What do Spanish sherry oak casks and whisk(e)y have in common ?

Hey guys! How’s it going? I’ve been slacking on the blog posts lately but for good reason ;-). If you follow me on Instagram @firewaterxo you would know that I’ve been traveling for some weeks in Spain, but I bring some interesting facts and stories with me back, so read on!

Just to give you a quick info of my route in Spain, I visited the following locations, each part has a whisky story, so read on ;-):

• • Plasencia, Extremadura, Spain
  • Monfragüe National Park, Extremadura, Spain
  • Madrid, Spain

 
Plasencia, province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain

First pit stop was actually in Madrid, where we met up with some friends and then we took a train to Plasencia. We stayed at this cool castle/monastery turned into a hotel called Parador de Plasencia.

For more details on the Parador de Plasencia you can visit their website here,  it’s an awesome hotel and the area is filled with history, if you want to visit Valle del Jerte in the cherry blossom season it is the best choice I think. Plasencia is a small Spanish town a walled market city in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Western Spain, Being situated on the bank of the Jerte River, Plasencia is one of the best places to stay so that you can visit Valle del Jerte and the Monfragüe national park.

Speaking of the cherry blossom in Valle del Jerte, this is actually the main reason why we visited, you should try it, it’s quite a unique experience. I’m not sure if it compares to the cherry blossom experience in Japan (as I have not been there) but I am sure you will enjoy it! It is a huge valley terraced on each side and is filled with cherry trees, you can find approximately 1.5 million cherry trees in Valle del Jerte, when all of them are blossoming, the view is quite spectacular.

I’m sure by now you’re wondering “what does all of this have to do with whisky?”, and the answer is: very often, scotch and other whiskies are aged in Spanish oak barrels that previously held sherry. For instance Macallan imports the majority of the all new sherry seasoned oak casks from Spain. But a considerable percentage of whiskies, especially the single malts are aged in Spanish sherry casks. The demand is high for these, since there aren’t that may produced due to not enough sherry being made, so the demand is high but the supply is lower. So most sherry casks are actually built for this purpose, to be used to age whiskies.

If you are a whisk(e)y lover you know that sherry cask whiskies are special and have a more intense and fruity flavour than for instance bourbon. There are a lot of great sherry casks whiskies out there, a couple of my favorite are GlenDronach and Aberlour, but you can find a ton out there, jut explore and get to know them!

Monfragüe National Park, Extremadura, Spain

The park has been declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2003, so you can imagine that it holds a high variety of plants and trees,like the corck oak, Portughese oaks, wild olives and holm oak trees. It is a green place, which holds a variety of wild life species, more than 200 species, from deer, badgers, lynx and so on. Oh and let’s not forget about the most popular birdwatching spot for visitors, the Salto del Gitano, there you can admire the black storks, vultures, Egyptian vultures and imperial eagles, just to name a few.
Check out this short collage of photos I took while I was in Vale del Jerte and the Monfragüe national park. 

I just want to give a shout out to Raluca @upsidedownralu , she planned this trip and it was awesome! You can visit her at www.upsidedowntravels.com, also you can read more about our trip to Spain and the cherry blossom in Valle del Jerte here. You can follow her on instagram @upsidedownralu and subscribe to her blog, this is for all you wanderlusters out there! 😉

Madrid, Spain

Next stop after this was Madrid, the capital of Spain, and what a marvel it is! It is a lovely city, with lost of attractions, like the Royal Palace of Madrid, Plaza Major, the San Miguel market where you can buy fresh sea food and other local goodies. But what I really wanted was to try some tapas and some Spanish whisky! And I did manage to find a really nice place where they had awesome tapas with chorizo and I got to try one of their Spanish whisky, sadly the one that I tried was not very good :-)) It was the DYC double distilled blended whisky, it was a mediocre whisky sadly, but the tapas was absolutely delicious, so if you’re in Madrid look up La Mi Venta restaurant and get the chorizo tapas 😉

Oh and if you want a recommendation for accommodations you can go to Hostal Central Palace Madrid, it’s right across the street from the Royal Palace overlooking also the Plaza de Oriente and has the most amazing view!

And of course, while in Madrid, I just had to visit the football stadium of my favorite team Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. They were actually playing against Juventus Torinoin in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal that same evening, but sadly I did not get any tickets as they were extremly expensive. But I got to see the trophy room! 🙂

Check out some photos from Madrid below 🙂

And that’s it for this one, what was your experience in Plasencia and Madrid, or in Spain in general? Did you taste any Spanish whisky ? How did you like it ?
Let me know in the comments section below.

As always, check back on my site soon for new stuff, spoiler: the Barcelona experience is up next!
And don’t forget to visit my Instagram –> FireWater X.O. !

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Also, don’t forget:
This blog does not sell alcoholic beverages and does not encourage nor promotes irresponsible alcohol consumption, so please DRINK RESPONSIBLY! 🙂

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Andrei Muresan

My name is Andrei, Andrei-Paul Muresan. I’m an IT professional, born in the wonderful year of 1982, in the heart of Transylvania (for people who don’t know, the heart of Transylvania is a city called Cluj-Napoca, located in Eastern Europe, in Romania to be more exact). Here’s a photo of me, just to put a face to the name 😉 I mentioned Transylvania because most people are more likely to know where Transylvania is and not where Romania is 🙂 oh and by the way, vampires, they’re just ghost stories, sorry to disappoint everybody. As you might expect, given my profession, I’m passionate about technology and everything that surrounds it, but I am also a great spirits fan, and when I say spirits I mean scotch, whisk(e)y and cognac, and I also enjoy a good cigar (I never say no to a good cigar). I like to mix all that with a good tune and also a good game, I own a couple of game consoles. I am, by no means, an expert in the scotch/whisk(e)y/cognac/cigar world, but I am keen on learning everything there is to know about it, so I’m launching an invitation to you, to join me in this virtual journey as we learn together.

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