On Thurs night we decided to book a tour through the hostel to go wine tasting. We wanted to go ourselves but then decided against it because we thought it might not be quite the same as it was in Australia, plus there would be the small language issue!

On Fri morning at 9am we were picked up in a small mini-bus. There were about 15 of us in the group but everyone was of different ages and nationalities. The only other English person was a cockney bloke, probably in about his 40´s who was...well...a typical cockney!! The first winery we were taken to was very large and i can´t remember the name! We were shown more about the storage of the wines than how it is made, and then we got to try a few samples. We were then shown to the factory were all of the wine is bottled and labelled, machines did most of this and then it was onto the shop. We didn´t buy anything from here because you can get most of it in England, it was nice though because we weren´t pressured into buying anything.

Th next winery was alot smaller than the first and called Viña el Cerno. This was not at all like a factory and most of the bottling and labelling was done by hand. Again we were given a few samples, the guy was alot more generous and just let us have more wine if we wanted it! We were told how to taste the wine properly, sniffing it first then swirling and all of that but to be honest, it always tastes and smells the same to me!! We bought a few bottles from here because they don´t export as much so i doubt you can get this stuff in England.

The next stop was a liquer factory where we were told how the liquer is made. Apparently some part of the liquer is so strong that it can´t be used for consumption and goes into making paint and solvents...! We tried a few liquers, some which were ridicuosly strong, and bought a nice orange liquer for about 3 pounds!

By the time we had visited these three places it was nearly 2pm and time for lunch. This was included in the tour price and we were taken to a really pretty winery which belonged to the same company as the first. We had a little room all to ourselves and the table had already been laid. It was amazing, like a feast! We all began to eat until we were pretty full then our guide said that this was only starters! The chefs brought out pastries and sausages then spagetti bol and then we had dessert. We also had unlimited wine, everytime our glasses became empty the waiters would be there filling it up! After we had finished eating and drinking we all piled back into the mini bus feeling 5 stone heavier and were dropped back off at our hostels. We´d had a really good day and it had definately been worth the money.