The best wines in Madrid are served on tap in a tavern in Lavapiés. La Caníbal, (Argumosa, 28) wins the ‘Wines and Spirits’ award from the Madrid Academy of Gastronomy, which has celebrated the ninth edition of its awards at the Palacio de Cibeles. “This award highlights the gastronomic boom in Lavapiés, a neighborhood where we also offer honest and characterful wines and innovative cuisine,” said its owner Javier Vázquez happily. The award for La Caníbal is for a rebellious tavern without a cause, turning tradition into avant-garde.

“La Caníbal is another way to enjoy good drinking,” highlighted journalist Gemma Añino in her emotional speech, referring to its pioneering commitment to “craft beers and natural wines with authenticity as an unconditional maxim.” “Javier Vázquez wanted something groundbreaking, and he achieved it. His fusions between tradition and world-spanning cuisines quickly won over his neighbors,” she emphasized about the creator of the charismatic Tapapiés.

La Caníbal has 18 wine taps and 12 beer taps under the philosophy of supporting small producers and local gastronomy. “We seek the highest naturalness in everything we serve,” says Javier Vázquez about a project completed by La Caníbal Fábrica de Cerveza in the San Blas neighborhood and La Grifería in Carabanchel, “La Caníbal's little sister with its own character.” The wines of La Caníbal “are unique and mostly natural, made in cooperation with other winemakers or different vintners, but always with minimal intervention,” he explains. Their wine cellar exceeds a thousand national and international bottles with the same philosophy as the taps. Pablo González Silva leads their team of oenologists.

Since 2023 La Caníbal has been producing its craft beers in its factory in San Blas, with an annual production of around 100,000 liters. Since April, their dark lager Simancas has been among the best in the world, winning the Gold Medal at the Barcelona Beer Challenge, the largest beer competition in southern Europe.

Selected by Martin Afinador, the cheeses of La Caníbal also come from small local producers, with a range of 25 signature varieties, all of them Spanish. Thanks to its own production and collaborations, La Caníbal thus completes a surprising and broader offering than most bars and restaurants.

La Caníbal

Founded in 1971, the historic Galician restaurant O Pazo de Lugo transformed into La Caníbal in 2018, under the guidance of Javier Vázquez and oenologist and brewmaster Luis Vida. Three years earlier, they had already tapped their first craft beer here, of nomadic production, the seed of everything that came afterward. The success of Centea encouraged them to produce new varieties, which are still present on the taps of La Caníbal today: Lourea, Oeste, Bórea… “When opening La Caníbal, we were already looking for a space where the protagonists were not only the artisans of beer but also of wines, cheeses, and gastronomy in general,” points out Javier Vázquez.

The rest is history: Best Alternative Wine Bar in the World at the International Wine Challenge 2021, as well as Best Wine Bar in Spain; selected among the best bars in Madrid in the XVIII Metrópoli Awards, Solete from the Repsol Guide, Best