De Vinos Madrid

De Vinos is a wine bar in the Malasaña neighbourhood of Madrid and a fairly new discovery for me, although it felt so familiar that I couldn’t believe I’d never been before.

Going there with a friend who has been in Spain as long as I have triggered a full-on nostalgia trip. We reminisced about the places we used to go way back in the early 90s, how exotic they had seemed to us all those years ago when we were learning to love Madrid one bar at a time.

Because you see, although there are now many places in Madrid that do a perfectly acceptable imitation of a “typical Spanish” bar, it is getting harder to find the real thing.

De Vinos, in contrast, is for real - from the finely sliced “mojama” drizzled with fruity virgin olive oil and sprinkled with fried salted almonds, down to the hooks under the bar to hang your coat on.

The extensive wine list moves away from the ubiquitous Riojas and Ribeiros, with offerings from places as diverse as Tenerife, Mallorca and la Sierra de Gredos, making it a great place to sample some national wines and traditional Spanish produce.