Vino & Vinyasa: Spanish Wine & Yoga Retreat at Suryalila, Andalusia

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Suryalila Yoga Retreat Centre in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia has launched a new ‘Vino and Vinyasa’ wine and yoga retreat offering a brief introduction to Spanish wine, alongside invigorating yoga classes.

Nestled on an ancient olive hacienda on a dusty country road in the foothills of the Sierra de Grazalema in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, southern Spain, between the picturesque white-washed villages of Villamartin and Prado del Rey, lies a dreamy yoga retreat centre by the name of Suryalila.

Surrounded by a patchwork quilt of grassy green (or yellow, dependent on the time of year you visit) hills, sunflower fields and glistening lakes, Suryalila takes its name from the Sanskrit term meaning ‘cosmic play of the sun’. On a sunny day, when golden rays illuminate the sky and frolic across the landscape, it’s difficult to think of a more fitting name.

As the evening approaches, watch the sunset from the comfort of the cushioned pagoda stationed in the garden. When darkness falls, the hazy blue skies transform into a blanket of darkness jewelled with twinkling stars, while low-levels of light pollution make it easy to spot the creamy haze of the Milky Way and perhaps even the odd shooting star.

Suryalila: a special place

As awe-inspiring as Suryalila may be, however, it’s not simply the scenic vistas, the starry skies or even the magnificent Om Dome that leave you with the sense that this quaint Spanish yoga retreat centre is a very special place – it’s the community.

With Vidya Heisel at its helm, Suryalila was always destined to become a highly spiritual and invigorating space. Having practiced and taught many different kinds of yoga all over the world since falling in love with the practice in Poona (now Pune), India in 1975. Vidya now runs her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training Programmes and Advanced Training Modules from Suryalila.

Run by a close-knit team of local and international staff and volunteers, Suryalila benefits from a real ‘family feel’ and multi-cultural character. Whether you come to Suryalila for a yoga weekend retreat, a longer stay or simply as a hotel guest, you’ll become part of that family for the duration of your stay.

Miles away from the nearest town, this really is somewhere you can go to get away from it all. While it might seem somewhat isolated, this makes for a liberating experience and if you happen to have left anything important at home, most things you could possibly want or need for your stay can be purchased on-site from Shakti Boutique including sustainable clothing, toiletries, accessories and gifts.

Accommodation

Simple yet stylish, accommodation consists of individual double rooms, twin rooms, houses and dorms based within renovated Andalusian farm houses, with bespoke Buddhist influences dotted throughout each.

The cortijo is comprised of eight houses and two typical Spanish courtyards, one of which is lined with lemon and orange trees.

Alternatively, eco accommodation is available in the form of yurts, glamping tents and a purpose-built eco-house comprising of several individual rooms, in addition to compost toilets and eco-showers.

What to eat at Suryalila

Mealtimes are not taken lightly at Suryalila. Come breakfast (9.30am), lunch (1.30pm) or dinner (7.30pm), the banqueting table is laden with vibrant dishes and bowls brimming with gourmet organic vegetarian and vegan cuisine concocted by Head Chef, Gemma Russell and her talented team.

As a meat-eater, it was an interesting – and often challenging – experience, eating only vegetarian and vegan food for seven days. Thankfully, it was made all the more easier by how fresh and wholesome the food looked and tasted, and how good I began to feel after upping my veg intake. If you’re looking for somewhere to stay that offers amazing vegetarian food in Europe, this place definitely gets my vote.

With edible flowers, fresh herb garnishes, lavender sprigs and olive tree branches for table decorations, it’s every foodie Instagrammer’s dream. Just try and resist the urge to dig in until you hear the chef sound the gong!

Many of the ingredients used in the kitchen are grown on-site in Suryalila’s vegetable gardens, alongside organic olive oil and organic, free-range eggs from the resident chickens. Any ingredients that can’t be grown in the gardens are sourced from local organic farms, within no more than around a two-hour drive away from the retreat centre.

