Málaga beyond the beaches

Away from Spain’s most well-known regions, in ancient Andalucía, Málaga is my chosen wine region, a beautiful area with lots of history. Nowadays it is most often associated with tourism and is the most populated and successful city on the Costa del Sol, a favourite travel destination for Brits, Germans and Scandinavians. The airport is the third busiest in the Iberian peninsula, just behind Madrid and Barcelona, and it handles around 14 million passengers a year.

I didn’t have this aspect of Málaga in my mind on the plane journey that took me to visit the Málaga Consejo Regulador; instead I...