Wine Tasting

Brian and Pat Clarke
Brian and Pat Clarke

Frequency: Monthly: normally 2nd Thursday at 17:30 for 18:00 

Venue: Hill Top Bar & Grill, Calle Móstoles, Moraira

Group Leaders:  Brian and Pat Clarke

The group normally meets on the second Thursday of the month, but we need to be flexible in order to accommodate the availability of the bodegas.   Tastings start at 6:00 p.m., but we ask members to arrive from 5:30 p.m. in order to register and be seated. We generally finish around 8:00.

We are very fortunate to have several sponsoring bodegas who come along to present their wines. Some of these travel considerable distances to come to us and, if they find their visits are not worthwhile, they will stop supporting us. Without the bodegas, there would be no Wine Tasting group. If you enjoy the wines you taste, we would appreciate your support by making a purchase.

We also occasionally organise a coach trip to a bodega for a tour, tasting & lunch. 

Bookings for events are available only to registered members of the Wine Group. If members wish to cancel their bookings, they must do so through the Group Leaders so that places can be offered to other group members on the reserve list.

Forthcoming Events:

Wine Tasting – Friday, 12th April 2024

The wines will be presented by the lovely Raquel of Bodegas Castaño. Please note that this tasting will be on a Friday, not on our normal Thursday. Further details will be issued to all group [...]
12 Apr
18:00 - 20:00
Hill Top Bar & Grill
Carrer Mósteles 33, Moraira
No event found!

Please scroll down to see reviews and galleries of photos taken from previous events.  

As you can see from these, wine tasting is, and always should be, a lot of fun!

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General Information

Tastings will be notified to group members by email. We normally have a group meal in June and December.

The cost of each event will be notified to members by e-mail and this includes a raffle ticket. Platters of cheese & cold meats, bread, water and glasses are provided.

Tables will be set out for no more than 8-10 people. It is free seating, so you can choose to sit with friends or take the opportunity to sit with others to make new friends. New members are made very welcome.

Our sponsoring bodegas offer wines to us at discounted prices and these are available to purchase on the night.

We will advise you by e-mail of the next meeting and, if you wish to book a place, you should e-mail us to make a reservation. We will confirm your reservation by e-mail. Should we be fully booked, then we will add you to the reserve list and let you know. If you give us a phone number it may help for last minute changes.

If you have made a firm booking and then find that you cannot join us, please let us know as soon as possible in order that we can offer your places to other members on the reserve list.  Cancellations are taken up to 12 noon (Spanish time) on the Tuesday before the tastings.  If you cancel after this time or do not show at the tasting, then you will be liable to pay the entrance fee.

To be totally fair to everyone we do not take early booking requests – they are taken in the order that e-mails are received from the main invitation email. If you know that you might not be able to access your emails, then it is fine for you to ask someone else to make a reservation in your name.

Group Members must be fully paid up members of the Moraira-Teulada U3A.


If you wish to join the group, contact the group leaders Brian and Pat Clarke by email to: wine.tasting@u3amoraira-teulada.org
Problems using this email?


Have a look at our previous events

Wine Tasting - March 2024

Wine Tasting – March 2024

56 ‘winos’ (I believe this is the collective noun for a group of Wine Tasters and the Oxford English Dictionary will be adding it to their list in the new addition) turned up for this regular great social event, including 11 newbies. I briefly met many of them as I cruised the tables to say hello to friends and I assured them of a great time. I said hello to Glenda, a seasoned ‘wino’ (or is it pickled in this …
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Wine Group visit Casa Sicilia - February 2024

Wine Group visit Casa Sicilia – February 2024

Rose bushes stand guard over the rows of vines at Casa Sicilia, which was visited by the Moraira-Teulada  U3A wine tasting group on 1st February 2024. Up before dawn, on the coach by 8.30 a.m., 53 group members made the 90 minute journey down the motorway to Alicante and on to the Bodega, tucked away down a narrow lane outside Novelda. It’s not huge, consisting of nearly 60 acres of vines and close on 30 of olives, but it’s very pretty …
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Wine Tasting Group Christmas Meal - December 2023

Wine Tasting Group Christmas Meal – December 2023

The Moraira-Teulada U3A Wine Tasting Group celebrated their last event of 2023 with a Christmas meal at the new SAEN Restaurant (formerly known as Satari’s) in Moraira. Festive lights greeted us as we entered the restaurant and, after a welcome drink on arrival, 63 diners were served a traditional Christmas meal. The vino was already waiting for us at our allocated table and staff worked most efficiently to deliver 3 courses and a sorbet. The most popular choices were Prawn …
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Wine Tasting - November 2023

