How Lucky Can One Guy Be?

Pat only wanted one thing - to head to the South coast of Spain and go wine tasting. When we had the wine shop, we sold a very popular Spanish wine called ¨M 5.¨ It was from an area called Yecla, but every Google and everyone we asked turned up nothing. So we drive. We drove from Madrid to Valencia, realized that was a joke, and headed further to Alicante. Eight hours in the car was a bit much for both of us, but we were very happy with the results.

Yecla is about 30 minutes from Alicante. But it isn´t like tasting in the states. There is no ¨wine route¨no website and no information. So, we drive. We headed that way based on some information from a nice girl at the hotel.

We arrived in Yecla to find some marketing for a ¨Routa del Vino.¨Good sign. We stop in a gas station to ask for a map of the wineries. No luck. M 5? Never heard of it. But check the wine co-op. At the co-op, M 5? No, never heard of it, but here´s a map of six local wineries. They are closed during siesta which starts in 30 minutes. Awesome, we say...because they can´t understand us.

So, we drive to the closest winery. There are two right outside of town and we think we can hit them both before siesta, if we are good. Unfortunately, Pat blows by the first one, and we have nowhere to turn around. ¨There´s the next sign...turn, turn, turn!¨I say.

After much debate about whether we are going the right way down the driveway (there is no one there, what does it matter?) and debate about going back to the first one, we decide to park and go in. It´s empty. I mean no one. A nice girl meets us at the door and after a really broken conversation in Espanol she asks if I speak English. Yes...yes I do.

Well, after all this, would you believe this is the winery who makes M 5? I´m not kidding - Pat spotted the signature bright green box from across the lobby and about passed out. He was so excited. The Tucci golden horseshoe strikes again.

The gal gave us a very, very nice tour of the winery, including the bottling and storage process. She must have told everyone in the place that we were from America and used to sell the M 5 in our wine shop, because everyone came down to meet us. Wine maker, marketing team, even the owner. We saw the brand new versions of a couple labels, got to weigh in and give them our perspective from the states.

Of greatest irony, Alfredo, one of two owners, is headed to Seattle in July. Ole Imports is taking him on a tour to some shops and taking him to a big...um....es un tienda grande...yes! Costco! Alfredo has a meeting with Costco. Oh great we say, that´s big! What we really wanted to say was ¨not you too!¨

Look for M 5 at your local Costco soon, courtesy of Ole Imports. Oh, and by the way, they call it ¨Mo Cinco.¨ Mo for monastrell, cinco for 5. No wonder we couldn´t find it.

For those who taste wine regularly, you will be as shocked as we were to know there is little to no marketing directing visitors to the wineries in one of Spains most famous regions. But, the co-op did have a small map and information. In talking with Alfredo, we found out we were the first tourists to visit Barahonda based off the map and co-op marketing. What are the odds? The gods smile on us sometimes.