James in Spain by Ken Turner
James led a serious group of dedicated wine drinkers to Northern Spain on a tasting expedition.
He rallied his brave tasting aides in an emotional speech.
“Boys, prepare yourselves. It's time for us to get over there and uphold the traditions of the staff and customers of the Last. We will go there for the others; not for ourselves! Someone has to do this. Fortunately it’s us!"
A beautiful and historic region of Spain with few tourists and where the last battle of the Spanish Civil war took place.
"I'll just phone the 'Boss' before we get started on the wine. How does this bloody thing work?"
While they waited for James, the intrepid assistant tasters started to get serious!
James very cleverly fooled the locals, and us, by ensuring we arrived a day too early for the start of the Wine fair. So we started our own event.
However we soon got ourselves into 'professional' mode and ended up doing some serious tasting in a local restaurant tasting evening.
Despite our attention being distracted by a small(?) dress issue across from our table.
Which is which?
The evening turned into a bit of a party!
The Last is renowned for looking after its customers, so we all went off to visit Martin Kirby, previously Editor of the EDP, well known author and columnist, and Last Bar customer who lives in the area on his farm.
Pictured left to right: Tasting Assistants Peter Easter and Ken Turner, Maggie Kirby, James
our great leader, and Martin Kirby, inspecting the farm
The Kirbys' farmhouse and the farm
Note the olive trees. Martin makes his own oil and this is sold in the UK under his Mother's
Garden brand http://mothersgarden.org
Finally the day arrived and we raced to the Town Hall in the Town Square, for the official
opening.
Alas, it was deserted!
We were too early again!
They were still putting up the banners for the official opening.
Finally, the open air tasting started. As did the rain!
"Don't worry boys, it's only a bit of drizzle." Said Friar Tuck!
Guess what? We knew some locals! The Kirby family were there, probably flogging their
olive oil!
Hard work this wine tasting and it seems to make one's legs a bit wobbly!
Sorry Peter! But I think the wine is having an effect...
James, after getting into the swing of things!
We had to retire early from the tasting to recover for our farewell dinner.
"Yes, I am on a diet but she will never know about this!"
So the weary travellers returned home, but we had one "last" surprise before
leaving.
Competition! In Spain!
It is said that James has another tasting trip in the planning stage. Little information is available about this trip but a spy camera has recently snapped what might be a clue as to the destination. Ooh la la!