With the arrival of June and (hopefully!) a long hot summer, we can also look forward to this year’s Música entre Vinos in Jumilla, organised by La Ruta del Vino de Jumilla.
What exactly is Música entre Vinos? Not surprisingly it involves both music and wine: most events will start with a tour of the bodega, followed by a concert – and you will of course have the opportunity to try the bodega’s best wines accompanied by a variety of local tapas. When I say tapas, I mean a lot of food, so do come with an empty stomach! I don’t eat meat, but I still manage to find plenty of food that I can enjoy. Tickets cost a reasonable 20€, the same as last year, and can be bought either direct from the bodega or from Los Chilines wine-shop at 69 Avenida Levante in Jumilla.
The organisers have made sure that there is something to suit everybody’s musical tastes with a wide variety of music from pop to flamenco, plus a bit of jazz.
So what is your favourite kind of music? Some people find that question easy to answer. My friend Wendy’s husband Con is a jazz fanatic, with too many albums for me to count them all: I’m not sure whether we are talking 100s here or even 1,000s! My father loved classical music and would sit listening to his records in the dining room whenever my brothers and I had “Top of the Pops” on in the living room.
Showing my age now (!) – I still love listening to music from the 60s, plus some light classical music, in memory of my Dad. However, since moving to Spain, I have also got into flamenco in a big way. I don’t think it is a case of which music I prefer, it’s more a matter of what mood I am in, and I am sure that many other people feel the same way.
I have pasted some links below to videos on youtube that were taken at the recent Música entre Vinos concerts, with music varying from flamenco to jazz via swing. Needless to say, I enjoyed all these concerts even though the music was very different.
I’d love you to tell me which is your favourite video – and why. (Scroll to the end of this post for the comments box.)
Casa de la Ermita, where Orquesta Brass Ensemble played
Música entre Vinos was a brilliantly conceived idea from the Ruta del Vino Jumilla and is now in its fourth season. Put simply, during the summer months a series of concerts are held in local Bodegas, where you can also taste wines from the Bodega accompanied by local dishes. We had already enjoyed five of the first six events (we applied too late for the sixth one!) and were looking forward to the other four that we have booked.
We popped into Los Chilines wine shop for a word with José María on Friday. He told us that tickets were still available for the Música entre Vinos events at Bodegas Viña Campanero next weekend and Bodegas Pedro Luis Martinez the following weekend, however only a couple are left for the closing event at Bodegas Bleda on 30th July. This year’s events have proved extremely popular and most have sold out well in advance.
Even more astonishing was the news that La Gran Cata, which is being held on 29th July, has already sold out. Apparently there were 400 applications for the 250 tickets – luckily we had reserved tickets last week for ourselves and our friends Lesley and John!
On Saturday night we headed to Bodegas JM Martínez Verdú, hoping that the event would be as good as the one we attended there last year. It was rather worrying when we drove through a downpour, as we suspected that the concert was going to be held outside. We arrived to find our friend Fina looking anxiously at the sky. She reassured us that our four reserved tickets were there, while muttering to us that she was nervous about the weather.
Inside the bodega
Fortunately the weather was on our side and we enjoyed a wonderful evening. I have to say that the whole event exceeded our expectations: it was very well organised; the wine flowed; the food was absolutely delicious; the music was from the superb Flamenco group Al Golpe and we enjoyed watching Flamenco dancers too – and finally there was a wonderful atmosphere with so many people having a good time.
The evening started with a tour of the bodega for those people who hadn’t visited it before. The rest of us showed our tickets to get a wine glass and shortly afterwards the efficient, smiling staff wandered around with bottles of chilled white and rosado wines to top up our glasses. That was a good start to the evening and it got even better when plates of food appeared. The catering was provided by one of our favourite bars in Jumilla, Bar Paraiso. (When visitors want to taste authentic Spanish food in a typical Spanish bar, that’s where we take them, for the excellent value 8€ menú del día!)
John, waiting with our friends Lesley and John, for the wine to appear!
We enjoyed some tiny empanadas (savoury pasties), what appeared to be mini sausage rolls (though I gave them a miss as I don’t eat meat) and the most delicious seafood vol au vents I have ever tasted. I don’t know how many of the tiny vol au vents I ate, but every time they offered me another one I willingly accepted. Yummy!
We then moved into the garden further down the road for the actual concert by Al Golpe. Three coach-loads of British residents from Torrevieja on the coast had ventured inland for this event. They had been persuaded to come along by their Spanish teacher Begonia, who coincidentally is teaching Spanish to Lesley’s son Nick, who has just moved to Los Alcazares.
Once the concert started, the evening became very lively. Al Golpe are a talented group of three young musicians from Jumilla. I will give a link to a video that I took at the concert, but believe me they sound even better live, with an appreciative Spanish (and English!) audience. To add to the experience there were a couple of lovely Flamenco dancers who, or so we were told, were the daughters of José María, the owner of the Bodega.
While we were enjoying the concert, some good red wine was served (look out for Xenys, Xenysel or Calzás on the label, if you want to try their wines) and even more delicious food. We had to smile when we overheard an English woman saying “they are bringing round bread and jam!” Excuse me, Madam, it is a local delicacy of fried goat’s cheese topped with jam made from Monastrell grapes – and absolutely delicious.
Plate after plate of jámon, cold meats, cheese and tapas were brought round and, just when we thought we were full, they produced desserts! Tiny dishes of lemon sorbet to refresh our palates were followed by arroz con leche, tarta moka and fresh fruit kebabs.
We all agreed that this was the best event so far, but we are going to three more this month so I will be reporting back on them over the next couple of weeks.