According to Vicente & Juan, El Camaleon is the "David Bowie" of their winery; it's subtle, elegant, intense, and provocative, all at once. Made with the extremely scarce Romé grape, the last indigenous red variety in Malaga, El Camaleon is very limited in production with only 2,300 bottles per season. Few hectares remain of these vines of which most are found in the mountains of La Axarquia.
El Camaleon takes its name from a peculiar quality of the Romé variety in which bunches of grapes on the same vine ripen at different rates; the different colours of the fruit look like the multi-hued skin of a Chameleon.
El Camaleon is medium violet in colour. On the nose, it's original and very nuanced with herbaceous aromas and notes of red fruit giving way to balsamic and mineral scents. On the palate, it's fresh and elegant, with a persistent finish.
Viñedos Verticales is a family endeavour started by Juan Muñoz, a 3rd generation winemaker, and Vicente Inat, a talented enologist with experience in several Spanish wine regions. The vineyards are located on the vertigo-inducing rocky inclines of Axarquia, Malaga, in view of the Mediterranean. The steep inclines of the vineyards have earned them the prestigious title of "Heroic Viticulture".
Their philosophy in winemaking is to work respectfully with the environment both in the vineyard and the winery. Tending to their vertical vineyards is labour intensive and results in small yields of high-quality wine with loads of character.
They work with old vines of Pedro Ximén, Doradilla, Garnacha, and Romé, but their crown jewel is the ancient Moscatel de Alexandria also known as Muscat of Malaga, one of the oldest remaining unmodified genetic lines of grapevine, originating from North Africa (Alexandria).
Annual Production: 2,300 bottles (The Club has access to 250 annually)
Type: Red
Body: Medium
Palate: Dry & Fresh
Finish: Elegant & Persistent
Grape Variety: 100% Romé
Viticulture / Farming: Sustainable Farming - Terroir Driven