Project Description
Day 1 – ARRIVAL IN MALAGA – GRANADA – 150 Km
Upon arrival in Malaga airport the participants will be met and greeted by our guide-interpreter who welcome you.
You head by motor coach towards Granada. Accommodation and time to refresh up and relax. Free time. Overnight.
Day 2 – GRANADA AND SURROUNDINGS – 225 Km
After breakfast you head towards the inner part of the area to visit the first winery of the tour.
Andalusia summers are dry and hot – usually not very good conditions to produce fastidious red wines. However, at more than 1.200 meters above sea level there is sufficient rainfall during the generation period of the vines. At night the temperature may drop considerably, especially when the winds bring coolness from Sierra Nevada or the seaside. The peculiarities of the climate the porous and mineral slate soil accounts for elegant, finely structured and aromatic wines.
VINEYARDS
Our vineyards consist of the 4 plots of land. The varieties planted are Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Apart from “La Ventilla”, where we experiment with the classical bush vine training, in all other plots double cordon training is employed.
In the year 2004 we started to work according to the rules of ecological viticulture and in 2011 the official European registration of all our wines as certified “ecological wine” was obtained.
In the cellar they use advanced technology. For instance, cold stabilisation and clarification other than by gravity are not employed. In the centre of all our endeavors is the grape. Stringent cuttings throughout the vegetative cycle of the vines aim at a healthy and ripe crop.
Grape selection takes place in the vineyard during harvest. Fermentation is performed within temperature controlled steel-tanks. Thereafter the young wine is transferred to 300 or 225 litre barriques from various cooperages within which the malolactic fermentation is initiated. Subsequently the wine is left within the barrels, stirring up the yeasts from time to time to facilitate their autolysis. This procedure provides more fruit in the nose and more weight on the palate. The duration of the wine´s maturation within the barrels is dependent upon its sensorial development, usually around 12 to 16 months.
You see a vineyard located just being the cellar where you also receive full explanations about winemaking ending with a taste of some wines.
Then you return to the sea level leading up to Lecrin Valley where you make a stop to visit the second winery of the day.
You stroll among the vines and afterwards in the cellar it will be given explanation about the elaboration process ending with a sample of three different wines.
Continue to Granada. Accommodation at the hotel, time to refresh up. A stay in Granada is not completed without to attend a dinner and flamenco show on the quarter of Sacromonte. Return to the hotel and overnight.
Day 3 – GRANADA – JEREZ – 275 Km
Breakfast. This city located at the foot of Sierra Nevada Mountains, has everything: prestigious and exceedingly beautiful Moorish buildings, blue skies and a luxuriantly green setting around the city, built on three hills at the centre of a wide plain (vega).
You will visit the highlight of the city that doubtless is the Palace of the Alhambra, a fortress that rises on an elongated hill with beautiful views of the city. In the same complex, the Nasrid Palaces are the maximum exponent of the Hispanic-Arabic architecture with different patios, among which the celebrated Patio of the Lions.
The Moorish sovereigns of Granada built the Generalife in the 14th century as a summer home, surrounding it with magnificent gardens in terraces with spouts and small fountains. This building complex was designated a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO.
In the afternoon, before to arrive in Jerez you visit a winery that produces table wines made from the varieties of Chardonnay for the white wine and Tempranillo, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon for the red wines; they also have small plot of land where are planted Sauvignon Blanc, Petit Verdot and Tintilla de Rota
The harvest is made during the night. They have a production capacity of 250.000 bottles per year. This winery is in an estate of 800 hectares.
You visit the vineyards and afterwards the cellar; during the guided tour you receive full explanations ending with a sample of 4 different wines.
Continue to Jerez, capital of the world of the Sherry wine. Overnight.
Day 4 – JEREZ – SANLUCAR – JEREZ – 50 Km
Breakfast and departure to the town of Sanlucar de Barrameda. You visit a winery founded in 1792; it is the few wineries that belongs to the same family since the foundation; now it is managed by the 8th generation of the family.
Its most popular wine is “Manzanilla” not only in the domestic market but also worldwide. This cellar elaborates the wines only with grape from its own vineyards.
Into the cellar you get full explanations about the elaboration process and the vintage of its several types of wine, ending with a taste of two different kind of Manzanilla and other 3 wines with some dry fruits.
Lunch will be served in a local restaurant.
Return to Jerez
In the afternoon you will visit another winery, not so renown although some of their wines have been very well scored by international wine specialists. It is a smaller cellar but their products are exported around the world.
Ending the visit to the visit you will taste 8 different types of sherry wines.
Free time to discover the town of Jerez which holds some relevant monuments. Overnight.
Day 5 – JEREZ – CONDADO DE HUELVA – SEVILLE – 225 Km
Breakfast and early departure towards the wine Origin Denomination Condado de Huelva where you a cellar where is elaborated one of the top three best brandies of the world.
The legend was originated in 1893 in a Cellar in La Palma del Condado with the discovery of American oak casks containing a matured Brandy, entirely different from those known at that time.
Ever since it was discovered more than a century ago, this brandy has conserved its great distinction thanks to time-honored ageing and a very limited production.
After the visit you head to Seville. The cohort will be accommodated in the hotel. A typical tapas lunch will be served in a local restaurant.
