Inma Badillo

Arribes, Castilla y Leon

Inma Badillo is not a winemaker born into a winery, but her path is a familiar tale within the wine world. As an outsider who became deeply passionate about wine, her journey began in 2006 while she was a marketing manager at a technology firm. This sparked a growing interest in wine, leading her to leave her office job in 2010 to open a small wine bar. When her bar opened in 2011, it was modest in size—described by her as “just about two people could sit and the others had to stand”—which allowed for a frequently changing wine list. Over the next nine years, she developed numerous industry contacts and honed her taste for low intervention winemaking.

The COVID-19 pandemic marked a turning point, forcing the closure of her wine bar due to its small size. Fortunately, Inma had been collaborating with Alfredo Maestro, one of our producers, and this relationship helped her transition into winemaking. In 2019, she had already crafted her first wine.

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Inma chose to establish her vineyards in Arribes, close to the Portuguese border. This region is known for its hot and arid climate, offering the potential to discover old, valuable vineyards. She found several “viñedos bastardos” (bastard vineyards), so-called because they are not planted with a single variety. These vineyards are mixed planted as a safeguard against frost, with Tempranillo and other white and red varieties intermingled to ensure a consistent yield even in adverse years.

Inma separates the white and red varieties to craft distinct wines, harvesting all the grapes needed for each wine on the same day. This method achieves a unique balance, as the grapes are picked at varying degrees of ripeness. In the cellar, Inma practices minimal intervention, with low sulfur additions and no filtration, embodying her commitment to authenticity and quality in her wines.