, are the stories that the winery owners tell. Ignacio has contacts with around 30 different wineries in Spain, enough so that Wine Bus can visit a different winery each Saturday. Even if Ignacio has visited some wineries on a number of occasions, he says that each time is different; each group of people is different, and the memories that the winery owners bring to life are always different. Ignacio says that he loves going on these tours so much that he doesn’t feel as though he’s working at all, and feels lucky that he’s been able to turn his passion into reality.

For the first time one week ago, I went to visit a winery with Wine Bus in a town called Adrada de Haza in Burgos. As soon as we piled into the bus, Ignacio was already explaining the ins and outs of the wine industry. An hour into the bus ride, Jesus Lazaro hopped on. Jesus is the owner of Bodegas Kirios de Adrada, the cellar he opened with his father in 2001.

Our first stop was the vineyard itself. Then we entered the winery. Then the main cellar. And then the other hidden cellar that used to be the town’s nightclub!

Finally, at 2pm, it was time to sit down, try some wines, and eat. We tasted three different wines: a rosé, white and red. My favorite was the red, but perhaps that’s because Ribera del Duero is my favorite wine hands down.

We munched on roasted red peppers and the best morcilla de burgos I’ve ever tasted (and the group of Spaniards I was with said the same).

All the while, Jesus went outside to make the chuletas (pork chops). He lit a pile of vines, and as it burnt down, he laid out the pork chops onto the grill. With the help of Ignacio, the pork chops cooked to perfection.

Ignacio, or Nacho as his friends call him, holding up a glass of Ribera while awaiting the pork chops

After we ate and had a few too many glass of wine, we hopped back on the bus and went to a nearby town called Aranda de Duero, which is very famous for its wine culture and history. There we visited the Ribera del Duero Museum where we had a guided tour through astonishing underground wine cellars and caves. Let’s just say that this town is chock full of wine history. Even the bar, La Casona de la Vid, has a treasure chest below it.

All in all, it was an awesome day organized by Wine Bus. Every Saturday they offer trips to different wineries around Madrid, so I highly recommend it, especially if you go with a group of friends!

Price:

The price for the entire trip was 59€ for the tour and trip, and 20€ for the meal!

Booking info & Discount with Naked Madrid

If you’d like to go on a tour with The Wine Bus, you will get a discount if you enter the promotional code “Naked”

You can book the tour through The Wine Bus’s website.