Drinks in Córdoba

Córdoba's drink culture is anchored by the wines of the Montilla-Moriles Denominación de Origen — a wine region of 10,000 hectares south of the city producing fortified and naturally high-alcohol wines since the Moorish period, representing one of Spain's most unjustly overlooked wine traditions. The signature style is fino de Montilla, made from the Pedro Ximénez grape grown in the distinctive cream-coloured albariza soil of the Moriles Alto subzone. Unlike Jerez fino (sherry), Montilla fino reaches its characteristic 15% alcohol naturally — without the addition of grape spirit — because the extreme heat of the inland Córdoban summer concentrates the sugars sufficiently. The result is a wine that is slightly fuller and rounder than sherry, with notes of green apple, almonds and chamomile. Amontillado de Montilla — the wine that gave amontillado its name before Jerez appropriated the term — and Pedro Ximénez de Montilla, an almost black, intensely sweet oxidative wine, complete the local range. For non-wine drinkers, the granizado de limón — crushed ice with fresh lemon — is the essential Córdoban answer to every afternoon above 35°C.