Barranco Oscuro

In the heart of Andalusia, in the small town of Cadiar, the seat of the Bodega Barranco Oscuro, a winery owned by Manuel Valenzuela. Manuel, born in 1943 in Marchal, is the penultimate of nine siblings, and was sent to study with many sacrifices on the part of his modest family in Guadix, where he obtained a diploma and then to Madrid to become an expert in chemistry. The hectic city life is not for him and after many vicissitudes decides to return to the serenity of the countryside. At the end of 1979, after marrying Rose, with his friend George crown his dream and moved to Granada Alpujarra in Serra Contraviesa, where he bought the estate Barranco Oscuro, at 1368 meters above sea level. This large farmhouse was built in the late nineteenth century and dominated an area of over 100 hectares mostly vineyards and possessed enormous cellar very well organized. The arrival of phylloxera, however, had stopped all activities and had destroyed all the screws, which were replaced by almond trees. Manuel, before starting the cultivation of vines, a journey on the Mediterranean coast to update and acquire the knowledge necessary to begin a biological cultivation, absolutely unknown in those areas. The grape varieties are typical of Contraveisa such as Tempranillo, Garnacha, the Pedro Ximenez, who in 1984 Manuel joined his first international variety: Cabernet Sauvignon. These vineyards, which have an area of 12 hectares, are the highest in Europe, and have dry soils, poor shale, with low rainfall and are grown in a natural way. Also in the basement are bandits all chemical interventions in order to produce wines ecobiologici flavor unique and unrepeatable, born from the stubbornness of a man who wanted to fulfill his dream.