A Little Ol’ Wine Drinking You and Me

“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food,” WC Fields. Right on WC although I’m not sure I’d have used the initials WC if it were me, especially at my time of life.

With wine firmly in mind, as it usually is, what do you do when you live about an hour and a half drive from one of the largest wine-producing regions in Europe?

You go wine tasting.

It would be a shame to see 3 million acres of Spanish wine-producing land go to waste. I feel I should do my bit to help the local economy. It’s only fair.

Wine & Music

What goes with wine? Music, that’s what, and a great song is like a great wine, it improves with age. I’d like to think that’s the same for people but my knee joints, wrinkles and forgetting why I went to the next room tell me otherwise.

Being in Spain, it’s not Champagne and Wine but Cava and Wine otherwise, Otis gets it spot on.

And to return to Martin Luther, “Who loves not women, wine, and song, remains a fool his whole life long.” And I really do not want to be a fool.

A good wine needs no bush

I have no idea what this proverb means but if you say it sagely after tasting a glass of wine, everyone will nod at your words of wisdom not wanting to admit they have no idea either. You can then add, it has legs, great minerality and is varietally correct but try not to giggle when you do.

So off we went, a motley band of Valencia-based British, American, German and Aussie exp-pats in a hired coach to generously help out the wine economy of our adopted country. Que emoción, as they say here.

Little Ol’ Wine Drinker Me

I realise Dean Martin’s act as the loveable drunk was just that: an act. He usually called it a night early to go home to his family. It’s why I like his version.

I’m not sure what Mr Martin would have made of a Spanish wine tasting trip; lines of vats of fermenting wine each containing 25,000 litres (6,500 US gallons) of high-quality eco-friendly wine.

That’s a lot of wine to help out with but we’ll give it a go.

Melva’s Wine

I like my wine made by a professional wine producer — not so Johnny Cash. He liked his wine made by his fictional wife, Melva. I think it might be a metaphor. I hope it’s a metaphor.

Unlike the imaginary Mrs Cash, my wife just likes drinking it.

The Vega Tolosa vineyard is in the Cabriel Valley which is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. This means it’s an area of sustainable development. The wines are ecologically accredited and 80% of the energy used in production comes from solar panels. The waste products from the wine production are recycled for many uses, such as cosmetics and food colouring.

I Will Drink The Wine

The vineyard tour is all very nice but, let’s be honest, none of us actually wants to be Melva Cash; we want to try the stuff. It’s tasting time and if I may paraphrase Frank Sinatra:

“Someone said spit it in the little bucket but I will drink the wine.”

So with the spit bucket safely discarded, the wine tasting was on. The owner described his wines while his wife and daughter served us. His daughter is the 5th generation of this wine-making dynasty.

After 5 ‘tasters’ we were all a little mellow. I was even more mellow when they told us their high-quality vintage ecological wine came in at just €10 ($11.30) a bottle. €10? Are you serious?

We got several bottles, purely to help the local economy; I’m sure you understand.

The owner never mentioned wine made from a Lilac tree and I can’t imagine it would taste nice. In this case, we’ll let that little snag pass as Lilac Wine from Nina Simone is possibly the best wine song. Ever.

[This article first appeared on Medium.com]