Cortijo Romero

‘Thought I’d blip a scene from a part of our Natural Park that the flames didn’t reach during “los incendios” at the weekend. There have been so many depressing pictures of the devastation in the local media, I felt I needed a reminder of the beauty that survives. The fire was actually restricted to the mountains behind Cómpeta and this area was thankfully untouched as was most of the rest of El Parque Natural de las Sierras de Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama.

This is one of the views from up on Fogarate (there are spectacular views in all directions from up here) and the little farm house in the photo is one of a group in this spot that belong to the parents, aunts, uncles and cousins of friends of ours. They have some fairly extensive vineyards up here and their grandfather makes a delicious version of the local vino dulce from their muscatel grapes that is not too sweet (many of the traditional wines here tend to veer towards the overly sweet – for me anyway!) and is a great aperitif served well-chilled on a warm Andalusian evening.

There are now some (truly excellent) dry wines being made in the area too from the same grape variety, but for these the grapes are harvested much, much earlier (from the beginning to the middle of August) and not left on the vine until well into September or even October as they are for the vino dulce.

The white-edged rectangular “beds” or paseros in front of the cortijo are unique to the Axarquia region of Malaga and are used to dry the sweetest grapes (that are harvested last) until they become top-quality raisins or pasas. Not all are left to dry to raisin stage, though, and some are left for just long enough to concentrate their sweet juices and then these semi-dried grapes are pressed to make an ultra-rich and ultra-sweet wine that is much-prized. For me, though, I find it best sampled in very small doses! The drier local wines, now, those I find I can sample in much larger quantities...!