Wine tasting – Zamora and Toro

OK, this is it. I mission is to get straight out there and taste some of the local wines. Zamora and Toro are both towns that lie North of Salamanca, on the Río Duero, about an hour from Salamanca. They also both have Demoninación de Origen status for their wines. On the basis that I can only visit one city at a time, I decide to see Zamora as the reputedly more attractive place despite the fact that Toro is more renowned for its wines. Step in my trusty PeñinGuide to Spanish Wine to help me seek out the best of the wines there. I even manage to enlist some friends from school to come with me on a wine hunting expedition.

The landscape between Salamanca and Zamora certainly approaches desolate countryside. It is dry, high up on the Castilian plateau and very rocky, seemingly extending in every direction. It is perfect wine growing country and achieves the gutsy reds that Zamora and Toro are known for. Zamora itself does not promise much until you are right in the centre of it. But it is here that it reveals its true self – surrounded by thick medieval walls from its ancient position as a defensive post, the old town spreads along a ridge which ends in an impressive cathedral and castle and abruptly drops back down to the Río Duero. We arrive just as siesta is about to begin and the streets are full of people meandering in the warm October sunshine.

The cafes and restaurants are beginning to fill up and we decide to go for some restorative tapas before checking out the sites properly. Tapas here (as elsewhere) is a particularly meat dominated affair, with all types of cuts in a marinade of rich tomato sauces, albondigas (meatballs), potatoes with spicy sauce – the list goes on. Delicious - as shown by my fellow wine-hunter’s photo!

After tapas, the streets are well deserted, and the shops shut up. Down a steep narrow street leading to the base of the ridge, one old lady has even put her cheeping birds out to enjoy their siesta in the sunshine. This is the perfect time to wander around the old narrow streets and Zamora’s numerous beautifully engraved Romanesque churches. All of the significant buildings seem to be topped with over-sized storks’ nests, big enough to make you think that storks really do deliver babies!

Another great pleasure to be had in Zamora is in the bodegas. The bodegas in Zamora act as wine tasting shops, allowing you to try a number of different wines from different producers. The bodegas are found throughout the old town and are well stocked with wines from both Zamora and Toro. The best wines here are red (although there are whites too), usually made from Tempranillo and its related grapes (Tinta de Toro in wines from Toro). They are intense in both colour and character, and , particularly with a bit of oak ageing, show dark fruits, savory notes and high alcohol levels. In fact, the character of the wines seem to reflect the unforgiving landscape and extreme heat of this vast rocky area.

In the end, I was too hungover from the previous evening to try any of the wines on offer in Zamora, except a small glass of vino de mesa. It was meaty and more than a little dusty. Where is a spacious disabled toilet when you need one? Needless to say, I bought lots of decent examples to try at home.