Penafiel, its castle, and Bodegas Protos are places we visit quite often during our visits to Ribera Del Duero.
Visiting and sleeping in Penafiel
When somebody goes to Penafiel, the first thinking is about visiting the “Museo del Vino” in the castle of Penafiel.
As you arrive at Penafiel you can see the Peñafiel castle, from several miles of distance. The view is great. The castle is over a mountain, perfectly maintained.
You have a moment when you think you have gone through the time machine the middle age. It is one of the nicest castles I have ever seen.
A good hotel in Penafiel
You can find very good accommodation at the “Hotel Convento de las Claras”. This hotel is a very good answer about where to stay in Ribera del Duero
If you go in the summer, you can enjoy a splendid swimming pool. If you go to Ribera del Duero in summer one of the things you can ask yourself is which one has a swimming pool.
The hotel has very nice rooms, an attractive swimming pool, a magnificent view of the castle and it is not very expensive. You have also a massage zone where you can relax after a hard day of walking and visiting.
What you are reading on this post could very well be in one of our Ribera del Duero Wine Tours
Dining in the most romantic restaurant in Ribera del Duero.
As we arrived to the hotel we asked for a restaurant for dinner. They recommended us the restaurante El Molino de Palacios.
The restaurant was not far from the hotel so we decided to go walking. I suppose that this restaurant can be very good for lunch. But what it is really cool is going to dinner.
The darkness and the river that both surround it, make the place something mysterious and charming. We need to go through a dark tunnel, with indirect lights. Then we arrived and we could see that the restaurant is made with taste, very special. The food and the service are also good.
The way back to the hotel was also very nice. We met a local band playing for the neighbors.
It was a wonderful evening.
I live in Pozuelo de Alarcón, quite closed to Madrid. When I have an evening like this one I wonder what the great town has to offer. I prefer 1000 times what Peñafiel offered me this evening.
In Bodegas Protos
I got up early on the following day just to go to Protos winery.
They received us in a small room. We were quite a big group, about 30 people. They projected a video in which we could see Protos History and how it has evolved over time. The guide was an attractive and professional woman.
The beginning of the visit comes walking through what was the ancient cellar. It’s in perfect condition to be used at this moment though it is hard to believe that these installations are still used because of the handling costs involved.
We visited the area of filling and fermenters. To move to the new area of barrels, there is a passage in which, by an original solution they have divided the wide corridor into a zone for pedestrians and a zone for Fenwick trucks.
I wonder how will traffic density when the winery is in full activity?
As a final surprise on the visit, there is a magnificent view of the new facilities, a shop setting with exquisite taste, and a superb lineup with Protos shown to be the best Red wine “crianza” in the world in 2006.
I think that is the best message Protos could send to us as a summary of our visit. Because the objective of letting people come to a winery is concreted on these concrete words: “The best of the world”
The winery is right at the foot of the mountain where the magnificent Penafiel castle stands.
The castle is impressive but so is its magnificent Ribera del Duero Wine Museum. You can visit the castle and you can visit its Wine Museum
Protos managers have very clear and bright ideas.
Ribera del Duero Wine Museum
After that visit, we went to see the Museo del Vino. Luisa Sanchez, from Bodegas Mento had arranged my visit to the Museum to be as pleasant as possible. It was a very charming and didactic visit to the Museum.
The Wine Museum is inside the Penafiel castle. this castle was built in the 10th century, and rebuilt by Infante Juan Manuel in the 14th century and also in the 15th century.
There you can learn a lot about wine culture. You learn in there some other way you may do in books or even in wineries or in vineyards. I could spend in there a much longer time than I did. I expect to go back the sooner the better. The last activity was a very special tasting.
Afterward, we went to a very special restaurant called Restaurante El Corralillo. The restaurant is a cave excavated on the ground with a powerful Castillian atmosphere. At this restaurant, I probably ate the best lamb I’ve ever taken.
I know that I have used this expression (the best ever) a few times, but that is how I felt at this moment. I highly recommended this restaurant for the lamb you can eat and how well it is decorated.
Wine is social all over the world but I can tell you that lunch is social in Ribera del Duero
Come with us on our guided tour to Ribera del Duero.
