The vineyard is concentrated between the small towns of Montilla and Moriles, in the southeast corner of the Province of Cordoba.
This is one of Spain hottest areas: in summer, the average day temperature is around 40°C! Under such a climate, growing grapes is not an easy task, and not so many varietals can resist. The Pedro Ximenez does and represents more than 95% of the plantations. Under the sun exposure, its sugar content gets very high, which does not help to make “normal” wines.
The region is specialised in sweet and fortified wines, produced with the same system as sherry, except that fino is not fortified.
The sweet Pedro Ximenez, aka PX, is the result of a specific process: after the harvest, the grapes are dried out on Hessian cloth, till they become raisins, then these are pressed into a very sweet nectar, so sweet it cannot be fermented completely. This is why it is fermented only to 1% of alcohol, then fortified with alcohol to obtain a 17% alcohol final product.
A lot of estates own barrels of vintages, which are more than 100 years old. To try to sell them may be a sort of commercial suicide, but the wines are worth the effort.