Cellar visit with the tourist office

The tourist office shows a calado cellar, one of the caves dug beneath the old town's streets to make and store wine. It is the cheapest and shortest way to go down into one, without a tasting: €3, or €2 reduced. There is a session at 13:00 from Monday to Friday and on Sundays; book on the Turismo de Laguardia website or on 945 600 845.

If you want to taste wine, combine this visit with a tasting at El Fabulista or at Mayor de Migueloa, which also have their own cellars.

What a calado is

Laguardia stands on a long hill, and beneath its three streets there are more than 300 calados, caves dug for making and storing wine. In the wineries that still use them, such as El Fabulista, the grapes were trodden in stone vats at street level, and the wine was made and aged below, in the caves. It is a part of the town you cannot see from the street: you have to go down.

The tourist office visit is the simplest way to get a glimpse of one in half an hour, with no tasting or shop. It is a cultural visit, designed to understand what lies beneath the old town before or after walking round above.

Times, price and booking

• Session: at 13:00, Monday to Friday and on Sundays. There is no Saturday session on the office's calendar.
• Duration: about 30 minutes.
• Price: €3; reduced, €2.
• Booking: in the bookings section of the Turismo de Laguardia website, with a maximum of four places per purchase, on 945 600 845 or at [email protected].

The tourist office is at Calle Mayor 52, inside the old town. Tickets for the Torre Abacial and for the visit to Santa María de los Reyes are also bought there, so you can link all three in one morning.

Tips

It is cool underground all year: bring something warm even if it is hot outside. If you are going with a pushchair or with someone with reduced mobility, ask about access when you book. With children it works well because it is short.

If you want to taste wine

The office visit does not include a tasting. To try wine in a cellar, you have two options in the old town itself: the El Fabulista winery, seven metres beneath the Samaniego palace, with two wines and an appetiser from €14, and the tasting at Mayor de Migueloa, in a palace on Calle Mayor, from €25. To understand the town, start with the walk round the walled old town.