In-between meals, guests can help themselves to unlimited filtered water, tea, coffee and fresh fruit, with the option to order freshly squeezed juices and smoothies for an additional fee (€5 per juice, approx.).

A range of sweet and savoury snacks, local Spanish wines and beers can also be purchased from reception.

Yoga classes

Held daily at 8.30am (Vinyasa Flow) and 5.30pm (Restorative or Yin Yoga), Suryalila’s yoga classes take place in one of three yoga studios.

Widely regarded as one of Europe’s most impressive yoga halls, the aforementioned Om Dome holds up to 60 people.

A large white dome with a spacious, cathedral-like interior, this is a truly peaceful space. Whichever direction you face, you’ll be taken aback by the views that lay before you, whether it be the bright murals of Indian gods and Tibetan imagery stretching across wall, or the fuzzy green curves and ancient ruins peeking through the bay window.

Suryalila is also home to two other yoga studios, including the Ganesh Shala and the Moon Shala.

Sitting among the olive groves next to The Lotus Lounge massage rooms, the Moon Shala is an intimate structure (to fit around 15 people) fashioned from sustainable cob (a mixture of straw and mud) decorated with colourful paintings.

Meanwhile, the Ganesh Yoga Shala is a wood-cladded studio flooded with natural light adjacent to the mezzanine overlooking Suryalila’s lounge and dining room.

At the time of our visit, Suryalila were also in the process of creating a Garden of Stillness overlooking the rolling hills and valleys, providing an opportunity for meditation in the great outdoors.

Pamper yourself at Suryalila

Practicing yoga isn’t the only way to unwind and relax at Suryalila, however. A bright red domed building sitting just around the corner from the pool houses a cosy eco sauna, complete with its very own log-burner.

The saltwater swimming pool makes for an excellent plunge pool afterwards, if you’re willing to brave the icy cold waters during autumn in Andalusia!

With three massage therapists based in The Lotus Lounge, you can treat yourself to a day of pampering without having to step foot outside Suryalila. From traditional holistic massage and Thai massage to acupuncture and cupping, there are a range of treatments available, with prices starting at €70 for a one-hour session.

Danyadara: Suryalila’s permaculture project

Translating as ‘blessed earth’, Danyadara is the name for Suryalila’s permaculture project, set up to transform our relationship with the land.

The project seeks to reverse desertification caused by extensive farming by planting more trees and implementing sustainable, organic farming techniques, like planting herbs and using companion planting to control pests and encourage plant growth, as opposed to using chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

At the heart of Danydara is the flagship concept of a Food Forest, based on seven hectares of land which was once an industrially farmed wheat field.

Once the project is complete, Suryalila will have an even bigger selection of sustainable, organic fruit and veg produce for Gemma and her team to use in the kitchen.

A crowd-funding campaign has allowed for 5,000 trees to be planted in the Food Forest in order to regenerate the soil. The keyline formation of the trees also maximises their ability to harvest rainwater – of great importance to Suryalila, which suffers from water drought during the summer due to the intense climates.

Explore Spanish wine on the Vino and Vinyasa wine & yoga retreat

While yoga and wine may seem like an unusual pairing, it seems only natural for wine to feature in Suryalila’s offering. After all, the monks that were once based in the crumbling ruins you can see in the distance from Suryalila were known in the 17th century for their production of sweet Pajarete wine.

Suryalila’s new wine and yoga retreat is hosted by German-born Esther Mercedes Jürgens, whose love of wine led her to work in a wine shop in 2006, before moving on to wineries in Tuscany (her home for the last seven years) and Chile. Now, with a WSET Diploma in Wines and Spirits under her belt, Esther lives in Andalusia and hosts Suryalila’s Vino and Vinyasa retreat in addition to writing her personal blog, Vino Vistas.

