Spanish Costa Vino

Rolling hills rise from the coastline on the Costa Tropical

My wife and I were lucky enough to get four days away recently before she started her new job. To celebrate we rented a friend's apartment on the sunny coast of Costa Tropical, one hour East of Malaga. This beautiful little micro climate boasts 355 days of sun with tropical downpours in the other ten days. The landscape is breathtaking. Rolling hills rise from the coastline with villas super glued precariously on top, and in the distance are the impressive Sierra Nevada mountains.

This Is tapas country. In the small town of La Herradura (Horseshoe Bay) there is a real flavour of local food with some 'spit and sawdust' tavernas as our guide described them. Here food is served with your drink order free of charge. Whatever is in the kitchen at the time comes complimentary with your drink.

Our first day at the beach bar we received grilled sardines caught by the restaurant and cooked on the beach. Indeed that week we had everything from Calamari to die for; braised beef stew and potato salad to name but a few. The alcohol was cheap too just €2.00 for a pint of lager.

Being more of a wine drinker I set out to find myself some quality bargains. Surprisingly most of the restaurants either didn't have a price list for wine, some didn't have a menu list either which made it slightly challenging at times.

It would seem the choice of wines were Rioja, white Rioja and Rosado.

At first I was rather disappointed at the lack of choice. The supermarkets certainly had more to offer so we stocked up there but it didn't really help me when I was eating out. If I was in England eating out with a wine list like this I would probably not return. However in the land of sun I was quite content with the options.

The Rosado was our favourite choice. Made from either Grenache or Tempranillo they were full bodied with strawberry fruit flavours making them incredibly more-ish.

We did luck out in a fish restaurant with a bottle of Albariño, a white wine from Galicia, with fresh citrus and good acidity it matched perfectly our swordfish and octopus dishes.

On our last day we joined a catamaran excursion around the bay. The Tropical coastline is staggeringly beautiful. The captain wined and dined us with Cava and a buffet. In fact an 'endless supply' of Cava was offered so we felt it our duty along with our fellow guests to put it to the test and indeed we had to agree three hours later that the hull must have been made of Cava bottles.

Made the same way as Champagne but using different local grapes, the captain informed us after the trip that he buys this for €1.80 a bottle. Thus showing how our duty taxes and VAT adds to our costs in the UK. Comparably it would be around £5.00 in the. U.K.

On this we noted, if we ever to move to Spain (a wine bar was offered to us when we where there) it's very important to keep yourself busy during the day time keeping away from the vino.

The weather is just too good and the wine just too cheap.

Food & Wine by Paul Sheerin
Pshearse@gmail.com