AN OPPORTUNE MEETING

A selection of Conrad's fine wines

Last Wednesday we went for lunch with our friends Barrie & Liz, to one of our favourite fish restaurants in Ronda; Los Cazadores located at the top of the Calle Espinel (La Bola as it known locally)

To accompany our meal we decided to order a red wine that was produced locally and chose El Niño Leon from the Bodega Conrad, which was excellent.

Ronda is one of the fastest growing wine areas in Spain and produces some splendid wines. It is a perfect location for wine production as it has the advantage of being at an altitude that allows a cool period at night time, even if the temperatures during the day are high. This difference in temperatures is ideal for growing good quality grapes.

Anyway, another couple came into the restaurant and sat at the table next to ours, who were instantly recognized by our friends as Theo and Ana-Maria Conrad-Stauffer the owners of Bodega Conrad. They quickly spotted that we were drinking one of their wines and couldn’t resist asking us if we were enjoying it....to which we answered jokingly ‘No it’s rubbish’ Well, to cut a long story short, after a very pleasant conversation with them they invited us over to view their Bodega, which we immediately accepted and arranged to go on the following Friday. Theo and Ana-Maria are both Swiss, so as you can imagine their Bodega was spotlessly clean and very professionally run. They are both absolutely charming and their hospitality was second to none

Bodegas y Vinedos Conrad

The bodega is located on the El Burgo road approximately 4km from Ronda and only 6kms from us, as the crow flies! It has a total of 27 hectares within a beautiful natural place filled with oak, olive, almond and walnut trees, of which 6.5 hectares are dedicated to vineyards. Although they have lived in Spain for 20 years, they only started their wine business 10 years ago and today they produce 30,000 bottles per year; one for every vine.

Theo and Ana-Marie have exacting standards and are obsessive about every detail that go into making excellent wine. They are committed to making wine as naturally as possible and take particular care of every aspect in the vineyard.

The aging of the wine is carried out in barrels of French oak, which are stored in a beautifully designed cellar (shown above) with a capacity of up to 300 barrels. The majority of their wine is sold locally and can be found in most of the top restaurants, including Ronda’s famous Pedro Romero Restaurant located in the Calle Virgen de la Paz, but they also export to Switzerland and England.

The family crest

This wood carving was produced locally and given to the Conrads as a present