- This is a relaxed gastro-wine note about places in Spain where you do not simply order a drink, but spend an evening well – over a cocktail, a glass of cava, vermouth or good wine.
- Wine expert Dmitry Kesadov looks at several drink-led formats: coctelería, champañería, vermutería, la cantina and the urban wine boutique.
- The article mixes history, personal observations and everyday Spanish details – the kind of small things that can turn an ordinary evening out into a small gastronomic discovery.
- One of Spain’s great pleasures is that a memorable glass can be found both in a polished city bar and in a modest place near old streets – provided you know what to look for.
Read the previous article by the author: Monastrell in Alicante and Murcia: Past, Future and Wines to Try
Where to Drink in Spain: Cocktail Bars, Cava, Vermouth and Wine Boutiques
Spanish hostelería and the many ways to go out
Hello, this is Dmitry Kesadov, wine expert, with another of our Spanish gastro-wine notes.
Today, let us talk about Spanish food-and-drink culture – or, to use the local word, hostelería. The English phrase “hospitality industry” is not bad either: it still carries something warm in it, a sense of places where people are not only fed, but welcomed.
Restaurants in the modern sense – places created specifically for eating out – are not as ancient as they sometimes feel. They took shape in Europe around the eighteenth century. Spain, however, has made the format entirely its own. It is home to Sobrino de Botín in Madrid, often cited as the oldest restaurant still operating in the world, and to a bar culture so dense that Spaniards like to joke there may be more bars in Andalusia than in all Scandinavia. Around San Sebastián, meanwhile, fine dining becomes almost a landscape of its own, with Michelin-starred restaurants gathered unusually close to one another.
Beyond classic restaurants and bars, beyond the familiar cervecería for beer and hamburguesería for burgers, Spain has many more formats – some obvious, some less so.
There are enough of them for two separate notes. This time, we will look at places where the drink takes the lead. You can usually eat something there as well, of course, but the main reason to go is the glass in front of you.
Next time, we will talk about places where food is the true protagonist.
Coctelería: cocktails, bartenders and a little alchemy
So, where can you go in Spain for a proper drink and a light bite? First of all, to a coctelería – a cocktail bar.
The format is clear enough, and at first glance there seems little to explain. Yet finding a bar where cocktails are made by someone who genuinely understands them is not always easy. Mixology is a strange discipline: the recipe can be written down to the gram and millilitre, and still the result may range from something nearly undrinkable to something almost divine.
In other words, a bartender is not only a chemist. A good one is also a little bit of an alchemist.
For a truly memorable cocktail, you often have to head to a large city. Recommending one universal place is difficult, because cocktails are deeply personal: some people want sweetness, others acidity, bitterness, spice or a perfectly balanced mixture of all four.
For me, the most convincing drinks often live somewhere near the Bloody Mary family. I think, for example, of the cocktails served in Roberto Ruiz’s restaurants. Whenever I am at Barracuda in Madrid, I find it hard not to order one of those drinks – the kind where a seemingly simple combination of mezcal, tomato juice, salt and hot red pepper suddenly explodes in the mouth.
Following Latin American traditions, some bartenders may add a little seafood or shellfish broth, and sometimes a few other things guests are perhaps better off not knowing in advance.
Champañería: from “Spanish champagne” to cava
Next comes the champañería. These places are a reminder of the time when Spain’s first sparkling wines could still be called “champagne-style” wines. Champañerías appeared everywhere.
Later, the French defended the name Champagne rather firmly, and Spanish sparkling wine became known as cava – from the word for cellar. The bars, however, were not always renamed. That is why you can still come across the word champañería in Spain, even if what you are usually drinking there is cava rather than Champagne.
Vermutería: herbs, bitters and the aperitif hour
Then there is the vermutería. The great fashion for vermouth that swept through Europe more than a century ago may not return in exactly the same form, but interest in drinks based on herbs, botanicals and wormwood is clearly alive.
The traditions behind these drinks are very old. Thousands of years ago, resins and herbal infusions were added to wine in the eastern Mediterranean. The Greeks made apsinthites, flavoured with wormwood, while in Sicily people prepared drinks by adding cherry shoots to grape must. Perhaps this was a way to preserve wine and make it travel better. Perhaps people were simply looking for stronger, brighter flavours. Most likely, both explanations have some truth in them.
