Discovering Alicante Through Its Wines

          


The story began on Monday, October 25th, 2021. with George of an intensive three-day course, he started a first edition of Course about Formador Homologado Vinos de Alicante DOP. For him, it was a great opportunity for to knowledge of wines from the region were he lives.

All satarted in the headquarters of the a DOP Alicante, a beautiful place in the center of the Alicante City. He arrived ten minuts after, he meets the other students, the group was diverse: people arrived of the other areas of Spain such as Sevilla, Valencia and Madrid, even a one girl of Argentina, and of course people of  the province of Alicante, in short, a special group of wine lovers for to learn a little bit more of this exciting world of wine.

The day began with a presentation of the course in the meeting room. Afterwards, a group photo was taken on the rooftop of the building, with the Santa Bárbara Castle visible in the background.

A few minutes later, the group went to a famous restaurant in the seaport of Alicante — Dársena Restaurant — where they received a masterclass on traditional dishes from Alicante’s recipe book. The highlight of the session was, of course, the preparation of rice, the star of Alicante’s cuisine.

The group was divided among different tables, where they had all the necessary ingredients to cook two traditional dishes: Arroz del Señoret and vegetable rice, and all paired with wines from the DOP Alicante.

The second day started with a bus tour. The first stop was Bodegas Pepe Mendoza - Casa Agrícola in Jalón, where the owner of the winery gave a masterclass about his project. The group had the opportunity to see the beautiful vineyards, taste the exceptional wines, and learn about the winery’s new project.

The second stop was the restaurant in the village near to Jalón, a fantastic place, were they could lunch a tradiconal local meal, of course, with wines from Alicante DOP. Before the coffee they trip back the bus for to go to visit the Vins del Comtat Cellers. After a wonderful trip through the mountains, the group arrived to El Comtat.

The winery, a small and charming location near the village, offered the group the opportunity to taste unique white wines — both sweet and dry — directly from the barrels and stainless steel tanks, some of which were still in the process of fermentation.The second day finished with a dinner in a special restaurant, near to the Santa Barbara Casstel of Alicante.

During the dinner the group was able to enjoy a masterclass or Fondillon Wine's, delivered by an expert such as Javier Carmona, the participants had the opportunity to taste up to 20 different Fondillón wines from a range of diferents wineries of Alicante. 

Fondillón wine is truly special. It originates from Alicante and can only be found here. This unique wine has a long-standing history in the region, with the earliest recorded references dating back to the year 1498 — incredible! And with a brief description of the most famous wine from Alicante, the second day of this special story came to a close.

The last day began just like the previous one — with a bus tour. This time, we headed to Petrer to visit the Bocopa vineyards. The visit started with a presentation about the winery and its wines, held in their meeting room.

Afterward, participants toured the facilities, including the production area and the impressive barrel park. The visit concluded with a tasting of several wines, such as Marina Alta, the Laudum range, and Fuego Lento. It was a truly enriching and enjoyable experience.

Next to this fantastic visit they went to lunch, to the tipical restaurnt in thi area, they ate a meal cooked  on embers. The course arrived to finish, during the coffee break, the course was officially closed, and participants received their diplomas. The certificates were handed out by the president of the DOP and the representative who accompanied the group throughout this wonderful three-day journey.



*All names and certain locations in the stories of this blog are fictional and any resemblance to real persons or places is puerly coincidental.


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