Wednesday March 1st we headed inland for a jam packed day. We started off at La Melonera Winery with a private tour by Emma who was not only delightful but full of information on the wine growing business in Spain. We learned about its history and how the phylloxera blight in the late 1800s destroyed all the grape veins of Europe. It was only after grafting veins onto North American roots that Europeans were able to once again start growing grapes. This winery is quite young but is growing every year with a large cellar and the potential for great growth as it is a magnificent piece of property. We learned later that the owner is planning to sell off plots to individuals to grow their own grapes and produce their own wines. After filling our heads with a lot of information and a wonderful tour of the facility we were treated to a tasting of three of their wines along with some wonderful local tapas. Was certainly a great way to start our day.
The view from the tasting room of the winery. Not to hard to take!
The vines are looking a little barren at this time of year. This is a totally organic winery and even water is rain dependent
Even though all the grapes are hand picked from there they do use the most modern of machinery. This machine separates the stems from the grapes
They were bottling last years wine the day we were there. A very time consuming process
Wine is aged 9 months in these concrete eggs
These French oak barrels are used apparently for decades to age the wine
They are using some of the more traditional oak barrels for a wine that they are in the process of aging that will be of a higher quality
This is where our tour concluded and we enjoyed wines and tapas and some great conversation. A wonderful morning!
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