San Martín de Valdeiglesias
Madrid · Community of Madrid
DO Vinos de Madrid9.324inhabitants
1150first mention
1177wine documented
A town in south-western Madrid, in the old “valley of the Churches”. It began in the 13th century as a hamlet beside a hermitage of Saint Martin of Tours, promoted by the monastery of Santa María de Valdeiglesias; it was a town from the 14th century and in 1434 passed to Álvaro de Luna.
First mention: The valley appears in 1150 when, according to the documentary tradition, Alfonso VII granted it to Benedictine monks to found the monastery of Santa María de Valdeiglesias (a foundation the Community of Madrid considers doubtful). The hamlet of San Martín is documented from the 13th century.
The legend
12th-century monastery (enlarged 1148, Cistercian refoundation 1177); monastic vineyards documented in the 13th century; fame of the wine in the 15th-17th centuries; popular sayingThe monks of the Valley of Churches and the wine of San Martín
In the 12th century twelve hermitages dotted the valley that runs down towards the Alberche, which is why it was called the Valley of Churches. In 1148 Alfonso VII enlarged the lands of those hermits, and in 1177 Cistercian monks arrived from La Espina, who knew the craft of wine well. They colonised the valley, founded the town of San Martín for their settlers and planted so many vines that, according to the monastery’s cartulary, Ferdinand III had to grant them another farm for cereal. Centuries later, the pale pardillo whites of albillo from San Martín won over the court in Madrid. Popular tradition still repeats that the wine of San Martín, shut away in Ávila to age, was worth more than a florin. It is the first reliable record of vine growing in what is now the Community of Madrid.
Alive today: San Martín heads one of the subzones of the DO Vinos de Madrid, with garnacha and albillo from the Madrid side of the Gredos range. Within its municipality work bodegas such as Bernabeleva, on an estate bought in 1923, Las Moradas de San Martín, Marañones and Valleyglesias, and the ruins of the monastery can be visited with them on wine-tourism routes.
Wineries and their wines
- Arroyo del Tórtolas
- Camino de Navaherreros
- Cantocuerdas Albillo
- Cantocuerdas Moscatel
- Carril del Rey
- Navaherreros
- Navaherreros Blanco
- Viña Bonita
- Albillo Real
- Ensayo
- Initio
- La Sabina
- Las Luces Libro Veinte
- Senda
- 30.000 Maravedíes
- Marañones Albillo
- Marañones Garnacha
- Peña Caballera
- Peña Cruzada
- Picuenco
Wine towns nearby