A Taste of Valencia… literally.
The chosen excursion for today was a tour of a local winery. I got a quick lesson in the processes involved in making both wine and champagne, which you can’t call champagne unless it comes from Champagne, France. Sparkling wine produced in Spain is called cava.
That’s just one of the tidbits I picked up during my tour of Pago de Tharsys. Another is that rosebushes are often planted along the rows of grapevines, as the roses are a more delicate plant, and problems in the vineyard (pests, plant diseases) will affect the roses first, giving you an early warning and a chance to save the grapes.
And you need the grapes for sure if you’re going to produce 500,000 bottles of wine a year.
We sampled three varieties of wine and true to form, the lighter the color the better I liked it.
This is a quince. I’m not sure if we ever established why the vineyard would need one, but here it is…
The remainder of the tour was not in the vineyard,but in the nearby town of Requena. Part of the old storage cellars under the current town have been opened for tours, so down we went, under the current town square.
The underground chambers were dug out of the limestone as required by the occupants above, and were used to store, well, everything. Wine, oil, grain and other foodstuff; there was even a chamber with a well down there that could be used to bring up fresh water.
That was pretty much my day in Valencia. I made it back to the ship in time for the knitters show and tell, where we all got a chance to brag on the things we were working on. Or planning to work on. My large project is nearly finished, if 3 or 4 movies away can be considered nearly finished. So I was trying very hard to ignore the projects people had on display, because if I get distracted now, those 3 or 4 movies will be spent working on exciting new things. Like an emotional support chicken. Or gnomes.
Next Up – Barcelona. I have a tour booked for the afternoon, dare I try to yarn shop in the morning?