Wine Tasting – November 2023

“I thought I’d do a Christmas Advert, like they’re doing on the telly and online.I can sell ‘Corcovo Image,’ Domingo, Franco and their wine!We were greeted by The Legend that is Franco, in his Slogan tee,He bought it for a fee, from a pop up ad on Facebook.Well I think I’m a legend also… I’ll have to take a look!Nice to see new faces and share a glass or two,I met the lovely Glenda, she’d already had a few!So… Christmas …
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Wine Tasting group - October 2023

Wine Tasting group – October 2023

It was rather like the first day of term after the long summer holiday, when the Moraira-Teulada U3A wine tasting group held its first meeting of the new season. Like a bunch of naughty children, some tasters – you know who you are – just couldn’t stop talking throughout the presentation despite repeated requests for a bit of shush. Even with the din from those who should have been put in the naughty corner, it was a great start to …
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Wine Tasting summer finale at Satari's with JJ Jones - June 2023

Wine Tasting summer finale at Satari’s with JJ Jones – June 2023

64 Diners gathered in the early evening warm sunshine, in the garden at Satari’s, with the spectacular blooming Magenta Bougainvillea providing a perfect curtain backdrop for the talented JJ Jones entertaining us as Neil Diamond. Never mind the hearing aids of the mostly over 70’s, this Neil Diamond was music to your ears. In fact he was ‘more Neil’ than I remember of the real thing! He has the voice, the looks, the charisma and of course…the shirts and I …
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Wine Tasting at the Hill Top - April 2023

Wine Tasting at the Hill Top – April 2023

I write this while the taste of all those lovely wines still lingers on the tongue and the nose of pineapple still lingers in the air… and before the hangover from the over indulged wine tasting kicks in… ! I know I should ‘squash’ it to the back of the palette and let it linger on the roof of my mouth but I enjoy the flavour too much … am I a wine heathen? I know for some wine is …
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Wine Tasting at the Hill Top - March 2023

Wine Tasting at the Hill Top – March 2023

56 eager wine tasters were sat expectantly along with Fiona Macdonald, a virgin wine taster and not only new to our group but brand new to the area. It was good to see Barrie and Margaret Barnden after a three year hiatus. Don Antonio Bleda founded this family winery in 1915 becoming pioneers in the ‘bottling wine’ industry, using in the main the Monastrell grape which is most suited to the warm and drought conditions along this beautiful Mediterranean coastline …
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Wine Tasting - February 2023

Wine Tasting – February 2023

On 2nd February, 50 members of the Moraira-Teulada Wine Tasting group met up for their first tasting of 2023. Hill Top Bar & Grill in Moraira was the venue and they laid on an impressive selection of cheeses and cold meats to complement five wines on offer from Bodegas Castaño, one of the most respected family run wine producers in South East Spain. The effervescent and highly knowledgeable Raquel travelled from Yecla, a small wine region north of Murcia, bringing …
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Wine Tasting Group Christmas Meal at Satari's - December 2022

Wine Tasting Group Christmas Meal at Satari’s – December 2022

As is usual for this Festive time of the year, invites to dinners, parties and drinks with nibbles, stack up like a pack of cards on the mantelpiece, with the invite to the U3A Wine Tasting Group Christmas ‘Do’ being the ACE in the pack. Unbelievably, it is 3 years since the last wine tasting Christmas get together, although many have, I expect, shared Covid and ‘growing older’ stories over the few wine tasting soirees in the meantime. That festive, …
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Wine Tasting - November 2022

Wine Tasting – November 2022

60 members of the Wine Tasting Group gathered at the Hill Top Bar & Grill in Moraira for the last tasting of the season before Christmas. Six wines were presented by Domingo and Franco of the Corcovo bodega in Valdepeñas – two whites, one rosado and three reds which we all enjoyed with the delicious selection of cheese and cold meats provided by the restaurant. Judging by the length of the orderly queue that formed at the end of the …
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Wine Tasting - October 2022

Wine Tasting – October 2022

Bodegas Bleda, one of the wineries in Jumilla, has enjoyed an amazing 2022, winning no less than 25 international awards and last Thursday they kindly brought some of the winners to the Moraira-Teulada U3A wine tasting group to sample. The vivacious Micaela, ably assisted by Pedro, brought five wines – a white, a rosado and three reds – to Sabores II where Lu and his team provided tasty nibbles to complement each wine. With prices ranging from just 4.25€ to …
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Visit to Bodegas Castaño in Yecla - 15th September 2022 - A Review by a 'Wine Tasting Trip Virgin'

