I have been living in Southern Spain with my family from 2007 until 2016. A period of nine years where we were submerged in the language and culture of this fascinating country. When I finished the Spanish language course ‘cursos para extranjeros’
in Ronda, October 1992
I had a dream of living and working in this beautiful part of Spain and it happened.
During our residence, I authored several articles for infonu.nl, providing tourist information as well as covering a range of other topics.
This is an article about the Wine Museum in Malaga I wrote, translated into English.
An interesting place to visit in the capital of the province of Malaga is the wine museum – Museo del Vino Málaga. Although the emphasis is of course on the wines from Malaga, you can learn a lot about the interesting history of wine in Spain dating back to the time of the Phoenicians and of course it is also possible to taste a glass of wine there. Read more and learn what can be seen in this interesting museum.
The revival of Malaga Wines
The DO (Denominacion de Origen), in other words the “appellation” Malaga is traditionally known as the appellation of origin for wines made with the moscatel and the Pedro Ximenez grapes, which stand for sweet wines and liqueur wines. Since 2001, this has changed with the establishment of the Sierras de Malaga DO. This sub-zone for wines made in the Sierras, the mountainous areas of the province of Malaga and which are more inland, has been receiving more and more attention in recent years. A huge palette of colors from yellow to black and flavors from classic to flavors associated with longer aging make many wine lovers curious.
Visit to the Wine Museum
The Wine Museum of Malaga has a wine shop, you can taste wine, buy Spanish wine, there is an exhibition of old labels and advertising material and a lot of information about everything that has to do with the history and production of wine. An overview of the Malaga Wine Museum:
Ground floor On the ground floor there is an exhibition of more than four hundred lithographs (wine labels and posters from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), bottles and special prints such as old billboards and beautiful packages of raisins. You can also see all kinds of promotional material from the Malagasy bodegas from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Top floor
On the upper floor, the visitor can get an interesting overview of
- History the history of Spanish wine in Malaga from the Phoenician period to the present
- Geography of the wine: a description of the geographical location of the production zones Axarquía, Montes, the North, the mountains of Ronda (Serranía de Ronda) and the western coast
- The vine: explanation of the plant, the different types and how to proceed with grafting, pruning and, for example, drying the grapes for the production of raisins.
- From the vineyard to the press: here you can learn how to make grape must, ‘mosto’ in Spanish.
- From must to wine: this section explains what methods there are for making wine and ageing (barrel ageing) at the appellation “Malaga” and “Sierras de Malaga”.
Wine tasting
When visiting the museum, it is possible to taste two types of wine from Malaga. An explanation is given at each stage of the wine tasting and this is included in the entrance fee
When I was living in Ronda, in the province of Malaga I met Federico Schatz. One of the wine pioneers of the Sierras de Málaga. Check out his webpage here: Https://f-schatz.com/web/en/ Whenever you have the opportunity to taste one of his wines, don’t hesitate, they are magnificent!
To the left there’s a very nice label made for the series of wines called ‘Málaga con arte’. Painters were asked to design a label for specific wines from the Málaga area. This is the one for the sweet wine ‘Pajarete dulce’. If you are looking for a wonderful selection of these sweet wines from the region there’s one place to check out: ANTIGUA CASA DE GUARDIA https://antiguacasadeguardia.com/ If there is one place in the city of Málaga that is really authentic, this is it. A real tavern with unique wines and great tapas. ¡Aproveche!
