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November
'07
Fira
de Vi
Gandesa
held its 20th wine festival on the first weekend of the month, so
we decided to drive up to find out about the local wine cellars
and see what we liked. There were 30 or so stalls each with 5-6
different wines to try. €5 bought you a wine glass and six
tickets to hand over in exchange for the wine. What was surprising
was most of the white wine was better than the red wine. All the
2006 reds seemed musty and without enough character. The older ones
were better, and there were some excellent ones hidden away. The
most surprising was a sweet red dessert wine which was just amazing.
We bought a bottle and will take it back to the UK to drink with
Moomin's Christmas pudding.
What
we did notice was that nearly all the wines we liked came from a
town called Bot. As we had not stopped and investigated the town
we decided to make time to go there as soon as possible.
Two
weeks later our Catalan teacher had to take a week off, which gave
us the opportunity to take a meandering drive out round the Els
Ports mountains and visit Arnes which is very beautifull and then
Bot, where we had lunch. We were given a bottle of Vall de Pou with
our meal and liked it, so when we were told the Cellar was 100 metres
up the road, we had to go and roust the owner from his siesta so
we could buy a case. At €22 a case, it was a good investment.
Moli
As
we had the free time we spent the rest of the week down at the Mill
building a large earth and stone ramp between two terraces. This
will allow access for cars from what will be our entrance down onto
the parking area which is just above the Mill. As the barn is also
going to be in this area, we needed to get the ramp built, so that
it can settle and if neccesary, be concreted to allow lorries in.
It has taken 3 days to get the basic ramp built and we must have
moved about 6 tons of rocks and 12 tons of stony soil. The Hilux
can now get up it, but it will need just a few more tons to smooth
the slope enough for cars and lorrys to use it safely.
Temperature
As
we have had pretty much continuous sun (with the odd cloudy day)
and balmy temperatures since the beginning of May, it was a bit
much to see the thermometer drop to 3c last night (15th November).
It has been sunny and very clear for the first two weeks of the
month and is expected to stay mainly clear till the end of the month.
Just
as well we have a little friend Ramon who comes in and keeps us
warm in return for some Jamon.
The
decanter of Aguadiente that I was given in May has matured nicely
and will also help ward of the chilly evenings to come. The bottle
on the right is what the locals call "Gandesa Whisky"
otherwise known as the Vi Blanc in Bar Mario. Toni Marti Royo (below
left) runs Bar Mario. Andres (below right) is his brother.
Last
Saturday we were given a full set of wild boar ribs, with the proviso
not to eat them till the analysis came back from the laboratory,
as the boars can carry parasites that you really don't want to aquire
yourself. Well, we were told the analysis results were clean, so
having picked out the bullet fragments I have been marinading them
and will be serving them up at the bar tonight. Hmmm.
PB
October
'07
December
'07
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