Vinos Ambiz

The dream of Natural Wine making

Fabio’s story is no ordinary one. Oh well, we know – if you’ve read through our other beloved producers’ pages, you’ll find similar life choices: quitting their day jobs and giving it all up for a romantic venture: moving to the countryside and devote themselves to wine making. Although we don’t have the delusion that it’s all that easy as it sounds – the Vinos Ambiz story is still a bit different.

Fabio Bartolomei was born in Scotland to Italian immigrant parents. He grew up there and studied accounting and finance. In 2001, he decided to move to Spain and started making wine West of Madrid. On the side, Fabio had been working as a translator which was his day job for almost 20 years. It was only in 2019 when he became a full-time winemaker. That happened as a result of having been buried in entrepreneurial tasks connected to his business that had been growing big time.

A one person job

Fabio started to work out of caves and garages in the area of Villarejo and the neighbouring villages. It was only recently when he moved into a spectacular building of an old coop that he’s now slowly renovating.
This guy doesn’t have former experience or a degree in winemaking – for some time he didn’t even realize it was natural wine he’d been producing!! He just knew he did not want to use any pesticides or additives.

The first type of grape he worked with was the indigenous Airen. When he became independent from his original partner, he started experimenting with other grape varieties and winemaking styles.

Wines made of 100%grapes

His wines are often mistaken for fruit juices given their charming look, very hazy and orange in color. His wines are probably the funkiest in our onlineshop, the flavours varies from vintage to vintage, the taste can go from super peachy and aromatic wines to nutty and yeasty. Every bottle is an amazing experience and changes over time, the wine is literally alive.

Unfiltered, unfined, no sulphites added, no added colorants, no preservatives, no yeast or any other industrial product whatsoever, these are some of the things he does not add or do to his wines, which are normally allowed in conventional wine making. He proudly list them on the back label of his wines.

The distinctive label on his orange wines was inspired by a vineyard he bought with Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and a large oak tree in the middle. This oak tree is the one sketched up his funky orange wines.

The beginning of this story might have been different from the others’ but at the end we arrive at the same intention: “All I aspire to in this life is to make good, terroir-expressing wine!”.

Vinos Ambiz’s webpage