As soon as I met Antonio, I immediately
liked him. An extremely laid back and friendly man, Antonio and his wife,
Mercedes, we're joining us for almuerzo (mid morning eating). Before eating,
Antonio was telling stories and he eventually brought up a porron. He exclaimed
that he had previously brought out a porron to the delight of a group of
Japanese workers that he knew.
He was surprised when I didn't know what a
porron was and explained the design. He said it was very useful for drinking
wine if you don't have a lot of cups and want to share. I was pretty confused
at his description and my level of Spanish can't accurately decipher the use of
something as foreign to me as a porron. From what I grasped, it was some kind
of pitcher that you put wine in, and then pour it from a distance into your
mouth, kind of like one of those waiters trying to impress you by pouring water
a far distance from your cup.
As the others struggled to help me
understand I received good news; we actually had a porron in the house! Antonio
is in his mid 50's and explained that porrones were once commonplace,
especially in rural areas, though these days it's more of a novelty among the
youth of Spain. Someone else explained that when people would have large
harvests in rural areas and hold a massive barbecue, everyone would gather with
their porron to take wine straight from the vat, bypassing the whole bottle
system.
While the porron we had actually was made
for champagne (with a carved out area for ice), it would still suffice. We
loaded the wine up and took turns drinking. As mentioned before, all the older
people drank it naturally, demonstrating technique that showed years of
practice. When it was my turn, I struggled to get it all in my mouth and even
more-so to simultaneously swallow while pouring. The spout of the porron is
very small so the stream of wine is thin but the force is strong.
Since trying the porron I have started to
see it everywhere, especially in the small town I live in which is
appropriately in the middle of wine country. And now that I know how convenient
(some Spanish may say essential) a porron can be, I will keep my eyes out for a
good deal and try to purchase my first porron.
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| Look carefully at the design of the curtain on the right...a porron! |
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