# Acinipo

> Acinipo wines


## Posts

- [Payoyo cheese: Goat, Sheep, and a Super Gold](https://acinipo.eu/payoyo-cheese/): Payoyo cheese: goat, sheep, and a Super Gold A small cheese factory in the highest village in Cádiz province entered one of their everyday cheeses into the World Cheese Awards in London. No special batch, no competition-only recipe — just the same cheese they sell to anyone who walks through the door. It won a Super Gold, competing against over 3,000 entries from around the world. That’s Payoyo. What is Payoyo cheese? Payoyo is an artisan cheese from the Sierra de Grazalema — a mountain range that sits between the provinces of Cádiz and Málaga, about 30 kilometres west of Ronda. […]
- [9 recommended bottles of Rioja wine for under €20](https://acinipo.eu/cheap-rioja-wines/): Best cheap Rioja: 9 bottles under €20, honestly rated In Spain, you can buy a Rioja Crianza that spent three years in barrel for under eight euros. That’s not a typo.  Rioja doesn’t get the credit it deserves for value. The region produces nearly 300 million litres a year, its classification system is properly enforced, and the best bodegas have been refining these techniques since the 1800s. The result: more genuinely good cheap wine per square metre than almost anywhere else on earth. The problem is that most “budget Rioja” lists recommend the same five bottles. They’re good — but there’s […]
- [Cheap Spanish wines, honestly recommended](https://acinipo.eu/cheap-spanish-wines/): Cheap Spanish wine, honestly recommended Spain has more vineyard land than any country on earth. Much of it is planted with vines old enough to have lived through the Civil War. The legal ageing requirements are stricter than almost anywhere else. And yet the prices stay low. That imbalance is your opportunity. Below are the best cheap Spanish reds and whites — what to look for in supermarkets, what to order from online wine shops, and what to find if you travel to Spain. This list covers bottles I genuinely recommend, across two scenarios: wines you can buy right now in […]
- [The best Rioja red wines](https://acinipo.eu/best-rioja-wines/): The best Rioja wines Rioja makes over 300 million litres a year. Most of it is forgettable. The gap between forgettable and outstanding doesn’t always come down to price — which is the whole point of this list. Rioja divides into three tiers. For Crianza under £12, start with Ramón Bilbao 2022 or CVNE Cune 2021. For Reserva, the 2021 vintage is the best since 2011 — Muga Reserva 2021 is the standout buy right now, and Roda I 2019 is the finest bottle the category offers. For Gran Reserva, CVNE Imperial 2017 is the entry point and Muga Prado Enea […]
- [A guide to Ronda red wine](https://acinipo.eu/ronda-red-wine/): A guide to Ronda red wine Most red wine from southern Spain is an afterthought. Something warm and heavy that you drink with tapas and don’t think too hard about. Ronda is the exception — and the reason comes down to altitude. At 700 to 1,000 metres above sea level, with temperature swings of up to 20°C between day and night, the Serranía de Ronda produces reds with a structural freshness that has no business existing this far south. Full ripeness, but genuine acidity. Dense colour, but mineral backbone. The kind of wine that gets more interesting as it warms up […]
- [A list of the best Spanish wines, chosen by a Spaniard](https://acinipo.eu/best-spanish-wines/): A list of the best Spanish wines, chosen by a Spaniard I live in Ronda and work in wine, and this is the list I’d give a friend. Ten bottles you can actually buy, from a £12 fino to a Ronda red that makes 350 bottles a year. Each one is here because it’s the best example of a region, grape or style, not just because it’s famous. Everyday bottles (under £20) Wine for a Tuesday, or for when six people show up and nobody told you. If you want more at this price, I’ve written a full guide to [LINK: […]
- [Everything you need to know about Málaga Sweet Wine](https://acinipo.eu/malaga-sweet-wine/): What is Málaga Sweet Wine? Málaga sweet wine — Málaga dulce, as the labels and bar menus call it — is one of the oldest wine styles in Europe, and it comes in two opposite forms. Pale, floral and served almost frozen. Or near-black and moving like syrup. Same region, same denomination, completely different drinks. It’s the glass half of Málaga seems to be holding every August — and, oddly enough, the reason there’s an ice-cream flavour called Málaga. Here’s what it actually is. The two styles you need to know Think of it as choosing between a spring morning and […]
- [Ronda wineries worth your time](https://acinipo.eu/ronda-best-wineries/): Ronda wineries worth your time This is every winery worth visiting — what makes each one different, what a visit costs, and how to book. Best wineries Wine tourism What makes Ronda wine unlike anything else in Andalusia Fourteen kilometres north of here, a Roman city called Acinipo minted coins stamped with grape clusters in the 1st century BC. Wine has been made in these mountains longer than most European regions have existed. The highest vineyards in Andalusia 700–1,000 metres above sea level. Hot days, cold nights, thin limestone soil — the same geology as Chablis and Champagne. A wine region […]
- [Is mosto grape juice or wine?](https://acinipo.eu/mosto/): What is mosto? Is mosto alcoholic? In northern Spain — La Rioja, the Basque Country — mosto is unfermented grape juice. Zero alcohol. In Andalusia — Cádiz, Huelva, Seville, Málaga — mosto is a young fermented wine, around 9–12.5% ABV. Same word. Completely different drink. Is mosto grape juice or wine? Strictly, mosto means “must” — the fresh juice pressed from grapes before fermentation turns it into wine. That’s the textbook definition, and across northern Spain it’s exactly right. Ask for mosto in a Logroño pintxos bar and you’ll get cold, slightly sweet grape juice. It looks a bit like cloudy […]

