Spain is without a doubt Europe’s best-kept culinary secret. No other country maintains such a strong and passionate link to its gastronomic past, yet no other country’s cuisine is so frequently misunderstood. This tour uncovers some of the great secrets of Iberian cuisine and its powerful sense of the regional and also celebrates the variety and depth of Spanish wine.

The wealth and quality of Spanish food, as is to be expected, rests first and foremost on the quality of its primary produce: the acorn-fed hams of the wild Iberian pig, the truffles from Guadalajara, asparagus from Ávila, giant fava beans from La Granja, extra virgin olive oils from Catalonia, wild herbs from Soria, saffron from Teruel, goose neck barnacles from Galicia and cod cheeks from Bilbao.

But Spain’s food heritage also holds up a mirror to its complex historical past. Dishes and flavours send out echoes of Greek, Phoenician, Visigoth and Moor. There is the Passover fare of Sephardic Spain, the subtle Arabian sweetmeats, the austerity of Philip II, the extravagances of the Bishop, marzipan pastries and thyme flavoured honey prepared by the Carmelite nuns, pastas from Naples and the explosion in tastes derived from the new produce of the Americas. Then there is the hugely popular street food of the religious fiestas held all over Spain, every saint’s day being associated with a different dish.

Madrid ­– the nation’s melting pot – is the only place to start a journey through the astonishing variety of Iberian cuisine. Every region has its supper club and its favourite bar in Madrid. But food means more than just the pleasure of the table. It sits at the heart of tertulia culture, with its often passionate and heated debates. From the court to the playhouse, from the nineteenth-century novels of Perez Galdos to the contemporary paintings of Miquel Barceló, food remains the protagonist.

This tour also provides a chance to see some of the dishes of the seventeenth-century table and to steal through its larders courtesy of Velázquez, Zurbarán, Luis Meléndez and Sánchez Cotán. There are tiled Valencian kitchens to see and wonderful examples of Spanish earthenware.

All this is put into context with a journey out into the northern meseta plain. Favoured by hot summers which are tempered by the cooling winds blowing off the sierra, the Ribera del Duero ­– the Golden Triangle – produces some of Spain’s finest wines. There is a chance to taste the legendary Vega Sicilia and the extraordinary Pesquera wines of Alejandro Fernández.

But there are other masterpieces that rarely travel – Teofilio Reyes, the wines of the brothers Perez Pascuas or the new reservas of Pago de Carraovejas. The mediaeval wealth of Spain with its booming wool trade is also recorded in its earthier peasant cuisine of lamb roasts, suckling pig and mountain stream trout. Walks through this landscape give us views into monastery gardens, Moorish irrigation systems and the now protected Cañadas Reales, the royal sheep trails that criss-cross Castile.

Read itinerary