Alongside daily and evening yoga classes (4-6 per retreat, dependent upon the date of your arrival), access to all of Suryalila’s facilities and gourmet vegetarian cuisine, the wine and yoga retreat includes classes on wine-making techniques and wine tasting, as well as excursions to two local bodegas, a traditional Andalusian cookery class and sight-seeing opportunities.

Wine classes and a brief introduction to Spanish wine

The Vino and Vinyasa yoga retreat features three classes on wine-making techniques, wine tasting and a session dedicated to the Andalusian tipple, sherry.

Wine-making and tasting

In the introductory session, Esther provides an overview of red and white wine making techniques and how to taste wine properly.

This includes a tasting of several Spanish wines including Catalonian Can Ràfols dels Caus Petit Caus white wine; Herrigoia Rioja from El Mozo Wines in Lanciego, Alava; Quinta Sardonia Sardon 2017 red wine from Terras Gauda winery in Castilla y Leon and Albariño white wine from Rias Baixas.

Sensory wine tasting

Following on from this, the sensory wine tasting class sees us presented with eleven black glasses filled with mysterious scents for us to decipher. Humans can recognise around half of all scents without training, but this increases to as much as 98% with practice. So, if we want to become expert wine tasters, we’re encouraged to get smelling as many scents as possible!

During this class, we also considered how different factors can influence our gustatory perception, or how we perceive certain aromas. For example, salty foods can intensify bitterness, while menthol scents can enhance acidity or tannins.

We put these principles into practice while tasting a variety of Spanish wines including La Encina del Ingles white wine from La Melonera, Ronda (2017); Valencia-based Bodegas Iranzo’s Utiel-Requena red wine (2016), and Aire de Milagro’s Finca Milagro red wine (2016). A few of these wines also featured in our wine and food pairing at dinner that evening.

Sherry tasting

Last but not least, our final wine-making class focuses on the Andalusian star that is Sherry, or Xérès. One of Europe’s oldest wines, this fortified wine is produced in nearby Jerez – often seen as the most historical wine-growing region in all of Spain.

By around 1st century BC, Spanish writers were documenting a wine industry in the region, allegedly started by the Phoenicians who founded Cádiz in 1100BC. However, it wasn’t until the second half of the 14th century that commercial success grew. Within a couple of centuries, Sherry had grown popular in England, where it was known as Sherris (meaning ‘Jerez’ in Arabic) Sack, with Sack being a general term for fortified wines from Málaga, the Canary Islands or Mallorca.

Later on, Sherris became Sherry and in 1933, Jerez-Xérès-Sherry received official Denominación de Origen or Designation of Origin (D.O) status), meaning that only Sherry produced in the so-called Sherry Triangle (an area between Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María) can be referred to as such.

Esther’s Sherry tasting class includes an overview of different varieties of sherry and how they are produced. Sherries sampled during our tasting session include Nave Trinidad Manzanilla Sanlúcar de Barrameda (which has its own D.O. status) from Bodegas Barbadillo, Pedro Ximénez Triana (Hidalgo, also from Sanlúcar de Barrameda), Rey Fernando de Castilla’s Oloroso and El Maestro Sierra’s Amoroso (both from Jerez).

Winery visits

Bodegas Rivero, Prado del Rey

Once you’ve brushed up on your knowledge of wine making, pay a visit to the oldest active winery in Sierra de Cádiz, Bodegas Rivero. Based in nearby Prado del Rey, Bodegas Rivero is a 155-year-old family-run business headed up by Salvador Rivero and his two sons.

The sweet Pajarete wine made using famous by the monks at Mount Pajarete some 300 years ago, visible from Suryalila as a white tower on a high hill, is still produced using many of the same techniques at Bodegas Rivero to this day, alongside red, white and rosé wines.

Stepping inside this quirky old winery is like wandering into a museum crammed with old artefacts and relics. From antique wine presses and destemmer crusher to demijohns and vintage wine bottles, this is an unmissable history lesson for any wine enthusiast.

