Visiting a Major Cider Producer

"Escanciando" or pouring cider from the vat for everyone to try

With the idea of finding new activities and experiences for our guests to enjoy whilst staying at the hotel, we’ve started visiting a lot of different places so as to be able to recommend what’s available and what each guest might enjoy best.

Cider made from 100% asturian apples

Asturias is famous for its cider; the region’s major drink. For people who want to see how it’s made traditionally we always recommend them to visit the Ruta del Sidra y Queso, a fabulous two hour tour talking about cheese and cider followed by an excellent lunch.

Walking round the instalations at Sidreria Cortina

The original wooden presses in the background have now all been replaced by hydraulic presses.

But it’s also possible to visit a larger scale producer of cider and taste the cider straight out of the vat. Last week we visited Sidrería Cortina in Villaviciosa, they are well organized and we had an interesting tour. After the tour it’s possible to have an excellent menu of the day in their restaurant next door.

Pouring cider from the vat

Explaining why asturian cider has to be drunk as soon as it is poured.

Visits to Sidreria Cortina are on a daily basis in July and August and twice a week the rest of the year. 

The original wooden Vats

Look out for our new information sheets at the hotel with all sorts of exciting activities and experiences waiting for our guests to enjoy

Recognition as an environmentally-friendly accommodations

English. (En español debajo)

Hotel Posada del Valle in Asturias proudly announces it has been accepted as a Gold level GreenLeader into the TripAdvisor®GreenLeaders™ program, which helps travelers plan greener trips by identifying environmentally-friendly accommodations.

TripAdvisor GreenLeaders have met a set of environmental standards developed for TripAdvisor by a leading environmental consulting firm, with input from expert partners. The more green practices a hotel has in place, the higher its GreenLeader level, which is shown on the property's listing on the TripAdvisor site.

Travelers can now search for accommodations that have a GreenLeaders status on the TripAdvisor site, and view a detailed list of environmentally-friendly practices that they can expect at each location.
 

“TripAdvisor GreenLeaders are leading the hospitality industry in making efforts to improve their environmental footprint," said Jenny Rushmore, director of responsible travel at TripAdvisor. "We greatly applaud these accommodations and are pleased to share their eco-friendly practices with our online audience of more than 260 million travelers who visit
the site each month."

The TripAdvisor GreenLeaders program was developed in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR® program, the U.S. Green Building Council, and the United Nations Environment Programme. For more information, please visit www.tripadvisor.com/GreenLeaders

The Gold level GreenLeader award will join our certificate of excellence awarded by trip advisor for this year

Español 

El Hotel Posada del Valle en Asturias, se enorgullece de anunciar que ha sido elegido como "Gold level Green Leader" - "Líder Verde nivel de oro" por el programa de TripAdvisor®GreenLeaders™ , el cual ayuda a viajeros y turistas a planear sus viajes verdes y sostenibles, identificando alojamientos respetuosos con el medioambiente

Los alojamientos elegidos por TripAdvisor GreenLeaders ("Líderes verdes") cumplen con una serie de estándares medioambientales desarrollados por una consultoría ambiental líder para TripAdvisor, en colaboración con agentes externos independientes. De esta forma, el establecimiento es posicionado en un ranking de excelencia, con un nivel GreenLeader más alto, cuantas más buenas prácticas ambientales se estén implementando. Eta información está accesible para los usuarios y viajeros que pueden consultar el listado en la web de tripAdvisor.

Los viajeros pueden ahora buscar alojamientos con el certificado GreenLeaders en la web de TripAdvisor, así como consultar una lista detallada de sus prácticas medioambientales específicas.

"Los Green Leaders de TripAdvisor son pioneros en liderar la industria del alojamiento sostenible, haciendo un gran esfuerzo en mejorar y reducir su huella ecológica" cita Jenny Rushmore, director de turismo responsable en TripAdvisor. "Aplaudimos enormemente el esfuerzo de estos alojamientos y estamos encantados de compartir sus prácticas ecológicas

con nuestro público, de más de 260 millones de viajeros que visitan nuestra página web cada mes."

