About This Vineyard
Vinos Ambiz is based near Madrid (Spain). It was created in 2003 by Juan and Fabio who still have their day jobs at the moment but are working on going full-time in 2011. This year (2010) we produced a total of about 6000 bottles, mainly Tempranillo and Airén, but also some somaller lots of Graciano, Garncha (Grenache), Shiraz and Petit Verdot; we produce young wines best drunk during the year, and also some Crianzas with 4, 6 or more months in oak casks.
We farm our grapes organically and make natural, organic wines with as little intervention as possible in the winery. We don’t use any pesticides, etc in our vineyards; instead we let the grass, flowers, plants, thistles etc grow and only cut them back when they get to high or too near the vines. This biodiversity ensures that lots and lots of different species of insects (and larger animals like birds and lizards) can live in the vineyard and each population is controled ‘natually’ as they predate on each other. If you plough up the soil between vines, you destroy many species’ habitat and the only insects that can live are the ones that attack the vines, and the only way you can control them is by spraying chemicals.
Similarly, in the winery, we don’t add anything or take anything out: no acid, no sugar, no water, no yeast, no tannins, no nothing! Every year our wines are slightly different, depending on the climate. We don’t filter our wines. We used to clarify them, but we’ve stopped doing that as we realized that clarifying takes out to many flavours and aromas. The only time we add sulphites is at bottling, if (and only if) the buyer expressly requests it, otherwise no sulphites at all. We don’t have anything against the reasonable use of sulphites, but for us the same principle applies as for other products, ie if it’s not necessary, don’t use it! Over the years we’ve found that it’s not really necessary, probably because of the high quality grapes and strict cleanliness and hygiene we insist on in the winery.
