Regular readers of these posts will know all about our finca (small holding) in southern Spain and especially the adventures we had building our house. However, what I haven’t done thus far is said that much about the little farm itself.
The north vineyard came with the property and is predominantly Moscatel (Muscat). The 500-or-so vines are all non-staked and pruned right back early Spring. This picture dates from May 1994 and Dido’s blonde mop can just be made out upper left…The Moscatel harvest is picked typically late September when many of the berries are turning to raisins. However, we prefer our “Malaga” drier than the locals go for, and pick at the start of the month. Though the wine is unfortified (no brandy or grape spirit added) it still attains a strength of over 17% – apparently breaking all the laws of natural fermentation…
Our biggest crop is from our two small vineyards (about 1000 vines in all), one preexisting our move (in 1993) and the other planted by us in 2000. The older vineyard comprises mostly Moscatel (Muscat) used for making the traditional local Malaga style sweet wine and the one we planted ourselves which is a third Moscatel and two thirds red Cencibel (a varietal of Tempranillo) with which we make a strong red fortified wine similar to port.
We planted out the south vineyard in 2000 and it comprises 300 Cencibel and 200 Moscatel vines. Digging 500 holes half a metre (20 inches) deep into rocky terrain, using a mattock and pickax was the toughest physical task of our lives. This picture dates from the Spring of 2002, just after we had pruned the plants and dressed the mounds. The weeding was yet to be done…
One our first Cencibel harvests (I don’t think we have felt greater pride in anything we have ever produced). Cencibel is a sub-type of Tempranillo (the “Merlot of Spain”), and ripens a fortnight or so before the Moscatel…
In addition to our grapes we also grow olives (for oil), almonds, citrus, and a variety of other fruits including avocado.
We de-stem the grapes by hand. Dido here ably assisted here by our friend Valentina and her sadly, late husband, Jean-Claude. Each and every stage of the wine-making process, from harvesting to barrelling is highly international at Finca Carmel. Fellow-Brits, Russians, Belgians, Israelis, Americans, Australians and of course, Spanish volunteers have joined us over the years…
We harvest the almonds from about mid July through to mid September, the olives around the new year and the grapes, depending on the vintage, from late August when we also make our two wines.
We still crush the grapes using the timeless method of treading. Here Dido is assisted by Jane and Pepa, our most dependable volunteer of all. A steady flow of ice cold beer and appropriately rhythmic music blasting out from the house above is essential to the efficiency of this process…Once crushed, the fruit is poured into baskets for pressing…
The pictures here are a montage of our annual vendimia (grape harvest and wine making). Although we appreciate help from our friends with all the annual farming tasks it’s only the wine-making that people actually return for. The work is hard, and depending upon the weather – which can vary from sunny and hot to chilly and damp (like this year), sweaty, monotonous at times, but always rewarding once the must (mosto in Spanish) is all safely in the barrels.
When the press is full we use the ratchet and oak blocks to apply extra pressure. Typically we fill the press twice for the Moscatel and having applied the final turn of the ratchet leave it overnight to exude every last drop of must…The final precious stream of must is referred to as lagrima in Spain – alluding to the tears of Christ…
Over the years various rituals have developed around the process, the most enjoyable of which is Dido’s Mexican feast on the final night, when the work is over. We’re not quite certain how this particular tradition started, but somehow delicious treats like tamales, enchiladas and re-fried beans washed down with margaritas provide a uniquely festive climax to several days of hard labour.
We make sure to feed and water our workers well, seen here for instance enjoying a light lunch of Dido’s delicious ajo blanco (cold almond and garlic soup) washed down with copitas of our own Malaga, with freshly picked figs for pudding…
On behalf of Dido and myself, I would like to take this opportunity to offer special thanks to all those friends, who have helped us over the past 25 years, with special mentions to Pepa for returning every year and Valentina for her technological innovations. We literally, couldn’t do it without you! Finally, all volunteers welcome for next year…
Our barrels containing our Malaga solera (“super-blend”). Malaga, like its much younger cousin Sherry, is not released as a vintage but is re-racked and blended annually. Each new wine is evenly distributed into the previous years’ blends to ensure a consistent and hopefully, perfect wine.
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”
ARKS, ADAM AND AXARQUIA 