Located in the centre of the natural region of La Mancha, in the point where Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Albacete and Toledo meet, we find Tomelloso, a white hamlet with a scent of wine in the air, the driver of the local economy and culture since the 19th century. To learn about the town’s past and present viniculture, we can visit some of the municipality’s many wineries. Tomelloso currently has Europe’s largest wine cooperative.

The huge wine production, along with no-so-great communications, led to the creation of large numbers of alcohol producing-plants that, through alcohol distillation, reduced the wine production volume, thus facilitating transport and commercialisation. Produced has continued unabated and it is now the world’s leading wine alcohol producer. Many of its chimneys can be visited in an interesting route through the town. The Tomelloso underground has around 2,200 cave-cellars.

Tomelloso, aware of its past and culture, also preserves all the values and traditions of its history, summarised in the Carriage, Tools and Machinery Museum, an incredible ethnographic museum built in the 1960s. The crown jewel of this museum is certainly the “bombo”, a rural, dry stone construction typical of Tomelloso which served as home and refuge during field labour, made up of over 2,000,000 stones.

Tomelloso also has the surprising nickname of the Athens of La Mancha as it was the birth place of famous painters and writers such as Antonio López Torres, Antonio López García, Francisco García Pavón, Eladio Cabañero, Félix Grande, etc. We recommend a visit to the interesting Antonio López Torres Museum, home to a permanent collection of oil paintings and drawings.

On our walk through the city, the Posada de los Portales catches the eye, an old inn with traditional, 18th-century architecture, which continued to welcome guests until the 1960s. It is now the cultural centre and home to the Tourist Office. There, we can watch a 5-6-minute long video on Tomelloso.

On this trip, we can stop at one of the province’s most beautiful architectural spaces: La Solana’s main square, the historical centre of this city’s life. Two very different zones are on display in terms of appearance and era; the side featuring the town hall has arched porches; and the west and north parts also have rounded arch porches with two-storey houses on top of them. Santa Catalina church is also on the same square, which stands out due to its size and impressive tower.

Very close to La Solana, we find the small town of Alhambra, which is perfect for fans of landscape photography. The town’s multiple lookout points offer beautiful views of the Campo de Montiel. If we have more time and interest, we can visit the Museums of Archaeology and Ethnography, both in the same building, or walk up to the castle on the nearby hill.

Valdepeñas is and will continue to be well-known for its wine-growing. The Wine Museum allows us to learn about the evolution of vine cultural practices and wine production in an educational, interactive way, along with all the history and tradition of the Valdepeñas Designation of Origin. Furthermore, the town’s most important festival, declared of National Tourist Interest, is the Festival of the Harvest and Wine, from 1 to 8 September.

In the town centre, the beautiful plaza de España (Spain square) is the city’s heartbeat and trade centre. Its current appearance dates back to the late 18th and early 19th century, with arcades featuring historicist façades decorated in white and indigo, lending the square a unique beauty. The plaza offers an overview of the city’s most important buildings, such as the City Hall, Church of the Assumption and the Market.