Toro is a wine region that 10 years ago was just starting to change its wines, making more elegant modern styles.  Now it has gained a new reputation and though there is still a lot of room for improvement, its top wines are some of the most respected in the wine community.  Within Spain, Toro still hasn’t shaken off its somewhat rustic reputation for big “bull’s blood” style wines, though when I give Toro wines to my Spanish wine tasting groups, they are generally pleasantly surprised.  Among wine aficionados and in the export market Toro already enjoys a very good reputation.  Unfortunately this has led to some pretty high prices for the top wines.  Some of my favourites have increased in price by at least half in only a few years…I remember when Termanthia was only 50€….now it starts at 120€!  Amongst my favourites….still reasonably priced at less than 35€:  Numanthia, San Roman, Quinta de Quietud, Gran Elias Moro, and Pintia (at 25€ this is still a great bargain!) 

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. 

There’s lots of talk about some of Spain’s up and coming wine regions….Bierzo, La Mancha, Toro, Jumilla are all the new buzz words.  But really they are old news…all of them have a long track record and good name recognition within Spain and outside Spain.  Now there are a new group of regions appearing on the scene, regions that are super dynamic and are producing some exciting wines.  These are wine areas that most Spanish people will not recognize as areas producing fine wines.  Some of these new areas are overcoming bad reputations for mass produced bulk wine, such as Calatayud, Campo de Borja, and Manchuela.  Others are artisanal areas that have no real wine reputation as of yet.  These include such areas as Granada, Arribes del Duero, Léon and Malaga. 

Ribera de Duero is one of the most well known wine regions in Spain and it is a cinch to visit from Madrid…only 2 hours due north.
We go quite frequently and have taken a few groups there. We often base our visits on what is called the “Golden Mile”, which is centered around Sardon del Duero. This area is know for some of the top wineries in Spain: Pingus and Vega Sicila being the most famous. One winery in the Golden Mile is our top recommendation to visit: Abadia Retuerta. Fantastic wines and a beautiful, detailed winery visit to one of the most high tech wineries in Spain. Also included in the visit, and equally impressive, is the ancient abbey on the grounds. Unlike many wineries, visits are welcomed and the reception is both warm and professional. If you are in the area…give them a call and stop by.

As mentioned in my article below on Navarra Wine Country, we recently had the chance to visit an impressive new winery project near Estella in Navarra: Pago de Larrainzar.

The project is the vision of Miguel Canalejo Larrainzar, the former president of Alcatel in Spain. It is a real family project: a couple of his children are involved full-time in the winery.

Though we often go to Basque country, I had never been to nearby Navarra, and I really wanted to visit wine country there. At an enotourism conference in Madrid, Miguel and I met the dynamic Director of Enotourism for the new winery project, Pago de Larrainzar. Marian San Martin not only encouraged us to visit the winery, located near Estella in Navarra, but also agreed to set up a visit to other wineries in the area. Just a week later, we were heading over the vertiginous mountain roads that separate Basque country from Navarra.Navarra is making some really high quality, exciting, and experimental wines, but has been unable, so far, to project a cohesive image…both in terms of wine styles and a wine region to visit. It also labours under the burden of being right next door to big brother, Rioja, which still dominates the Spanish wine scene. Rioja is the prime destination for wine visitors to the area, and not enough make the extra effort to visit the remarkable wine region just up the road. Though once seen as producing wines similar to Rioja, Navarra is, little by little creating its own wine identity!

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.