A wine lover’s guide to Malaga

The history of wine in the Andalusian province of Malaga tells a story of the Moscatel de Alejandria grape variety, the oldest unadulterated strain in existence today. Cultivation of this grape for sweet wine began in Malaga some 3,000 years ago, brought to the region by the Phoenicians from Alexandria, Egypt. The Phoenicians, Romans and even the Islamic Moors all produced and enjoyed the golden nectar. So coveted and delicious was the wine that the Moors, whose religion forbade consumption of alcohol, justified their indulgence by labeling it a curative, medicinal product.

By the mid-19th century, nearly 250,000 acres of vineyards blanketed the area surrounding the city of Malaga – twice the area of the largest wine region in Spain today – and ten million litres of sweet Moscatel and Pedro Ximenez “mountain wine” flowed out to the corners of the globe, from the Americas to Russia and the far east. The…