Vino

Spent a very pleasant evening at Bodega Cuatro Vientos situated near the village of Murtas, a short distance (as the crow flies!) to the west from me and in a range of hills nearer to the sea.

The purpose of the visit was to meet the manager who is German (and multi-lingual) and to try and source advice/assistance regarding improving the wine potential of Cortijo Los Ruices.

In the company of my neighbour José and his relative José (his son is called José too...), we took the van (known locally as 'La Furgoneta') down a very windy road for what seemed miles and arived at the winery. There we were met by not the man I was expecting (whereabouts unknown) but by a very genial Spanish guy who proceeded to take us round the whole of the bodega. In no particular order, the tour consisted of tasting grapes, looking at very old agricultural tools, sitting in incredible carved chairs, inspecting a garish ladies toilet built inside an old concrete wine vat, visiting the laboratory, seeing the fermenting tanks and, of course, tasting wine. Photos of all these will follow!

Our guide was checking all my photos as I took them and has asked for me to send them on to him. Their website seems to be a very fledgling one and so perhaps there may be an opening...

Some interesting wines were had. A very nice 2006 Marques de Contraviesa red which gave the impression form the nose that something was about to hit you yet was extremely light on the palate. Having expressed an interest in their dessert wine ( a red one made with Merlot, Shiraz and Tempranillo), I was surprised as how un-sweet it was. 'Twas chilled though and I would like to try it a tad warmer.

One of the speciality grapes of the Contraviesa is Vijiriega which is only found here and in the Canary Islands. I got to try wine made from them and it was very intriguing.

As I was driving though, tasting was kept to a minimum and so I'll have to co-opt a chauffeur sometime and spend longer getting acquainted with the wines. With the state of the track that heads up behind the house which has to be negotiated to get to a main road, I think I might be waiting for some time! Said track is, of course, the track I came down in the dark with my neighbour on the way back. Suffice to say we arrived safelyand 'La Furgoneta' got a big pat on the dashboard for her efforts.