Cien Y Pico means a 'hundred or so' in La Mancha, the southern Castilian meseta between the Mediterranean and Madrid, the land of Don Quixote. A wide, dry, plateau 1000 metres above sea level, surrounded by mountains that offer just enough protection from the icy winters that turn directly into hot summers. Here ancient plantings of Tintorera not only survive, but thrive in the organically poor but limestone rich, red, sandy Miocene era sedimentary clay between the rocky limestone outcrops that cover the vineyards. These ancient, gnarled, free standing bush vines grown on their own roots with just 300mm of rain a year, yielding tiny but intense crops.
