February 2011 – Hondón de las Nieves

Our Travel Coordinator at the U3A seems to be charmed in picking which days on which to have a day out. Here we are at the beginning of February and the day is sunny and warm enough that, by lunchtime, we can move about without jackets. We cast our minds back to February in the UK and decide once more that the Costa Blanca is a nice place to be in winter.

Our destination today is Hondón de las Nieves in the Sierra Crevillente. We took the mountain road to get there and this was quite eventful as halfway up our coach met an articulated vehicle travelling down the hill and we had some quite tight manoeuvres to accomplish in order to pass each other.

Arriving in the Hondon valley’s vineyard area we were met with the whole line of the valley shrouded in smoke. The farmers were burning vine clippings and with the day being so sunny and absolutely still, a pall of smoke several kilometres long hung over the area. It was a lovely sight with the sun shining through it.

Smoke on the landscape
(Click on any picture to view full size)

We are in Hondon to visit another Bodega, this time a fairly young one which came to life as recently as 1885. The premises in the small town are quite new but claim the heritage of the Bodega proudly. It is run by descendants of the founder. On our visit we met his granddaughter and great-granddaughter, the latter playing the part of the courier who showed us round the premises.

The beautiful new bodega

It was all clean floors and stainless steel tanks inside. We were shown all around the bodega including the storage cellar. In here it was explained that all the barrels are made from French or American oak and are used only once (the wine being matured for at least one year) before being sold on for other uses. Some to whisky distilleries. We finished with a short film, very well made and presented, which featured our courier in several scenes.

Our formal visit finished with a tasting and sampling session which we were able to take outside in the sunshine.

Open air tasting in February

We were able then to buy from the shop/museum where wine was sold either already bottled or by the litre from very large barrels. We purchased an expensive wine to save for a Birthday Treat.

Stained glass windows in the museum

As is usual with U3A trips we then visited a local restaurant for lunch before returning to the coach for a ride up and down the valley to see the lovely almond blossoms.

The Godfather overlooks us in the restaurant

The almond blossoms

After the ordeal on the mountain road on the way out our driver voted for a safer route home and we used the main roads followed by the motorway.

A grand day out.

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