Mesón Cuevas del Vino opened on May 24th 1964, when it was the one and only restaurant in the region.
Over the years many famous and well known people have visited and left their autographs and photographs with us. Orson Wells, Yul Brynner, Mark Knopfler, Adrien Brody, Matt Dillon, Jose Sacristan or Manolo Escobar autographs, among many others, can be seen around the restaurant.
This emblematic establishment has been used as a set in films such as “Sex or no Sex” featuring Carmen Sevilla and Jose Sacristan; “Pájaros de papel” with Emilio Aragon, Imanol Arías, Carmen Machi and Lluis Homar …. Series such as “el Ministerio del tiempo” with Nacho Fresneda, Hugo Silva, Rodolfo Sanchez and Aura Garrido; “Paquirri” with Antonio Velazquez. Television programmes such as “Ruta 179”, “Madrid directo”, “España directo”, “Aqui la tierra” and also used for different advertising campaigns including “Bimbo” and “Litoral”.
Do the names Nando Parrando and Roberto Canessa ring a bell? A few years ago a film called “Alive” was premiered. It was about a true story of an aircraft accident on the Andes that is known as The Andes Tragedy. These two splendid men visited our restaurant and wrote the following message on our earthen vats : “It is worth crossing the Andes by foot to reach Chinchón and the Mesón”.
Adrien Brody, during his visit to the Mesón, tried our Iberian croquettes and our “Tasting Menu” with suckling pig. Mark Knopfler, however, opted for varied starters and sirloin. Rupert friend and his wife, Aimee Mullins, tried everything in their countless visits. Their favorites were our “faroles” (garlic stems). We would like to highlight the humility of Adrien Brody. When he signed one of the vats, he realized that his dedication had been too big and was taking up too much space in it. He turned to the owner and said: “I think I have taken up too much space. Do you want me to erase it and write it again? To which Yajaira replied “Oh God, no, it’s perfect. If an actor with an Oscar doesn’t deserve that space, who else is going to deserve it?”
On the set of the movie “Uncharted”, the producers of the movie and the actor Tom Holland wanted to visit the Mesón and its caves. During the visit, the actor was continually surprised by what he was seeing, to the point of putting his hands on his head on several occasions. He was really amazed.
You may have heard or seen (in black letters on a yellow background) the phrase : “Chinchón: it´s anissette, it´s main square and the Mesón”. n the 70’s this slogan became very popular and was made up by Don Narciso Garcia Ortego founder of the Meson Cuevas del Vino. Those were difficult days when Chinchón was just known for its Anissete production but not for its tourism.
The wine cellars of the Mesón Cuevas del Vino could store up to 405.000 litres of wine in their 80 large earthen vats. One must take into account that this was a very considerable capacity for the 18th and 19th century.
The Atroje of the oil mill could house 240.00 kilos of olives.
The Mill, completely made out of granite weighs nearly 4 tons. t was the biggest oil mill in the region and produced around 90.000 litres of oil per year.
The wooden beam in The Molino dining room is black poplar brought back from Africa three hundred years ago. It is more than 12 metres long and weighs around 4.000 kilos.
Still talking about films, another funny anecdote took place when Carmen Sevilla and José Sacristan were filming “Sex or no Sex”. In one of the scenes José Sacristan imagines that his co-star is a piglet in a roasting pot and Carmen, who was wearing a body stocking, had to lay in an enormous baking tin with a lettuce in her mouth and have litres of oil poured over her. This scene had to be reshot several times but the final result was worth it!!
Orson Wells visited this town 1966 while he was filming “Une histoire immortelle”. During break time , the famous director would come into the Mesón Cuevas del Vino for lunch, and due to his corpulence, the owner would have to bring out from his own home a bigger armchair to sit him comfortably down. He always ordered the same meal: Chinchón butter bean stew and a grilled rump steak which he liked very thick and very rare. After every meal his personal secretary would hand him a very large cigar.
Another famous actor also working in this area in 1966 was Yul Brynner when he was filming “The magnificent seven”. his wonderful actor and even better person used to love grilling his own steak and then sitting down to enjoy it leisurely with the rest of his colleagues.
The rotary furnace we have in our Bodega is the largest in Spain and uses up to 25.000 kilos of holmoak wood every year. We can fit up to 90 roasting tins of lamb or piglet in the oven at the same time.
Our kitchen measures 160 square meters nd we can serve up to 525 “a la carte” meals in one go with only eight employees. We pride ourselves in not taking down written orders as when the waiters arrive to the kitchen they “sing out” the orders and the dishes come out of the kitchen in their right order without needing anybody to read them out. It’s a real show to see our kitchen working during any weekend in the high season: 30 waiters ordering and 8 serving. It works out beautifully. We needed to create this work system out of necessity, when we started in 1964, as some of our waiters and cooks couldn’t read or write and it was the only way to work together in harmony.
The average time it takes our kitchen to serve a dish is 10 seconds, and the record for dishes served in a food service was 2,104. It happened on Good Friday, 1993.
The photograph below shows our employees in 1972. Thanks to them, their recipes and hard work, our Restaurant-Museum Mesón Cuevas del Vino has achieved the prestige and good name that we nowadays enjoy. The photo was taken on a trip that we organised to Cuenca to take them out for lunch and we closed the Mesón for that special event.
Rafael Rullan, the famous basketball player for Real Madrid celebrated his wedding in our Mesón Cuevas del Vino. In the main dining hall, El Molino, there is a large wooden beam that one has to pass under in order to get to the rest of the dining halls. Any person up to 1.90 m can easily pass under it with no problem at all. However, on that day, you can imagine what a show it was watching all the basketball players trying to walk under the beam!
