Visits to Bodegas and the Fino Festival

Early yesterday morning found us setting out on another coach trip from the village - this time to visit the bodegas of Moriles where the local wine - fino - is made - 'hill wine' as some folks call it. It's the 'white wine' of this area.

The town of Moriles is set in the midst of acres of vines, though the area is still very much one of olive groves. These vines don't grow in the traditional way trained vertically along wires as I had expected but as bushes which are cut right down to the ground at the end of the season leaving fields of rather ugly black stumps until the new growth starts again at the first hint of warm weather after the winter weeks.

We were very grateful for a breakfast of fresh crusty white bread served with cheese and jamon before we hit our first of many tastings of various finos throughout the day at 3 different bodegas.















As fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable as it was, I felt the frustration of not being fluent in Spanish yet again. One has to bear in mind that these village trips aren't quite the 'holiday tours' one is used to with the benefit of the guide speaking in one's native tongue! But our friend and neighbour, Abbey, has an excellent command of Spanish so was able to share the gist of it with us - thank you Abbey!
Ruth sampling the fino and holding one for the photographer (honestly!)




As if we hadn't had sufficient fill of many very generous fino tastings, it was then on to the annual Fino Festival of Moriles where we spent 3 hours sharing bottles of various finos between us and sampling some delicious tapas. The first thing you have to do on arrival at such an event is buy your glass which you keep for the duration then take home as a souvenir! Then off you go buying bottles of finos of your choice from the casetas of the various bodegas represented.

The event took place in a huge marquee so full folks I had wondered as we first stepped inside if we would be able to move at all! There was no room for seating - only oak barrels if you could find a free one on which to stand bottle, glasses and plates of tapas! The noise of excited chatter and laughter was such that it reminded me of the last time we went to a night club in Birmingham when we emerged to find our hearing so affected everything we heard was muffled! It was enormous fun (once we adjusted to the noise level and learnt to shout just as loudly as everyone else!). The Spanish do seem to throw themselves into any sort of social event with such gusto and enthusiasm - they make everything such fun. Thankfully as we'd arrived quite late in the afternoon it did




seem to empty out to give us a little more breathing space! It was certainly a unique experience and the time simply flew - we were introduced to other folks through the people we had gone with and our glasses were generously re-filled from their bottles - we needed those tapas!!

On return to the village we decided to 'have one for the road' in the bar before turning in - I resorted to coffee at that point. When we left the bar I thought I was finally heading for my much desired bed - wrong!!

A few of the local guys were enjoying a few finos and tapas in the little plaza outside Abbey and Narindar's home - and absolutely insisted we joined them - I've no idea how long we stayed there but we had a hilarious time especially when one of the guys who'd been on the trip and in a very merry state by then, had waited for his wife to go to bed before creeping indoors to get the 5L flagon of fino dulce (more like a syrup than a sweet sherry!!) that his wife had guarded all the way home from the bodega trip - boy what trouble may lay in store for him now - there's rather a large air pocket now where fino dulce once had been!!

Back home enjoying the fino dulce!




It was a really fun day - we've discovered even more of the beautiful countryside around here, the trips to the bodegas and the fino festival were fascinating and tasty! The folks here have embraced us from the very start, we've felt so very welcome here and events like yesterday cement that friendship further - and this place really does feel more like home every day!