We had an amazing day yesterday. Craig, Lora, Adam, Dan, Bethany, Holly, Pax, and I traveled up into the mountains of southern Spain, heading for the pueblo blanco of Ronda. Beautiful time, yummy tapas, including the much sought-after mountain cured ham. Mmm.
I set up a tasting at a local winery near Ronda since I had read that this is an emerging wine region for making still wines (there are several sweet and a few sparkling wines close by as well). And making some serious still wines, not just plonk.
We arrived to the wineyard (that's what they call it here) in awe of the surroundings. We were greeted by the winemaker, Bibi. She was lovely, young, had traveled all across the world making wine and assisting in the vineyard. This was her 2nd year as winemaker for this winery.
Her stuff was great. Sophisticated, refined, elegant, but strong and interersting...these were elegant wines, but they were not quiet! Almost immediately we were in the cellar, wine thief in hand, drawing wine from the '08s...the the '07s. Ah-freaking-mazing. Just so yummy, we all agreed.
And here's the strange thing: One of their main varietals is Pinot Noir. Very unusual for this part of the world. Very unusual. And soooooooooo good.
She took us up to the tasting room and we bought some bottles and talked about winemaking and the region and where to catch a great sunset. She drew us a map and gave us a free bottle of rosé so that we could enjoy the magic of seeing the sunset form the base of the bridge in Ronda. It really was just an unreal day. Wow.
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