Today the world is full of bitters – amargo, amaro – and vermouths. Some of the greatest still come from Turin, which had its first major boom in these drinks about three hundred years ago. But Spain also has some excellent examples: Lustau, Valdespino, Dos Déus and many more. So many wineries make vermouth now that tasting them all would be a serious life project.
Not every place with the word vermutería above the door will help you explore the subject. Under a promising sign, you may find a perfectly ordinary bar with a standard selection of drinks. But when you find the right one, a vermutería can be a wonderful place to slow down and learn.
Reus in Catalonia, the birthplace of architect Antoni Gaudí, is often considered Spain’s vermouth capital. Our region is doing its best too. Recently, at The Agus Gastrobar in old Orihuela, I found not just vermouth, but Carpano Antica Formula – the legendary Turin vermouth and one of the oldest names in the category.
The impression was very good, although slightly weakened by the serving style. In Spain, vermouth is often brought in a large straight tumbler, with plenty of ice and generous orange slices. At that point, it begins to feel more like a cocktail than vermouth. Personally, I prefer to ask for it simply chilled, in a wine glass, so the drink can speak more clearly.
La cantina and la popina: a Roman echo
Another format is la cantina. In earlier times, the word referred to simple places where drinking was often more interesting than eating. Wine and other drinks were the centre of attention.
Both cantina and popina reach back to the Roman period. A cantina was linked to the idea of a corner or storage place, often where wine was kept. A popina, meanwhile, was a more everyday tavern-like place – a social space where ordinary people gathered not only to drink, but also to exchange news, look for temporary work and simply be among others.
Popina did not really survive in Spain as a living word. Cantina did. Today, however, a cantina is often closer to a familiar cervecería, and wine is no longer the only story. I know one such cantina not far from the golf courses of Rojales. It is very popular, but most people go there for the food as much as for anything in the glass.
Wine boutiques: design, bubbles and tapas
Finally, there is the wine bar-boutique – a particularly urban format, usually built around design, fashionable bottles and playful tapas.
In Alicante, Carlos Bosch’s places are good examples: El Portal and Manero. They are different, but they share a certain evening elegance – festive, polished places where you might order a glass of Krug Champagne, one of the world’s great Champagne houses. El Portal is, in fact, a Krug Ambassade.
My wife and I drank our first bottle of Krug almost thirty years ago. I will not say it was from plastic cups, but it was not far from that: we simply bought it at a duty-free shop in an airport for about one hundred dollars. Times were simpler and prices were kinder. Today, for Krug, you need a more special place and at least three times the budget. A glass at El Portal may cost from €50 to €100.
And yet this is exactly why Spain is so rewarding: the world of sparkling wine here is wonderfully broad. Excellent cava can still be found for around €20 a bottle. And in Catalonia, several ambitious producers created Corpinnat – including Recaredo, Gramona and Llopart – after separating from D.O. Cava. There, the choice becomes almost dangerously tempting: so much beautiful sparkling wine to discover, starting around the same €20 a bottle and going upward.
But that is a story for another day.
Useful links
- The Agus Gastrobar, Orihuela – reservation and information in English
- El Portal Alicante – Krug Ambassade – view on Google Maps
- Manero Alicante – Manero Mollá – view on Google Maps
- Cantina Rojales – view on Google Maps
- Barracuda MX, Madrid – view on Google Maps
- More Alegria articles on Spanish cuisine and food culture
Final note
May we all have as many good Spanish restaurants and bars as possible.
This article was created by Dmitry Kesadov, wine expert, in collaboration with Alegria Real Estate.
FAQ
What types of places are covered in this article?
The article looks at coctelerías, champañerías, vermuterías, la cantina, la popina and the modern wine bar-boutique format.
What is a coctelería in Spain?
A coctelería is a cocktail bar. The drink itself is the focus, and the result depends not only on the recipe, but also on the bartender’s skill, taste and sense of balance.
Why do some Spanish bars still use the word champañería?
The name comes from the period when Spanish sparkling wines could be described as champagne-style wines. Later, Spanish sparkling wine became known as cava, but some bar names remained.
What makes a vermutería interesting?
A good vermutería is a place to explore vermouth, bitters, herbs and the Spanish aperitif tradition. Some are ordinary bars under a promising sign, but the right one can be a very rewarding discovery.
Where should I start if I want to explore Spanish wine culture?
A good start is to try local wines and sparkling wines by region. In Alicante and Murcia, Monastrell is especially important, while Catalonia offers excellent cava and Corpinnat sparkling wines.
