Here at Drivalia we love nothing more than sharing our experiences with our clients and giving some great tips on where to go and what to see, something that many of our clients love to read.  This time we turn our attention to something we all love – a little tipple!  Now obviously you need to allocate a driver for this one who doesn´t drink so we will leave that to you to work out who gets the short straw!

When you book a car hire at Alicante airport with Drivalia you have the freedom to explore some great places and this experience is within half an hour of Alicante in the small town of Petrer.

Bocopa are one of the largest producers of wine in the Alicante region and export their produce all around the world.  Like many bodegas in Spain they offer the chance to see how it´s done and of course sample the wine and so we went along to see what it´s all about… well, you know, someone has to do these things!

You can pre-book your trip on their website and upon arrival you will see a short video presentation which gives a little background into the history of the company and of course the wines.  This is followed by a brief chat and presentation and then on to the fun stuff.

We were all given a hat to wear which also acts as your take-home souvenir of the day and then taken off into the factory to see the wine production in action.  It was amazing to stand next to the vast shiny tanks of fermenting wine and see the scale of just how much wine if being produced and stored.  The guide was great and explained the wine-making process but this was by no means a dull experience, in fact it was quite interesting to learn some things that I would never have known, or thought of… like where the bubbles in the sparkline wine come from!

From the factory floor we went into a slightly darkened warehouse area with huge wodden casks filled with wine which was waiting to be bottled and again continued to lean lots of interesting things along the way.  At this point, being a regular drinker of some of the wines from this bodega I was really keen to taste what else they have on offer and it wasn´t long until we were taken into a tastefully laid out room and seated at tables and allowed to taste the goods!

As well as the samples we were treated to some typical Spanish tapas snacks and in total four or five different wines.  Once we had done some tasting the bottles that had been opened were left for us to finish which was a lovely treat to the day.  The various wines on offer ranged from light sparkling whites, roses and reds to heavier and more substantial wines and we were certainly feeling a little tipsy after an hour or so of tasting.

Once we had finished the tasting we were given the opportunity (optional) to purchase wines of our choice from the bodega shop and as we browsed around and made our seslections we were offered a sample of another wine by the lovely lady who by now was becoming my new best friend.  Naturally I stocked up on some of the ones I like the most and was given to a couple of little free gifts too which were very welcome!

The cost for the trip which all-in-all lasted around three hours was just 5 euros and that included all of the tasting, snacks free souvenir hat and a photo so all in all was a great value trip.

You can find full information on this excursion by visiting this website:

http://bocopa.com/en/wine-tourism/

When you choose to book a car hire at Alicante airport with Drivalia you really do get to explore the whole area and have a superb holiday.  Don´t forget that with Drivalia Ultimate you get what is arguably the most honest and transparent car hire at Alicante airport.  Take the car full, return full and relax knowing that you are completely covered so whatever happens during your stay in Spain we will take care of you and your car!