Ronda Wine Tasting: Mountain Vineyards at 900m and a Grape Brought Back From Extinction

The Serranía de Ronda grows wine at 700 to 900 metres, which is high enough to change what ends up in the glass. Cool nights slow the ripening and widen the gap between day and night temperatures, so the reds come out more structured and higher in acidity than anything grown down on the coast. Most of it never leaves Andalusia.

The region has somewhere between 20 and 25-plus commercial bodegas, depending on whose count you take, and a handful of them take visitors properly. One charges €25 a head for a guided tasting and publishes it openly, which on this coast is unusual enough to be worth leading with.

How many bodegas, actually

Worth settling first, because the number in circulation is wrong. You will see "around 30 bodegas" quoted widely, including on this site until today. No source we could find supports it.

What the sources actually say: a University of Málaga report counts 23, with a named list. A 2022 trade report also says 23. A wine-tour operator says "more than 25". Older material says 21. So the honest figure is 20 to 25-plus, and the range itself tells you something true about a small region where bodegas open and close.

The bodegas that take visitors

Four are reliably open to visitors and confirmed operating in 2026. All four work by appointment rather than walk-in, which is the single most important thing to know before driving up.

Cortijo Los Aguilares is the one to book if you want a straightforward, priced, independent visit. €25 per person covers roughly 80 minutes, a guided tasting of three wines and an aperitif, minors go free, and it runs from two people upwards. That is a real published price rather than an enquiry form, which makes planning around it possible.

Descalzos Viejos is the atmospheric one – the winery occupies a restored 16th-century monastery, and the building is a substantial part of what you are going for.

F. Schatz works organically and biodynamically, and runs the longest visits of the four at an hour and a half to two hours with four to six wines poured. It is the choice if the winemaking itself is the interest rather than the setting.

Bodega Lunares is the outlier in a useful way: it publishes fixed hours, Monday to Saturday mornings, closed Sunday. If your day in Ronda is not planned to the hour, it is the easiest to fit in.

What they grow, and the grape that nearly went

The reds run through Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Petit Verdot; the whites through Sauvignon Blanc and Moscatel.

The interesting one is Romé, a local variety that had almost disappeared before growers began bringing it back from the 1990s, supported by a conservation project in 2006. The La Melonera estate is the name most associated with reviving Romé and other near-lost local varieties. A handful of bodegas now grow it, and it is the thing to ask for if you want to taste something you genuinely cannot get elsewhere.

Harvest runs late September to mid-October, and visiting then means you may see picking and pressing rather than an empty cellar. It is also when the bodegas are busiest and least able to accommodate a casual booking, so book further ahead than you would otherwise.

Doing it on a tour

If you are coming from the coast without a car – and a tasting day is a poor fit for driving anyway – a guided tour handles both problems.

The established option from Marbella is run by Rootz Wine Tours: a small-group day, two bodegas, eight wines across both, an Andalucian lunch on a vineyard terrace, and time in Ronda itself between the two stops, over about seven and a half hours with hotel pickup. It is one of the more substantial options in the day trips from Marbella guide.

Its price has moved, and moved unevenly. This page previously quoted around €189, and that figure is no longer supported. Current listings run from about £152 on one platform to $207–223 on others, and the operator publishes no fixed rate.

We are not going to convert those into a single euro number and present it as fact. Check the price on the platform you intend to book through – the spread between them is real money.

Fitting it into a Ronda day

A tasting is not a bolt-on to a sightseeing day – the bodegas sit outside the town, the visits run 80 minutes to two hours, and someone has to not be drinking.

The workable shapes are a tour that handles the driving, or a full day with an overnight in Ronda. Trying to add a winery to a bus day trip from the coast does not fit, particularly given how few services run – the getting to Ronda guide sets out just how tight the timetable is.

If the town itself is the priority and the wine is a maybe, do the Ronda day trip properly first and save the bodegas for a return visit. They are worth their own day.

FAQ – Ronda wine tasting