The Wine in Iberia

Not another wine region...please! Wait, it's not? From the title it sure would sound like the general wine of the Iberian peninsula would be up for another landscape inscription but when I saw several spots on the map for detailed locations I was already curious about what it is all about, and after reading the document submitted to the UNESCO website is clear that this is about the wine trade between Iberia and the rest of the world (mainly Phoenicians?) back in the days. One of the wrecks, the Mazarrón II, is actually in the sandy bay of the appropriately named Puerto de Mazarrón at the south coast of Spain. Whereas snorkeling out is possible the metal sheets covering it make it a non-started for seeing this currently tentative WHS.

I opted for the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology in Cartagena. Cartagena is already a semi-popular spot judging from the amount of museums and a small old town but I think it's main tourist drive comes from docking cruise ships. At the time of visit there was none of these so the town was quite empty, with most people I saw not being tourists. Nevertheless parking during the siesta time (2~4pm) was free just 10 minutes away from the museum which allows for a nice stroll through old town.

The museum is not expensive and was dead empty. It has a lot of info on several underwater heritage with the first panel already giving detailed information on the …

Whilst planning a trip to Andalusia in May 2018, with the primary objective of revisiting its WHS, we took the opportunity to dive into the further reaches of its T List as well. Towards its end I came across one titled “The Wine in Iberia”. This had only been added 3 months earlier in February - might that mean that it was being actively progressed for inscription? But the title didn’t particularly “enthuse” with the mental picture it conjured of yet more fields of grapes to add to the many already inscribed or on the T List!! In fact, in this T List entry, Spain has hit upon a different “take” on the viticulture story - this one doesn’t have a vineyard in sight and claims its value from the “Archaeology” of viticulture and winemaking in Spain – particularly in relation to its introduction from the Eastern Mediterranean by the Phoenicians around 7th C BC.

2 of the 4 locations as shown on this Web site’s map were close to our route from Jerez to Gibraltar so we decided to take in one of them - the romantically titled “Castillo de Doña Blanca”. This web site contains an “advisory” on its T List Maps - “The coordinates shown for all tentative sites were produced as a community effort. They are not official and may change on inscription”. The Castillo was shown as being located in the “Ecological Park” of the town of El Puerto …