El programa GreenLeaders de TripAdvisor ha sido desarrollado en colaboración con el programa de la Agencia de Protección Medioambiental "ENERGY STAR®" y el Consejo de Edificación Sostenible de los EEUU, y con el Programa Medioambiental de Naciones Unidas. Para más información, visite  www.tripadvisor.com/GreenLeaders

Inspiring Asturian Dream; Posada del Valle

Every so often it boosts our confidence here at Posada del Valle to come across an unexpected independent review. So it was very rewarding to come across a review by some of our recent guests: Ben and Marina Curtis and their young son Leo. Part of our aspirations for the hotel is to help spread the word about our aims and philosophy.....it seems it is working.

Read the review

100 best bolt holes in Europe "Sunday Times"

Posada del Valle, Asturias

Yesterday we had a little more press coverage; this time in an article in the Sunday Times entitled “The hot 100 best hotels in Europa.” This is what they wrote:

.

"The battered Atlantic coast lies one way, the Picos de Europa rise the other. In between, the Posada del Valle, a former farmstead, clings to a hillside above the village of Collia. Magnificent mountain views take care of the aesthetics. A British couple, Nigel and Joann Burch, take care of the simple life within, with flair — and flavours from their own farm’s organic fare. 985 841157, posadadelvalle.com; from £53/£64"

Here is the full article.

A lone ranger in Asturias

Stunning scenery in Ponga

It was good to see an article about the Ponga Mountains and the hotel published in the travel section of The Guardian today. Entitled “A lone ranger in Asturias” it is written by Stephen Venables who was the first Briton to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen.

.

Prompted by Inntravel, Stephen stayed at the hotel for a few days last year. Whilst here we suggested he visit the Ponga Mountains so he could get to know one of our favorite regions. His article starts; Northern Spain's variety of mountain terrain means you should be able to find a range to yourself –in the enchanting Pongas for example. The full article can be found here A lone ranger in Asturias.

.

And a few more photos so you can see why we think Ponga is such a lovely region and why it inspired the title " a lone ranger in Asturias"

.

Looking north from El Abedular

Looking to Pico Zorro and El Recueno from Tiatordos

Extensive Beech forests in the Ponga region with the Maciedome mountain in the background

Beech trees in winter and the snow covered Picos in the far distance

Climbing Pico Pierzo. One of the nine self guided walking routes in the Ponga region available at the hotel.

Apple Picking and Press Coverage

We started picking apples today and are expecting quite a large harvest this year (about 10 tonnes.) There were 6 of us picking and it will take about 15 days work to complete the harvest.

Interestingly enough this coincided with a news article about us on the BBC news web page:

"Looking out over their cider apple trees towards the Picos de Europa mountains beyond, Nigel and Joann Burch take a break from the harvest." To read the full article click on the following link:
BBC NEWS Spain's organic farmers dodge recession.

And for another interesting press coverage we had earlier the season in the National Geographic Adventure magazine you might like to look at this link: The New old Thing!

Its all publicity!

Awards

Receiving the Organic Food and Biodiversity award one year ago in Madrid

Receiving an award is always very satisfying and this year we have been “distinguished by Karen Brown Readers as Spain’s property offering Greatest Value for 2009! If you don’t know Karen Brown, she publishes a series of accommodation guides, which are very popular in the United States. I like to think that our prices are competitive for what we offer, but to be considered Spain’s property offering greatest value for 2009 for me is rather over the top. Still I suppose we should be pleased to have got this recognition.

It was just over 1 year ago (before we had the blog operating) that we achieved the award Organic Food and Biodiversity for the hotel or restaurant which best uses organic food in their gastronomic offer. This was awarded by the Spanish Ministry for the Environment in association with the Biodiversity Foundation. Winning this national award was particularly satisfying as it symbolises our beliefs - and recognises our work - in organic farming and biodiversity.

The idea behind these awards was to stimulate and recognise the efforts made by people in different sectors of organic food in defence of the environment. There was a lot of publicity associated with the event in order to increase the public’s awareness of organic food, which in Spain is quite low. We went to Madrid to receive the award and were presented it by Cristina Narbona who was the Environmental Minister at the time

Group photo of all people from different sectors of organic food, who received the Organic Food and Biodiversity award in 2008

Unfortunately one year latter there is no longer an environmental ministry in Spain. It has been amalgamated with the ministry of agriculture and become; MARM the Ministry of the Environment, Rural Affairs and Fishing! Cristina Narbona is no longer the environmental minister and some of her work on how to stop the degradation of the Spanish coastline appears to be getting lost in the high courts!

Still let’s not get involved in politics, and just appreciate the awards we have received in the last year.