Foster & Dobbs

Last Sunday I was visited by cheese connoisseurs Luan Schooler and Tim Wilson of Foster & Dobbs Authentic Foods in Portland, Oregon. They were particularly interested in our wines because of how well they pair with different cheeses. First we had a special tasting of Botani, Selección Especial and Victoria 2010 from the tanks at the bodega. Botani [...]

La Axarquía es Moscatel

This is the cover of Excelente: Revista de Turismo, Gastronómico y Enológico – N0 30, which features an excellent article called La Axarquía es Moscatel on pages 21-33. “There’s no need to look hard to realise that the region of Axarquia is now considered to be the embryo of the best muscat in Spain, although other localities [...]

WOW

Jan Yaxtheimer, Donna Van Noy, Detra Walker, Kathy Blount & Elaine Dawson Our wine club is called Women of Wine or WOW. We get together once a month and try wines and discuss stocks. With the way the stock market falls so frequently in the last few years, the wine is often the focus of [...]

La Vendimia 2010 (part 2)

Believe it or not we started harvesting mid-August and we haven’t finished yet. It’s the same every year – this really has to be the longest vendimia in Spain. While everyone else is on holiday in August we begin with Botani (early harvest) and finish with Selection Especial (last harvest) mid-October. My friend Alistair Gardener [...]

Vendimia Vestido

Looking back through the blog posts it occurred to me that in almost every photo taken of me (at different times by different people) from just before the start of the vendimia, I am wearing the same dress! Now known as the official vendimia uniform, this simple cotton dress is actually very practical and comfortable, [...]

The Soil in Almachar

I’ve talked here before about the poor rocky soil here in the Axarquía, which is mostly slate intermingled with limestone clay, but people are always surprised when they see it – and touch it – for themselves. This is my Danish wine distributor, Jannich Peterson, taking a first hand look at the soil conditions and [...]

La Fiesta del Ajoblanco, Almáchar

On the first Saturday of every September the village of Almáchar, Málaga, celebrates the Fiesta del Ajoblanco, which features the typical products of the area: muscat grapes, wine and raisins. Visitors can sample ajoblanco, a cold garlic and almond soup that has been prepared in this region for hundreds of years, as well as other [...]

La Vendimia 2010

The vendimia (grape harvest) is now well underway. We first start picking the grapes for Botani before the sugar content gets too high. Above you can see some images from the vineyards. The grapes are picked on the steep slopes of the mountain and carried up to footpaths where they are loaded onto our mule [...]

Vineyard Visit

Yesterday I had the chance to meet a friend of my brother Jorge’s, Dana Street, who runs the Fore Street Restaurant in Portland Maine. He was in Spain with his team, Sam Hayward, Riley Shryock and Ken Thomas, to do research on Spanish food and wine for their new tapas restaurant and we had arranged [...]

Muscat Grapes

Muscat is a family of grapes of the species vitis vinifera, the common grape vine. They are grown all over the world, and there are a great number of varieties, ranging from white to almost black in colour. As well as wine, they are often used as table grapes or for raisins. The variety we [...]