Cartagena is one of the most sheltered natural harbours in the western Mediterranean and has been a naval port for two and a half thousand years. Yacht Port Cartagena puts visiting vessels right in the middle of a Roman city that most crews have never been to, with the amphitheatre a few minutes from the pontoon — a genuinely good place to hand over between charters.

Its real value is as a winter berth and a weather refuge. The harbour is protected in almost any conditions, the costs are well below the Balearics, and the services are those of a working naval city rather than a resort. Yachts that lie here out of season are the ones we tend to be storing for a spring restock rather than a summer scramble.

Orders ship from our French cellar on EU logistics — no customs frontier, duties and paperwork handled — typically two to three working days from confirmation. A yacht laid up here for months is also a good candidate for our storage service: fine wine should not sit aboard through a winter of power-downs, and we hold collections climate-controlled near Antibes and return them racked and recorded.

Murcia is one of the best-value serious wine regions in Europe and it is directly inland. Jumilla and Yecla make deep old-vine Monastrell, Bullas is quietly excellent, and the whole area is a gift for a crew list that has to stretch. We carry them beside the classified Bordeaux and grower Champagne for the owner’s table.