Caliza is the value wine in the Marques de Griñon Dominio de Valdepusa line.  Dominio de Valdepusa is the estate wine appellation or vino de pago located in Toledo province to the southwest of Madrid.  The estate specializes in very ripe, big wines from mostly French varieties, though they are starting to work with Graciano, a Rioja grape.  The estate has been very important in the evolution of Spanish wines over the last 25 years, and has been innovating in terms of grape varieties and technologies in the vineyard.  I’ve previously written posts about the wines and the winery, but the Caliza was not part of the line-up back then.  Previously, the estates wines started at about 19€, topping out at about 45€. I’ve always loved these wines but often found them a little pricy.  Now the winery has come out with a lower end wine, the Caliza, that is much more reasonably priced at 12€.  The Caliza, made from Syrah and Petit Verdot, is soft and full, with wonderful black fruit.  It is not super complex, but has surprising freshness for such a hot weather wine and has quite a long finish, with very ripe tannins.  I really think it is a lot of wine for a good price….and it’s perfect to drink this year.  I don’t love the label though…it looks like a bland version of Didier Dagueneau’s original Silex label…also the shape of the stone looks a little like the outline of Africa.  Read on for more info on Caliza 2005.

Our final winery visit during our day in Ronda was to Bodega Los Bujeos, a small winery that is integrated into the beautiful rural hotel, El Juncal, just outside the town of Ronda.  El Juncal belongs to the same family that owns one of the most famous restaurants in Ronda:  Tragabuches.  The project was conceived as a dual project from the being:  a luxury rural hotel that offers a serene escape from the stresses of modern life and a small, artesanal winery that could produce some top notch wines. Lola Jimenez, the owner, was totally honest with us when she admitted that the hotel part was conceived in order to help finance the winery part…we all know how long it takes to make a profit form a winery!  Whatever the original intention, the result is spectacular…escapist luxury accommodations amongst the beauty of the vineyards! 

The second winery we visited is Descalzos Viejos, a traditional moniker literally meaning “old unshoed ones”, which was a common name for certain orders of monks.  The winery is housed in the church and grounds of the old monastery. The site was completely abandoned when 2 architects from Ronda acquired it and restored it.  The nave of the 500 year old chapel is a unique and charming setting for the winery’s fermentation room! 

One very impressive winery in Ronda is Cortijo Los Aguilares, the personal retirement project of a Basque businessman, José Antonio Itarte.  The estate is a huge finca and the vineyards only cover some 19 hectares of the total 800 available…wine here is made on a very artisanal basis…after extensive soil analysis only the best parcels were planted with vines!  Also on the estate are free-range Iberian black pigs…we saw them running through the oak trees from a distance.  The winery itself has two buildings, both of which were restored respecting the original architecture of the Cortijo; the elegant main house is mostly a vacation home for the family but also houses the administrative offices and a beautiful tasting space.  The winemaking area is housed in a much more functional building with a shallow lake on the roof to help with cooling the barrel room.  The young enologist, Bibi García, is very dynamic and she is striving to make a very different style wine than is typical in the area.  She gained experience working in Rioja, Priorat and Chile.  The owner is greatly influenced by the wines of Burgundy and Bibi is trying to create elegant, aromatic wines that seem to defy the sometimes extreme heat of the region.  These wines do in fact have an earthy complexity reminiscent of Burgundy and are surprisingly light in alcohol. 

At the winery, we got to taste the whole range of wines, all from 2003. These are some of Spain top-rated wines…for more information on the winery, see the article below.

These are really impressive wines! With careful and high tech viticulture this winery is able to produce balanced wines in an extremely hot area of Spain. The problem in hot weather is that by the time the tannins are ripe the fruit is over-ripe and the acid levels are quite low. These wine all retained a freshness, despite being big intense wines. An outstanding series of wines!

We just visited The Dominio de Valdepusa Winery in Toledo Province and were really impressed! The vineyards is where the focus is…these are some of the most high tech vineyards I ever seen! They have sensors that detect every miniscule movement and change in the vine….years of analysing this data allows them to know with precision the exact water needs of their vines. They believed that it is very difficult to get good phenolic ripeness without over-ripe fruit and too low acid levels in hot viticultural areas. Their careful use of technology actually allows them to get a perfectly ripe grapes with good acid levels…this gives top quality, intense, yet fresh wines that age well.