Sparkling, orange wine, red and white are the four options he has made, expanding Ronda’s range of references.

The most extreme natural wines now have their own version in Ronda, created by winemaker Simbad Romero. “Wines free from regulatory ties, chemistry, what people will say, complexes… free from everything,” according to their creator.

Four options in the form of sparkling wine, orange wine, white and red that in just five months have gone from grapes in their respective vineyards to being bottled and on the market. “It can be done; the proof is that they are here and they are very good,” Romero replies firmly when asked whether it is possible to make quality wines in such a short time.

Only 880 bottles have been made in this first vintage, and they will not be sold in shops. Sales will be direct to consumers and to selected restaurants that believe in this type of product. Romero also intends to take them beyond Spain’s borders, where demand is even greater.

“The aim is to be in specific restaurants in Ronda, Malaga, Seville, Marbella, Madrid or Catalonia, and then to focus on export,” says Romero, who is fully convinced of his commitment to natural winemaking. “They are lightly alcoholic grape juices produced naturally; they contain nothing else,” he adds. The wines sit between 11 and 12 degrees of alcohol. The grapes also come from vineyards farmed organically and, in some cases, with biodynamic practices.

Simbad says that with these wines he wants to show people who are wary of natural wines that they can be made correctly and without faults. “It is true that there is a percentage of natural wines that leave a lot to be desired, just as there are conventional wines that do,” Romero notes.

In that sense, he explains that “some people try one average natural wine and think they are all the same. That is why I want to help wine lovers understand that there are natural wines without faults: honest, aromatic wines with a very different profile from what currently exists in Ronda, because they are very light and fresh.”

They also show a slight haze because they are not filtered or stabilised, but “they are very clean on the nose and palate; one thing does not exclude the other,” says Simbad Romero.

These wines have no ageing of any kind, a decision made by the winemaker because he believes that, in this case, the grape should express itself with full intensity without losing the character given by the soils where it was grown.

He says he launched the project at the request of wine lovers and clients who know the wines of this same type that he makes in Manilva and Galicia, and who suggested he do something similar in Ronda.

With the wines made in the Ribeira Sacra, he managed to enter Diverxo, Dabiz Munoz’s restaurant, which has three Michelin stars. He believes that would not have been possible with a conventionally made wine.

More protected

Simbad Romero says this type of winemaking gives the wines greater protection once opened thanks to the powerful population of microorganisms they retain inside. Once opened, this helps prevent external agents from entering and altering them.

“They are more exposed while they are being made, but afterwards we have tested leaving them open for four months, tasting them each week, and they were perfect. They are wines that become very stable over time,” he says.

As for the belief that they are especially sensitive to temperature, he says they are “like all wines”.

He even believes that, in the long term, they have a better evolution than conventionally made wines. In this regard, he points to a longer optimal drinking window. “I think they could be very interesting for cellaring,” he says.

Four wines

Sparkling: Made by the ancestral method with Sauvignon blanc. Fermented cold and bottled shortly before the end of fermentation.

Orange Wine: Made with Sauvignon blanc grapes, macerated with their skins for four or five days.

Red: 100% Syrah. Short carbonic maceration for ten days and then treated like a white wine, with the skins removed.

White Moscatel de Alejandria: For one month it remained in a hermetically sealed tank undergoing carbonic maceration and intracellular fermentation, then was pressed by hand.

Serving recommendation: Sparkling wine (6-8 degrees), white Moscatel and Orange Wine (10 degrees), and Syrah red (14 degrees).

Original article: https://www.gastroronda.com/2024/12/31/los-vinos-naturales-extremos-de-simbad-romero-llegan-al-mercado/