Day 5 – Spain: Vino en Ronda
I woke up at 7:15am and groggily got out of bed to get dressed for the day and pack up my bags. Today we were leaving Marbella and hitting the road to Ronda for a wine tour. A lot of people day trip to Ronda from Marbella or Malaga but based on other travel blogs I read, many recommended staying at least 1 night in Ronda to see golden hour and enjoy a slower paced evening in Spain. After breakfast at the hotel we were checked out and on the road by 9:30am. It was about a 1.5 hour drive to Ronda. It was a wild ride through the mountains and the roads were very windy. I actually had to pause from blogging because I was getting dizzy. As we made our way up the mountain you could see clusters of small white villages across the mountain range. We arrived at Hotel Catalonia Reina Victoria by 11am and our rooms were ready which was a nice surprise. We checked in and ordered a round of espresso martinis at the bar to wake us up.
At 12pm our driver and guide for the day, Nicky picked us up. I had booked us the VIP Wine Tour experience through Rootz Wine Tours. Nicky, the owner of the company and our driver was originally from England but her husband is from Spain and she has lived here the majority of her adult life. Nicky was extremely bubbly and had incredible energy, I am so happy we ended up booking with her. She lived a very interesting life and told us she went to university in France which is where she met her husband, then moved to Chile, Barcelona, Madrid, and finally settled in Marbella. She has her masters sommelier license and started this business from the ground up which was very impressive. She is living the life I want when I’m ready to be semi-retired in Europe and just give wine tours to people for fun and enjoyment rather than working a corporate 9-5.
Nicky told us there are 49 vineyards in the larger Malaga region and 28 wineries in Ronda. It’s not a trip abroad unless I have a wine tour planned and the main reason I chose to stay 1 night in Ronda was because of the winery selection. The first winery we went to was called Kieninger. We were greeted by Sonia, one of the winery workers, 2 adorable winery dogs and a cat. Sonia guided us through the vineyard, barrel room, and winery and told us about the history and philosophy of Kieninger. It was started by Martin Kieninger, an Austrian architect who later pivoted his career to winemaking. His philosophy for the winery was that while the world is moving to an automated machine way of life, he wanted to create something purely from nature and by hand. Thus, the winery is 100% organic and everything is done by hand — from picking the grapes, to pressing them, and bottling them. Even a natural wax seal is used for the wine bottles instead of a machine. The only machine use is the label printer. They have 1 primary logo used on their wine cases, which represents that everything is cyclical in life and the 3 areas of the logo are supposed to be the land, the sea, and the sky. Their motto is “vino hechos con amor” which means wine made with love, and it absolutely was, as we would later taste and experience during the wine tasting.
After walking through the vineyard we sat down in a table in the shade for our tasting. Sonia brought over some snacks and we tasted a Chardonnay, Rosé, a fruity red wine, and a fuller bodied red. The Chardonnay and Rosé were my favorite, the rosé especially was a dangerously chuggable pool wine for the summertime. I may end up having a case of it shipped to us when we get home. The rosé and fruity red were made from a grape I’ve never had before called Blaufrankish which Martin brought from Austria and planted in the vineyard. Nicky also told us that most of the vineyards in Ronda have about 8-10 grape varietals planted because no one knew what would grow well in this region originally. We ended up buying a bottle of the Chardonnay and Rosé wine to enjoy later this evening or tomorrow when we got to Seville. By 2pm we thanked Sonia for the tour and tasting, said our goodbyes to the winery pets, and were on the road to the next winery.
The second winery we were visiting was called Ramos-Paul. Nicky told us they closed down the entire winery for this private VIP experience which we were all very excited for. We pulled up to a villa on top of large hill with the vineyard below and were greeted by Pilar and Nane, the owners of the winery. They were both very friendly, humble, and excited to host us for the day. We followed Pilar up the front steps and entered the large, majestic villa. Nane asked if anyone wanted a beer which Stelios said yes to and also joked that no one has ever offered him a beer before to start of a wine tasting. Nane said beer is for when you’re thirsty to replace water, and wine is for enjoyment. We all laughed. The beer was called Cruzcampo , a brand that Pilar’s family started and eventually was acquired by Heineken. Jen and I also had one, and Nane was right, it was light and refreshing.
Pilar and Nane walked us through the villa into the various winemaking rooms. The wine vats were enormous and probably the largest I’ve ever seen in person and they poured us a young wine right out of the stainless steel drum. They also took us downstairs into the bottle room and then further into the natural caves where the barrels were stored. The tour ended going up the stairs into their living room home filled with wine books and memorabilia. It was very special and unique to get a behind the scenes look into their home, but also to be given a tour by the owner themselves.
Once we finished the tour we gathered around the table to share an incredible lunch and taste their wines. We had Jamon Iberico, cheese, and bread to start accompanied by the greenest olive oil I’ve ever seen. We were then brought a Spanish omelette which everyone agreed was the best one of the whole trip so far. For the main dish we had a delicious mushroom risotto, and for desert Pilar brought out chocolate truffles from the oldest patisserie in Ronda and a traditional Spanish dessert called Tejas (tiles) because they look like roof tiles. After we finished the meal there was plenty of chatting and laughing around the table.
Then for a special treat Nane brought out his flamenco guitar and he and Pilar started singing together the most beautiful Spanish love songs. Pilar has a beautiful voice and the way her and Nane looked into each other’s eyes was completely captivating. You could feel the love between the two of them reverberate with every stroke of the guitar. One of the song lyrics to the songs they sang said “if I leave this world tomorrow I would die happy” — I looked at them, then I looked at Stelios and I started crying because it’s true and that’s how I feel about him and the life we’ve built together.
By 5:45 pm we thanked Pilar and Nena for their hospitality, hugged them goodbye, and jumped in Nicky’s truck to journey back to the hotel. The whole ride back we thanked Nicky for an incredible day. It truly was the most unique and special wine experience I have ever had.
Back at the hotel everyone was slightly sleepy after all the wine and the sun. We changed into our bathing suits to lay by the pool and Stelios went for a swim. We only stayed at the pool for 30 minutes or so because it got cloudy and windy all of a sudden. We went back to our rooms and everyone was very tired so we cancelled our dinner reservation and ordered room service instead. Unfortunately we received a very sad looking pizza for dinner but the view and sunset from the balcony was beautiful and it was nice to just sit and relax after the days events.
By 10pm mom and Jen decided to go to bed and Stelios and I went for an evening stroll to walk off the pizza. It was a 10 minute walk from our hotel into the main downtown of Ronda, and it felt like we were walking to Chora in Chios. Ronda was the opposite of Malaga at night, where it turns into a quiet, peaceful town to walk through. We walked to the Puente Nuevo to see the famous Ronda bridge lit up at night. Stelios was impressed by the structure of the bridge and how massive it was standing between the two cliffs connecting one side of the town to the other. We continued our night time stroll and by 11:30pm we called it a night and got back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.
