Our second visit to Finca Camilla – as it was then – in the winter of 1992. We were accompanied by an architect friend from Seattle and he convinced us to buy the place…This was our first full day in our new home. We’d just done a massive shop for basic supplies in a supermarket in our local town and you can see much of it here…Our bedroom for the next few months – the main room of the old cottage. Basic, but snug…Aura was a large dog who enjoyed snuggling into small spaces and cuddling up with us. She isn’t really on Dido’s head…Our trusty bucket shower – three minutes of sun-warmed bliss. Only trouble was that across the gorge, in our local village the Guardia Civil had a pair of high-power binoculars trained on Dido every time she showered. She was soon known as the “la rubia ducha”. After that we showered indoors…I made this oven from stones. One of the first things I cooked in it was chicken stuffed with peaches. It was out of this world but I’ve never been able to replicate it in any other oven…Our “deluxe” camping stove. This was the first time I used it . I had no idea that I would still be using it almost a year later…Good food, good wine, good music, and a view to die for (oh, and a good woman – taking the photo). Life was good…Our “lounge”…Almond whacking – the finca included over a hundred almond trees. Took two months to pick, hull (remove the outer skins), sort and sack up all the fruit……then we’d take the fruit down to the local factory where we were paid the princely sum of £60 for over 500 kilos of fruit…We couldn’t believe the sheer volume of almond skins. Ultimately we dug a trench for them…Some of our first summer’s harvest – small cherry figs, moscatel grape and almonds…Dido and Aura sitting at the back of the cottage looking at the stupendous views to the north and west…Our local white village (or pueblo blanco), Canillas de Aceituno – famous for producing the King’s favourite olive oil…Our neighbour Curro plowing our land with his mule…Aura doing her thing – guarding the Greens. A few years later after she died, we memorialized her on our wine label as “La Guardia Blanca”
Hi, I found two small bottles of your Guardia Blanca in my cellar. We bought them for the label ages ago and I think in a Spanish wines shop in Truro, England because my mother in law had Pyrrenean mountain dogs! Not the best reason to buy wine but I wonder what sort of wine it is and don’t want to open it until I can work out what food it might suit.
If you can give me some clue it will be greatly appreciated. I must say the rest of your site makes me very envious, what a lifestyle!
Keep happy
John
John – Thanks for your good wishes and comments, although I should tell you that our lifestyle is far less glamorous than it comes across on this blog; not that I’m complaining!
As for the wine; being 100% natural, free of phosphates and unfiltered, it throws off a large amount of crust and debris, so you need to filter it well. We pass it through a coffee filter paper into a decanter before chilling it for a few hours in the fridge. Our Spanish friends would typically drink the wine with savory tapas, and it works very well with rich pates and terrines, or even a strong, beefy consomme. Or, alternatively, it’s a fabulous “pudding wine”. or simply as a digestif… However you drink it though, enjoy!
By the way John – this little film might interest you too. Skip past the barrel rinsing bit and it’s really quite interesting, so long as you’re not put off by the grape treading!
ARKS, ADAM AND AXARQUIA 
Hi, I found two small bottles of your Guardia Blanca in my cellar. We bought them for the label ages ago and I think in a Spanish wines shop in Truro, England because my mother in law had Pyrrenean mountain dogs! Not the best reason to buy wine but I wonder what sort of wine it is and don’t want to open it until I can work out what food it might suit.
If you can give me some clue it will be greatly appreciated. I must say the rest of your site makes me very envious, what a lifestyle!
Keep happy
John
LikeLike
John – Thanks for your good wishes and comments, although I should tell you that our lifestyle is far less glamorous than it comes across on this blog; not that I’m complaining!
As for the wine; being 100% natural, free of phosphates and unfiltered, it throws off a large amount of crust and debris, so you need to filter it well. We pass it through a coffee filter paper into a decanter before chilling it for a few hours in the fridge. Our Spanish friends would typically drink the wine with savory tapas, and it works very well with rich pates and terrines, or even a strong, beefy consomme. Or, alternatively, it’s a fabulous “pudding wine”. or simply as a digestif… However you drink it though, enjoy!
LikeLike
By the way John – this little film might interest you too. Skip past the barrel rinsing bit and it’s really quite interesting, so long as you’re not put off by the grape treading!
LikeLike