One of the growing areas of tourism over recent years in Spain has been enotourism - wine tourism (enoturismo). In Andalucia, there are 40,000 hectares of vineyards, often in breathtaking countryside, from seaside to mountains.

Explore the vineyards of Andalucia

Enoturismo is a great way to get to know the region: see the countryside, take walks around beautiful estates, meet local experts, learn the wine-making process and, of course, taste the wine itself. Long popular in France (Champagne, Bordeaux, Loire), the USA (Napa Valley in California) and Italy (Tuscany/Chianti, Umbria, Emilia-Romagna - worth 2.5 billion euros per year in total, expected to double), and recently hitting the headlines in Spain with spectacular buildings by leading world architects such as Frank Gehry (Marques de Riscal bodega and hotel in La Rioja, featuring a grape-based products spa) and Zaha Hadid (Lopez de Heredia bodega, also La Rioja).

Enoturismo is now taking off in Andalucia, albeit in a more low-key, relaxed southern Spanish way. Most bodegas can take you on a tour and offer you a tasting of their wines.

ANDALUCIA'S WINE-MAKING AREAS

The areas of Andalucia which are most famous for their wines, which produce under D.O.s (Denominacion de Origen, like Appellation Controle in France), are:

Malaga - sweet desert wine, dry white wine (Moscatel) - DO Malaga, DO Sierras de Malaga
Huelva - dry and sweet white wines - DO Condado de Huelva
Jerez - fortified wines (sherry) DO Jerez-Xerez-Sherry
Sanlucar de Barrameda - dry sherry - DO Manzanilla de Sanlucar
Cordoba - white wines, including dry fortified sherry-like wines, known as Amontillado outside Spain - DO Montilla-Moriles

In the Serrania de Ronda, some modern boutique wineries are producing young red wines - Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon; their whites include Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. These wines are less well-known, but gaining in renown.

Some of these Ronda bodegas are on fincas, with hotels attached, making an ideal place to stay, try some wines and have a delicious dinner using home-grown produce.

Sampling sherry is a great excuse to try out the tapas

Of course, the most famous Andalucian wine of all is sherry. Many of the bodegas (wineries) in Jerez, and the other nearby sherry-making towns of Sanlucar de Barrameda and Puerto de Santa Maria, offer guided tours followed by tastings. Some are slicker than others, but all are fascinating and unmissable if you're a fan of the stuff. The culture which goes with the sherry tradition - aristocracy, anglophilia, horse-riding - is as fascinating as the drink itself.

If you do go on a bodega tour-and-tasting in Jerez, one of the other towns, be sure either walk or take a taxi back to your hotel - don't try to drive, as sherry is stronger than it seems. Then you can have a siesta, and head out for tapas later on, safe in the knowledge you can have some more sherry with dinner without risking a control.

In Malaga and Ronda, the wines are produced in or near pretty hilltowns - pueblos blancos, while the charming sherry towns of Jerez have the advantage of seaside locations. In Huelva, you can discover the Columbus connection of the region's wine-making area - and its gorgeous beaches, of course. Montilla is a 16th-century town with a castle, set in southern Cordoba province's gently rolling hills.

Have fun sampling wines from Andalucia

WHEN TO GO

A wine tour in Spain is best timed to coincide with one of the big festivals, such as September's Vendimia (Grape Harvest Festival) in Jerez. This takes place on the weekend closest to 8 September (falls on 9-11 September 2011); in the rest of Andalucia, the vintage starts on 21 September. Other places in Andalucia where the vendimia is celebrated during September are various towns in Malaga province, including the Axarquia (La Viñuela), and Montilla in Cordoba.

September is a good time of year to visit Andalucia anyway, as the temperatures become milder after the heat of summer.