Matavendimia wine festival a great success in Jumilla!
Over 5,000 visitors on the Saturday alone including various from northern Europe and the UK!
Despite the arrival of light rain on Sunday the 4th edition of the weekend’s Matavendimia celebrations in Jumilla, where they are held to celebrate the end of the normal grape-picking season, were extremely well-attended, continuing the growth of this relatively new addition to the local calendar.
Over 40 workshops and activities were held, related to history, local gastronomy, culture, music and above all wine, due to the efforts of the Town Halls and the participating wineries (see details of those affiliated to the Jumilla Wine Route here), and among the most popular as the guided tour of the old town centre and the climb up to the castle.
On the Saturday alone more than 5,000 people attended the fair on Paseo Poeta Lorenzo Guardiola, many of them locals but with a sprinkling of international visitors from countries including Sweden, Germany, the UK and Belgium. If the images accompanying this article are anything to go by then there are likely to be far more next year!
For more local news, events and visiting information go to the home page of Jumilla Today.
Address
Plaza del Rollo, 1 30520 JUMILLA Tel: 968 780237 / 663 300779
Oficina de Turismo Jumilla
The tourist office in the centre of Jumilla is easily found by driving straight into the centre of the town along the Avenida de Murcia and following the signposts. The tourist office is alongside the Parque de Don Albano Martínez Molina, where there are a number of parking spaces.
Jumilla, in the north of the Region of Murcia, has become internationally famous over recent decades due to the quality of the wines produced in the municipality, and wine tourism has begun to attract visitors from other parts of Spain and the rest of Europe.
The tourist office is happy to provide a range of maps and leaflets showing the different bodegas which can be visited within the municipality. Some of these form part of the Rutas del Vino de Jumilla, the Jumilla wine route, and can either be visited as a guided tour or sell their produce directly to the public.(see feed below for more details)
However, the town and the surrounding countryside have plenty of other attractions for visitors, and the popularity of Jumilla wines is leading more and more people to discover other facets of the tenth largest municipality in Spain.
These include the spectacular countryside and birdlife in the Sierra del Carche, the historic remains which range from cave paintings and a Roman mausoleum to the castle, the Iglesia de Santiago, the Town Hall and the Teatro Vico, and the gastronomy: rich stews are accompanied not only by the wines of the area but also by Jumilla pears, which also enjoy Denomination of Origin status.
Tourism in Jumilla is not as seasonal as it is in the coastal areas of the Region of Murcia, but the town is at its liveliest during the fiestas in Holy Week and the August Fair, which incorporates the grape harvest celebrations and the Moors and Christians parades.
The Altiplano of the Region of Murcia, which consists of the municipalities of Jumilla and Yecla, is only just over an hour by car from the Mar Menor, Cartagena, Mazarrón, Torrevieja and Alicante, and anyone wishing to visit real inland Spain and world-class wineries is advised to include Jumilla in their schedule.
Opening hours
Summer
Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 2pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am to 2pm
Monday closed
Winter
Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 2pm and 5pm to 7pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am to 2pm
Monday closed
Click for full information about visiting the Jumilla municipality and its wine bodegas: Jumilla section
