Our First Overseas Wine Tasting in Ronda, Spain

On April 20, 2021April 20, 2021 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn SpainLeave a comment

We have had the opportunity to enjoy wine tastings in several countries, but our very first experience was in the wonderful town of Ronda in Spain. We took a tour from Estaponia, which is located in the Costa Del Sol, to take us from the beach to the mountain town with it’s historic bridge. It was an amazing time travelling throughout the region and exploring the many sites that the area has to offer. We rented a car while we were there, but when we visited Ronda, we hired a guide to drive us and take us to an organic wine vineyard as well as one of the many olive vineyards that dominate the hillsides. It was probably a wise decision not to drive that day as the wine tasting was rather generous.

We traveled to Spain in November, so it was the off-season as far as tourists goes, so we ended up with a private tour and tasting at the Joaquin Fernandez Vineyard. The wine was amazing and the views from the vineyard were spectacular. The vineyard was completely organic and at the ends of each row of vines were a variety of plants that attracted bees and insects that were natural predators to insects that could harm the grapes. After the tour was the tasting. For each wine, we were poured a full glass and the owner explained which grapes were used and why. In addition to the wine, we had a meat and cheese tray as well as bread sticks to help cleanse our palate. The owner would not continue on to the next wine until we finished our glass, so we were feeling quite good by the time we finished several glasses of wine.

From there we were off to visit an olive vineyard where they still hand press the olive oil. It is a slow process where they continuously add pads to the press as they slowly crush all of the oil out of the olives. Tasting freshly pressed olive oil was amazing, there is truly nothing like it. It is truly a labor of love, but at the same time, it is definitely labor intensive. In addition to pressing their own olives, the surrounding vineyards would sell their olives to them to be pressed and sold by them. Everywhere you go in southern Spain, you are surrounded by olive trees and we were tempted several times to just pull our car over and grab some fresh from the branches. After being spoiled by having such fresh olives, we have found ourselves to be very picky about the olives that we eat here in the States.

Ronda, itself, is a beautiful town with an incredible bridge that connects the old and new parts of the city. It is home to the oldest bull fighting ring in Spain, although it is much smaller than ones that you can find in Seville or Madrid. Sitting high upon the cliffs, the views from Ronda of the surrounding area is unbeatable. It is certainly worth making Ronda a destination to visit if you’re in southern Spain. It has all of the charm one would expect of a village, but has the amenities of a small city. We sat and had coffee in one of the hotels and simply soaked in the atmosphere.

There were many things about our trip to Spain that were remarkable, but visiting Ronda and doing the wine tasting was definitely one of the best experiences of the trip. Living in Colorado with all our mountains, it was surprising to us how similar the terrain of Spain was to much of the southwest. The drive to Ronda, through the rugged mountains, was an adventure itself, but well worth the effort. The wine tasting in Ronda was a perfect introduction to tasting wines during our travels and we look forward to our next opportunity to sample wine and tour a vineyard in another exotic location, it is an experience that can’t be beaten.

Experimenting with Wine

On July 27, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Wine_Beer_Cocktails9 Comments

We are certainly guilty of having a favorite wine that we purchase whether for home or at a restaurant, but trying new wines is the only way to discover wines that may become your new favorite. It isn’t just the brand of wine that you buy, but also the varieties of grapes that you choose. Sure, you may love chardonnay for your white or merlot for your red and that might be what you like the most, however, if you are willing to experiment, you might just find alternative choices.

Let us be clear, we are not wine experts and are definitely not wine snobs. We like what we like and are willing to pair wines with food based on our tastes and mood, not some contrived rule about what you’re supposed to have with certain foods. Red wine with fish, why not? If it tastes good to you then you should feel free to drink what you like with whatever you want. The same is true with trying different wines with different foods than you have in the past, you may never know what combination turns out to trip your flavor trigger.

One of the things that we did to try and help us grow our wine experience was to join a wine club. Obviously there are several out there, but most of them have reasonable prices and you can usually choose to get all red, all white, or a mix. We chose to get a mix of wines and the white wines will often contain a blush of some sort, which has changed our opinions on blush wines to some extent. We used to think that they were all too fruity, but that hasn’t turned out to be the case, we have found some of them to be more robust in flavor.

Don’t worry, we won’t be trying to tell you what wine to buy or trying to come across like a sommelier. Occasionally, we might let you know about a wine that we’ve found interesting, but mostly trying new wines is just something that we like to do for ourselves. If you like wine, try experimenting with different grape varieties, different brands, different flavor profiles, etc. Sometimes you’ll find some duds that you don’t like at all, but there will be other times where you’ll find that special wine that becomes your new favorite.

Wine Tasting in Ronda

On October 12, 2015April 9, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Spain2 Comments

There is nothing better than doing a wine tasting, especially when travelling to foreign countries. Two years ago, we spent two weeks in Estaponia, Spain in the Costa Del Sol. It was an amazing time travelling throughout the region and exploring the many sites that the area has to offer. We rented a car while we were there, but when we visited Ronda, we hired a guide to drive us and take us to an organic wine vineyard as well as one of the many olive vineyards that dominate the hillsides. It was probably a wise decision not to drive that day as the wine tasting was rather generous.

There were many things about our trip to Spain that were remarkable, but visiting Ronda and doing the wine tasting was definitely one of the best experiences of the trip. Living in Colorado with all our mountains, it was surprising to us how similar the terrain of Spain was to much of the southwest. The drive to Ronda, through the rugged mountains, was an adventure itself, but well worth the effort. We look forward to our next opportunity to sample wine and tour a vineyard in another exotic location, it is an experience that can’t be beaten.