Hotels in Granada – Hostels in Granada – Flights to Granada

Midway into our drive through the Alpujarras, we stopped at Bodega Barranco Oscuro, a small family-run winery near Cádiar. It was the off-season, and just after 5pm, so I think the owner was a bit surprised to see our car ambling up the muddy path. Two huge dogs bounded towards us in greeting, and we let them guide us to the bodega’s doors.

The owner was extremely gracious — her husband and son were on tour in France, but she let us in and introduced us to their selection of wines. The interior of the bodega was neat; it had just been recently redone and sported wooden tables for wine tastings and enormous windows showing off a magnificent view over the Alpujarras and the Mediterranean. On a clear day, she said, you could even see to Morocco.

After we tasted the Pinot, we were taken on a little tour of the bodega. The current family has been running the show for about a decade, making all-natural wine with the grapes grown in the unique, cool mountain conditions. And the house has a history of wine-making going back hundreds of years. We saw the press and barrels, and then the ancient storage area, not in use anymore. Juergen was in Photographer’s Heaven.

We spent too much money, but the wines really are great. If you’re in the area, we definitely recommend popping in to Barranco Oscuro, especially during the harvest season. They have a website and blog with news and information here.

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More from Our Granada Trip

On Saturday morning, we bundled up and took the train from Valencia’s Sant Isidre station to Requena; a beautiful 90-minute continuous ascent into the mountains. Snow was falling, lightly dusting the trees, ravines and cliffs we passed. This was the first time all year I’d seen snow.

The sausage festival was about as we expected it — sausagey. For €9, we got 5 little sausage plates, 2 glasses of wine, a water, bread, and something vaguely described as a “Product from the Housewives Association”. It was cheesy and fishy, and I don’t think I’d like to dwell on it any further.

The festival was a bit smaller than I anticipated; but then, how many sausage stands does one need? We bravely munched through 4 of our 5 desgustaciones of chorizo & morcilla, before hoisting the white flag.

- Stay over night in Requena: Requena Hotels

The best part of the day came after we left the festival — an extended visit to Meson del Viño. This is an awesome little pub/restaurant, decked out in bullfighting paraphernalia. We had a couple hours to kill before our train back home, and didn’t feel like walking around in the freezing cold, so we were happy to spend some time in this extremely loud and lively bar. Worth a visit when you’re in Requena.

Tomorrow, we are on our way to Sausage Land! Where sugar, spice, and all the other things which make up little girls… are crammed into pig intestines AND CONSUMED!!!

Longaniza, Morcilla, Chorizo, Salchichón. Sweet, delectable morsels, every one. I plan on acquainting myself with each of you, on an… intimate basis. You naughty little vixens, I’m going to gobble you up, yes I am!

Requena’s Muestra del Embutido has become an important date on Valencia’s culinary calendar. In this, its 17th year, the festival is celebrating recognition as an Event of Touristic Interest.

Requena is also known for its Vendimia (wine harvest) festival in the summer. Close to Utiel, the region is renowned throughout Spain for its excellent food and drink. The sausage fest runs from the 12th to 14th of February. Requena can be reached from Valencia on Renfe Cercanías, for a negligible fee.

Festival’s Official Site

-Crazy festivals in Valencia

Yes, visiting the Alhambra was a remarkable experience. But on the drive home to Valencia, I prodded Jürgen to name his number one highlight from Granada. It was the same as mine: THE TAPAS.

Friends had told us that we’d be amazed by the tapas. “You won’t have to eat dinner”. But no amount of advance knowledge could prepare us for tapeando in Granada. At the first pub, we ordered two beers. We got two beers and a huge plate overflowing with food. A salad, two montaditos, and a crazy amount of potato chips. Serously, check it out. I was troubled — it was simply not possible that this amount of food was free. When I asked for the bill, it was with a heavy feeling in my heart; perhaps I had misunderstood.

BUT IT WAS FREE. It was free, my God, all that food for free. Jürgen and I floated out of the bar and, hand in hand, went skipping down the street to the next one, singing the glories of Granada. It was like Christmas, but much, much better. The first bar wasn’t a fluke. At pub after pub, we got free plates of food. Sometimes montaditos, sometimes chicken skewers, sometimes little hamburgers. Sometimes you’d get to choose. The flautas mexicanas, please! Sometimes it was fancy — grilled Camembert on rye toast. Once they set down navajas in front of me and I, made brave by the considerable amount of alcohol flowing through my veins, slurped them down like a gnarled Galician fisherman.

We went to probably 3929 tapas bars during our 4-day stay, so it’s impossible to list them all. Here, though, were some of our favorites:
El Labrador – Rustic, filled with young locals; you can choose your tapas.

De Cuadro – Hipper place, modern furnishing; you can also choose from a large menu of interesting tapas

La Bella y la Bestia – Alongside the river Duerro, this is where we got the outrageous plate full of tapas I linked a picture to, above. A cool little bar.

La Antigualla – Very popular with young foreigners; there were about twenty collegiate Americans there. I pretended to be German. Oh my God, do we, like, totally talk like that now, like, all the time? We counted, like, literally 8 “likes” out of one kid’s mouth in, like, 20 seconds. I’ve been too long away from my homeland. But the tapas were great, here! Like totally!

La Riviera – Again, you get to choose your tapas here; a nice, typical Spanish bar with a mix of locals & foreigners, in a great location

Calle Navas – The entire street is filled with bars and, on a Friday or Saturday night, good luck squeezing into one of them!

More from Our Granada Trip

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Tapas cookbooks available here: USA, UK, Germany and Spain

A relatively new restaurant in Gran Via, La Flamenca offers patrons a great dining experience (location). We’ve been twice, and have been impressed by the quality of food and the price both times.

Tapas and montaditos are the highlights of the menu, as well as a decent wine selection. We ordered a large variety of things, and were most impressed and horrified by the cheese plate — these are extremely strong cheeses not for the faint of heart! We also loved the huevos a la pobre, which was a large plate of perfectly cooked eggs to share. The wine from Utiel was delicious and fairly priced.

As the name indicates, La Flamenca offers live flamenco music, as an accompaniment to dinner — but only on Thursday evenings. It’s pleasant; not so much a performance as a fun backdrop to an evening out with friends.

Make sure to get reservations for Thursdays and on weekends, as the restaurant is smallish and fills up quickly!

La Flamenca
C/ Salamanca 34
963 815 500
Location on our Valencia Map

Other good tapas bars:
El Albero
Las Cuevas
Sidreria El Molinón