In the afternoon you will visit the city and its main streets, avenues and monuments. You will see the Park of María Luisa. In its interior, there are several commemorative buildings of the Latin-American Exhibition of 1929 where the semicircular Square of Spain stands out. You will then go to the Gardens of Murillo from where you begin the journey on foot through the Quarter of Santa Cruz that used to be the Jewish Quarter during the Middle Ages and today has become the quarter with the most typical character with its narrow streets, white houses, flowering patios and small squares with palms and orange trees. The most significant square is the Doña Elvira.
At the end of this quarter, you will find the Royal Alcazar or Fortress in whose interior the Palace of Pedro the Cruel stands out. In front of this fortress, one can find the Cathedral, the third largest one of Gothic style in the world with Renaissance influences and in whose interior you can admire the gigantic Altarpiece of the Main Chapel. Close to the Alcazar and the Cathedral one can find the Archivo de Indias. These three buildings have been designated World Heritage Sites by the UNESCO.
Next to the Cathedral, the Giralda is an old mosque with a minaret 98 meters high. From there, you will go towards the Guadalquivir River, seeing the Tower of Gold and the most emblematic bullring of the country that is “The Real Maestranza”.
During the visit you can admire some of the above described sites and monuments.
Free evening and dinner at your choice. Overnight.
Day 6 – SEVILLE – RONDA – COSTA DEL SOL – 250 Km
Breakfast and departure towards the town of Ronda. Few kilometres prior arrival you visit a winery that belongs to a German winemaker.
The vineyard, although has only 3 hectares, is spread out southwards over a gentle slope with a deep soil with a silt loam-clay-sand texture. This makes for a healthy soil because of the good aeration and permeability.
In 1982 the owner started to cultivate new varieties at the plot of land in order to study their vegetative and generative behavior and later the production of wine from them. Following these tests with the different varieties combined with the analysis of the soil and climate, he chose to plant 3 hectares with the following varieties:
Lemberger*, Pinot Noir, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay, Muskattrollinger*, Tempranillo, Syrah, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.
The aforementioned varieties were planted in trellises at a distance of 1× 2 metres.
The soil’s needs for nutrients are taken care of by the natural cycle. The shredded vine shoots and pruning as well as the rest of the wine lees and grape marc (cap of skin) of the vinification are returned to the soil through biodynamic compost.
The removal of the most significant nutrients is compensated with compost and green manure, and entails the sowing of legumes: beans, chickpeas, clover, peas, etc. to ensure the capture of nitrogen. Simultaneously it reduces the risk of soil erosion.
The yield is reduced through one sole double guyot pruning in winter – a painstaking process which leaves 6 to 8 buds per vine. So he uses an organic and biodynamic cultivation system. The winery uses organic products for the protection of the vines against any kind of disease as well as for the actual treatment.
The harvest is done 100% by hand whilst pre-selecting the grapes in the stock and without breaking the skins of the soft fruit. The grapes are stored in small boxes of 15 kilos and are transported to the wine cellar within a few minutes. Once there, they are kept cool at a controlled temperature until the end of the day when we gently crush them.
They always limit the yield to 1 kilo of grapes per vine, which comes to about 3.500-5.000 kg/ha, depending on the variety
Then you go to the cellar also receiving full explanations about the elaboration and crystallisation systems ending with a sample of 5 wines.
From there you head to Ronda where your lunch will be served in a local restaurant to taste the food of this area.
In the afternoon you leave the city for visiting another winery where vines grow on pastureland, planes and terraces, with textures which include clay soils, loamy sand as well as some predominantly limestone plots. We use different types of double training, creating root competition between the vines, as well as rings which contain the vines and give them greater leaf surface area. Then there are differences in the altitude of the terrain which accentuates the area’s already wide humidity and temperature variations.
In the late nineteenth century, the phylloxera plague hit the Ronda region particularly hard, killing off almost all the native grape varieties. This bodega was created with the vocation of recovering these grape varieties, which had spent 3,000 years adapting perfectly to the terroir, and of creating an example of viticultural excellence which would add something new and interesting to the tedious panorama of “global wines”. Paradoxically, innovation would come from the recovery of some of the oldest grape varieties in the world, those which had been the seeds of viticulture in the New World, including varieties such as Tintilla, Blasco, Rome and Melonera. With the recovery project underway, the estate’s team of experts also had to ensure that these traditional grape varieties were included in current records because, in most cases, they had been considered extinct.
The exclusive wines collection MHV (Mankind Heritage Vines), is a unique and limited collection of wines made from indigenous varieties, some of them practically extinguished since phylloxera in the 19 centuries, that are being recovered by this winery.
In order to achieve the highest standards, we have devised innovative methods of vine training and control to ensure that these vines, young in years, but old in history, are adequately ventilated and exposed to the sun so that, in a short space of time, they could enjoy conditions and a development which would have taken older vines years to achieve. In order to do this, we have implemented a double training system and a system of rings which contain and guide the plant, providing greater leaf surface area and resulting in the production of small, loose berries, able to ripen evenly and help preserve the characteristic primary aromas of each grape variety.
Continue to Costa del Sol. Dinner on your own. Overnight.
Day 7 – COSTA DEL SOL
Breakfast. Free day to relax at the sea side. The Farewell dinner will be served in a typical restaurant. Overnight.
Day 8 – DEPARTURE FROM MALAGA AIRPORT – 10 Km
Breakfast. Time at leisure and departure to Malaga Airport.
Disclaimer: The visits to the selected wineries may vary their chronological order. The visits to the vineyards are subjected to the weather conditions.
We keep the right to replace one visit for another of similar characteristics and quality.