## Pages

- [The wines of Andalusia](https://acinipo.eu/andalusian-wines/): The wines of Andalusia Andalusia makes at least three completely different wines: sherry aged under a veil of yeast, dry mountain reds grown at 1,000 metres, and sweet Moscatel dried in the sun. Most guides only tell you about the first one. One name, three different wines 40,000 hectares of vines, six protected designations, and no agreement whatsoever on what wine should be. That’s Andalusian wine in one sentence. Here’s the map in three: Fortified & flor-aged Jerez, Montilla-Moriles, Condado de Huelva. Fino, manzanilla, amontillado, oloroso — wines aged under a living layer of yeast or in slow contact with air. […]
- [Shop](https://acinipo.eu/shop/): Discover the wines of the south Here you’ll find our exclusive selection of wines from Andalusia
- [Basket](https://acinipo.eu/basket/)
- [Wine Duty Calculator](https://acinipo.eu/wine-duty-calculator/): UK Wine Duty Calculator Calculate how much duty is on a bottle of wine in 2026. Duty per bottle Full landed cost ABV (%) % 8.5–22% band · £30.62 / LPA Most table wines fall between 11% and 14.5% ABV. Fortified wines (sherry, port) typically sit in 15–22%. Bottle size 18.7cl — Piccolo37.5cl — half bottle50cl75cl — standard1L1.5L — Magnum3L — Jeroboam Number of bottles Ex-bond price per bottle £ Price before duty and VAT Number of bottles 12 = standard case ABV (%) % 8.5–22% band · £30.62 / LPA Bottle size 18.7cl — Piccolo37.5cl — half bottle50cl75cl — standard1L1.5L […]
- [Wine GP Calculator](https://acinipo.eu/wine-gp-calculator/): Wine GP Calculator Set a target GP% and a bottle cost to get the selling price per bottle and per glass — 100ml, 125ml, 175ml and 250ml. Reverse it to audit margin on a price you are already charging. The **Compare** tab runs a full wine list at once, and the same gross profit formula works for spirits, beer and cocktails. VAT defaults to 20% but is editable. Currency £ — GBP€ — EUR$ — USD Find selling price Find GP % Compare Bottle cost (ex VAT) £ Target GP % % Bottle size 75cl — standard37.5cl — half bottle50cl1L1.5L — […]
- [Jennifer Ilacqua](https://acinipo.eu/about/jennifer-ilacqua/): About Jennifer Jennifer Ilacqua Copywriter & translator at Acinipo Wines Jennifer Ilacqua grew up in Italy, where her father’s knowledge of wine was simply part of the household. He knew the producers, the vintages, the regions — not because it was his job, but because it mattered to him. That early exposure shaped how Jennifer thinks about wine: as something worth understanding properly, not just drinking. A philologist by training, Jennifer speaks four languages and brings the same analytical eye to wine writing that she applies to texts. At Acinipo, she covers the wines and regions she finds most worth writing […]
- [Nicolás Moreno Sánchez](https://acinipo.eu/about/nicolas-moreno-sanchez/): About Nicolás Nicolás Moreno Sánchez Writer & Web Developer at Acinipo Wines Nicolás grew up in a village in the Serranía de Ronda where his uncle has made wine for as long as he can remember — not professionally, just because he loves it. The first time Nicolás joined him for harvest, something clicked. What started as a family ritual turned into a genuine interest in the wines coming out of this corner of Andalusia. Alongside writing for Acinipo, Nicolás handles the technical side of the site — development, SEO, and everything that keeps it running. He built Acinipo to fill […]
- [Blog](https://acinipo.eu/blog/): Our blog
