La Siempre Llena

La Siempre Llena is an awesome little wine bar and shop located in the Mercado de San Fernando, a once-obsolete neighborhood market which has found new life as young locals and expats set up shop selling everything from sushi to craft beer to artisan breads. La Siempre Llena specializes in natural and organic wines mainly from the region of Madrid, a traditionally overlooked wine region that’s slowly (but steadily) gaining acceptance among Spain’s wine purists. Most of the wines are sold “a granel,” which means by volume. It’s simple: you buy an empty bottle (or bring your own), fill it up with the wine of your choice, and then pay by the liter. You can take it home with you and once it’s done, you can bring the bottle back and fill it up again.

A mate set up this wine stall in Lavapiés' San Fernando market, selling fill-ur-own wine (or 'vino a granel' in the local lingo) from the Madrid region. The concept is simple (and cheap) – buy empty bottles for 40 cents each, fill them up (the vino ranges from €1.50 to €6-ish per bottle), go home and guzzle the wine, come back and fill up again. Spaniards used to buy all their wine (and their milk, as it happens) this way. The selection runs to about 10 wines, and La Siempre Llena is an excellent spot to explore the under-appreciated and relatively unknown (but about to explode, I predict) vino grown around the Spanish capital.