While visiting Bodegas Rivero, you can opt to include a wine tasting along with local cured goat and sheep cheese, fresh olives and salted snacks.

Bodegas La Melonera, Ronda

After taking a trip back in time at Bodegas Rivero, it’s interesting to see how the processes in place at organic winery, Bodegas La Melonera in Ronda, Málaga differ. Established in 2005, La Melonera is much younger than Bodegas Rivero, with a far more industrial set-up (complete with its own refrigerated grape storage room, due to the long harvesting times) and more innovative approaches to vineyard management.

Our visit to La Melonera included an informative one-hour guided tour of the vineyard and production set-up with Gema, a representative from local wine tour agency, Milamores.

While most vineyards consist of trellis vines or small tree vines that often resemble bushes, La Melonera grow their vines around an unusual ring-shaped frame that allows greater control over the growth of the plants.

Rather than using pesticides and fertilisers to control the spread of pests and encourage healthy vines, La Melonera plants herbs known to deter pests, including rosemary, with an idyllic row of red rose bushes standing guard over the vineyard.

In doing so, La Melonera seeks to revive Ronda’s 3,000-year-old wine-making tradition, halted in the late 19th century by the spread of the American root louse phylloxera, which fed on the roots of European vines.

Today, the vision is paying off and the winery now produces an exclusive collection of unique wines known as MHV (Mankind Heritage Vines) made from indigenous varieties of grapes, some of have been virtually non-existent since phylloxera in the 19th century. This is in addition to their La Encina del Inglés and El Payoya Negra ranges.

El Golimbreo Cookery School, Ronda

The city of Ronda lies around a 15-minute drive away from La Melonera, dramatically set above a deep gorge dividing the old Moorish town of Ronda from the newer part of the city (circa 15th century).

Marvel at the jaw-dropping scenic views as you stroll along the Mirador towards the magnificent Puente Nuevo bridge.

Afterwards, take a tour of the quaint old town with its narrow, winding cobbled streets flanked by majestic doorways.

Once you’ve worked up an appetite, cook yourself a typical Andalusian lunch at award-winning cookery school, El Golimbreo, owned by Miguel Herrera.

While southern Spain is widely regarded as tapas territory, you might be surprised to discover that traditional Andalusian cuisine has a fairly strong emphasis on vegetarian food, as for many working-class families, meat was a costly investment reserved only for occasional meals or for farmers’ families.

During our cookery class, we learnt how to make guiso de garbanzos y verduras (chickpea and vegetable stew), tortilla de tagarninas (omelette with a hardy green veg known as tagarninas (comparable to artichoke and asparagus) and wholemeal cinnamon-infused bread.

Afterwards, we were invited to dig in and devour our creations, served alongside a beautiful cheeseboard and magdalenas de trigo sarraceno (gluten-free buckwheat muffins) with sweet raspberry coulis.

To wash all that down, we sip on more authentic southern Spanish wines produced by Málaga-based Viñedos Verticales, including a delightfully light sparkling wine from Chinchilla Wines in Ronda.

Getting to Suryalila

The nearest airports to Suryalila are Jerez de la Frontera (one hour), Seville (1.5 hours) and Malaga (2 hours). Transfers can be arranged for a fee.

Click here for Suryalila’s current retreat dates and costs

Have you ever been on a yoga retreat? Share your experiences in the comment box below.

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If you enjoyed reading about Spanish wine and/or yoga, I recommend taking a moment to check out these posts while you’re here:

• 5 of the best yoga retreats in Wales
• Wining and Dining in South-West Wales
• A Wine Tasting Journey Through Catalonia with Inntravel
• Pinchos Morunos or Pinchitos (Spanish Pork Kebabs)
• Top 5 Mediterranean Walking Holidays
• The Best Non-Touristy Things to Do in Tenerife, Canary Islands

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