On one of the tours that I ran this week was to Ronda. It was with a group of four fantastic women from Australia who were great fun. We are now at the time of year when grape picking starts in the Ronda area. In fact at the two wineries that we visited the first grapes had been picked a few days before we arrived. At the first winery we went to the grape pickers were hard at it picking Merlot grapes as can be seen in the photo below.
The first grapes picked at this winery were Pinot Noir. The grapes can be seen in the photo below undergoing cold maceration before the start of fermentation. What is curious is that grapes undergoing this process almost always smell of black tea, that is to say the leaves.
At the second winery that we visited they were unloading boxes of Tempranillo grapes from a trailer just as we arrived. These grapes were to be placed in cold storage for 24 hours before being put on the sorting table, through the destemming machine and into the fermenatation tanks the next day.
We had lunch at the second winery on the patio. Lots of great food was accompanied by five wines produced at the winery.
My clients and I had such a fun day.