The impossibly charismatic Ramon Saavedra Saavedra made a pretty impressive sea change almost 20 years ago when he left his life working as a chef in the Michelin star restaurant Big Rock on the Costa Brava and returned to his village of birth to learn how to make wine with just one hectare of vines and olive trees inherited from his family. Little by little he grew and that one hectare has turned into six, all located just a 3 minute drive from his family home in Graena, 1080m above sea level, on the northern side of Sierra Nevada.
The summers in this part of Granada are brutal, which is why many people opt to live in caves, but the high altitude means that the evenings are cool so Ramon’s wines have a lot of structure but also maintain a sense of freshness. The red sandy loam soil is very mineral rich and melted snow from the mountains is used to water the vines. Ramon is definitely a firm believer of quality over quantity and always prunes his vines to ensure that they never yield more than 2 kilos of grapes per vine.
These wines always sell out quickly, which is a shame because they age spectacularly and if you can resist drinking them for a few years and hold them in the cellar, the pay off is definitely worth it.