- [About](https://acinipo.eu/about/): Acinipo started with a simple idea: the south of Spain is full of wine the rest of the world hasn’t met yet — and the food to go with it. Born in the south. Written from experience. The name comes from Acinipo, a Roman town in the hills above Ronda. Two thousand years ago the people who lived there made wine — good enough that Rome put it on the map. Borrowing the name felt about right. Today Ronda is quietly turning into one of the most interesting wine regions in the south: vineyards above 800 metres, growers bringing near-extinct grape […]
- [Cookie policy](https://acinipo.eu/cookie-policy/): Last updated: February 2026 Cookie Policy Like pretty much every website out there, Acinipo uses cookies to keep things running smoothly and to understand how people find and use the site. We keep it simple: nothing creepy, no cross-site tracking, no selling your data to anyone. Just the basics needed to make the site work, plus some anonymous analytics so we know which wine guides are actually useful. What are cookies Cookies are small text files stored on your device when you visit a website. They are widely used to make websites work properly, remember your preferences, and provide basic analytics […]
- [Privacy policy](https://acinipo.eu/privacy-policy/): Last updated: June 2026 Privacy Policy Acinipo (acinipo.eu) is a wine editorial blog dedicated to discovering the best wines and gastronomy of Spain. What data we collect Contact forms If you contact us through the website, we collect the information you provide (name, email address and message) in order to respond to your enquiry. This data is not stored beyond what is necessary to handle your request. Analytics We use anonymised analytics tools to understand how visitors interact with the site (pages visited, time on site, traffic sources). This data is aggregated and never used to identify individual users. Cookies This […]
- [Acinipo](https://acinipo.eu/): The wine gets in first — it always does. Then the food, the table that never quite ends, the whole gastronomy of the south. Wine regions Wines Andalusian wine, region by region Andalusia can’t agree with itself on what wine should be. Good — that’s the fun. Start anywhere below. The taste of the south, from the vine to the table The south makes wines most people never get to taste — mountain reds, sun-thick whites, old grapes that grow almost nowhere else. We track down the ones worth drinking, region by region, and tell you where each comes from and […]

## Products

- [Pago El Espino](https://acinipo.eu/pago-el-espino/): In Bordeaux, Petit Verdot is a seasoning — one or two per cent, for colour and grip. Five kilometres from Ronda, at 900 metres, Cortijo Los Aguilares built their most-produced wine on 73% of it. 93 points from Peñín and James Suckling, around €23, and one of the most distinctive reds in Spain.
- [Yo Solo 100% Melonera](https://acinipo.eu/yo-solo-melonera/): The first wine made entirely from the Melonera grape in roughly 150 years — just 357 bottles in its debut release (December 2024). Eighteen years of recovery work went into it, with the variety only officially recognised in 2024. 15% ABV, fewer than 400 bottles.
- [Yo Solo](https://acinipo.eu/yo-solo/): Yo Solo is the prestige red wine from La Melonera, and it’s unlike anything else being produced in the region. It comes in two versions. It changes by vintage. It scores 95 points from the Peñín Guide. And you won’t find it at Tesco.

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