Visit to Bodegas Castaño in Yecla – 15th September 2022 – A Review by a ‘Wine Tasting Trip Virgin’

I joined 51 U3A members for this trip to the Bodegas Castaño in Yecla, where several vineyards grow in around 500 hectares, in beautiful Spanish countryside. The Castaño family founded this Bodega in 1950, to develop and delight in the Art of the Monastrell, a unique grape variety that creates some beautiful wines with a special Mediterranean mineral character, which I learnt is derived from the dry farming process of the grape growing in the very stony limestone ground along …
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Wine Tasting - June 2022

Wine Tasting – June 2022

Who knew? White wine and blue cheese. Perfecto! I like to learn something new each time I attend the Moraira-Teulada U3A wine tasting group and I did. It looks like I’ve been getting it wrong for well over half a century. The lesson came at the final tasting of the season, held at the Hill Top in Moraira with six Corcovo wines brought from Valdepeñas by Domingo on his 15th visit to the tasting group down the years. Domingo’s ebullient …
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Wine Tasting - March 2022

Wine Tasting – March 2022

There was a new face present when the Moraira Teulada U3A wine tasting group met up recently for their latest exploration of the joys of the grape. Bodegas Bleda in Jumilla sent along their newest recruit,  the effervescent and knowledgeable Micaela, who has been with the bodega just four weeks but has 12 years of experience in the wine industry. She brought with her two whites, one rosado – all new 2021 vintage – plus two more aged reds for the …
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Wine Tasting - February 2022

Wine Tasting – February 2022

Sixty members of the Moraira-Teulada Wine Group enjoyed a very well attended meeting at a new venue, The Hill Top bar and restaurant in Moraira. They were welcomed by Pat & Brian Clarke, the leaders of the wine group. On this occasion, the wines were supplied by the Corcovo wine Company which was established in 1994 by Juan Antonio Megia and his family when they founded Bodega Megia e Hijos following their acquisition of one of the century old wineries …
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Wine Tasting at Sabores II - November 2021

Wine Tasting at Sabores II – November 2021

The wine tasting group was treated to a presentation from Domingo and Franco of Bodegas Corcovo from Valdepeñas.   Domingo gave us facts about grape varieties, colour, aroma and flavours,  Franco extolled each wine´s virtues , bursting with enthusiasm.  He so clearly loves his wines!   We tasted two whites and three reds,  (the Rosado had sold out unfortunately for us)  and there was lively discussion around each table on preferences.  It was a very enjoyable evening, held this time at Sabores …
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Wine Tastings Recommence

Wine Tastings Recommence

We are pleased to let you know that we will be resuming our regular wine tasting events in October. We have previously enjoyed many evenings at the Bar Mediterráneo in Teulada but, after such a long break, we thought it would be a good opportunity to try different venues. Our first evening will be on Thursday, 14th October at the BeniAsia restaurant in Benitachell and the restaurant will be providing a selection of mixed starters for every table. You must …
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Private Wine Tastings Recommence - May 2021

Private Wine Tastings Recommence – May 2021

As we are now allowed to meet in groups of up to 10, the Moraira-Teulada U3A Wine Group Leaders, Brian and Pat Clarke, invited four couples from the group to join them for a private wine tasting at their home in Moraira on 27th May. The ladies provided some delicious ‘nibbles’ and Franco from the Corcovo bodega in Valdepeñas presented 7 wines – 3 whites, 3 reds and 1 rosado. It was the first opportunity we have had to taste …
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Wine Tastings Return - October 2020

Wine Tastings Return – October 2020

  A delightful return to wine tasting has finally been achieved by the Moraira-Teulada U3A wine group,  albeit not as we have known it.   Coronavirus forced the halting of the regular monthly meetings in the spring and there are no signs of the regulations being changed any time soon.   But wine group favourite Franco Valori, who twice a year presents the very best of Corcovo wines from Valdepeñas, showed that where there is the will, he will find …
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Bodegas Castaño makes 3rd visit to group - February 2020

Bodegas Castaño makes 3rd visit to group – February 2020

Eighty members of the Teulada-Moraira U3A Wine Tasting Group attended the February meeting at Bar Mediterráneo in Teulada. Group leader Brian Clarke introduced Raquel, from Bodegas Castaño, who was making her third visit to the group. The bodega is situated in Yecla, a small town in the north of the province of Murcia, which has a clear different microclimate compared with the rest of the province of Murcia, with minimum temperatures around -4/6C in normal winters and over 40C in …
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