This year sees a new initiative, the launch of an annual prize for “Dignity in Wine”, which has been awarded to José Vicente Guillem Ruiz for his 30 years of commitment to quality wine in the Comunitat Valenciana. It should be added that his work was carried out in the not always conducive environment of public administration, where murky interests have been known to intervene at the expense of altruistic devotion to the implementation and maintenance of standards.

So, Joan C. Martín continues with his tireless endeavours on behalf of the wines of the region. I hear of a project he is spearheading to recover the once famous (and occasionally infamous, dubbed “blackstrap”) thick, dark wines of Benicarló, exported massively as an alternative to port or to add body to claret. I am sure there will be plenty more to come about this.

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So, congratulations are in order, but I’ll have to wait until I travel to the UK before I experience the wine in the flesh alongside Enguera’s Casa Lluch verdil. One day I’ll understand the underlying commercial reasons for this.

The post Saleta Moscatel-Sauvignon Blanc from Alicante only available from The Wine Society appeared first on Wines of Valencia.

For those who care to read the whole article, I am including the relevant WTQ pages. The forest of footnotes and arcane references may not be to everyone’s taste, but I became facinated by the subject, and I’m pleased to have helped put this into the public domain.

Click on this link for the PDF of the published article: WTQ Red as Alicante Wine

Click on this link for the PDF of the original text submitted Red as Alicante Wine

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We set off at 8 a.m. as our host, Felipe, was busy harvesting his monastrell grapes and had said that he could only be available between 10 and 12. We arrived pretty much on time at just after 10 despite some intended and unintended detours — David, our excellent photographer and guide, was keen to show us the local areas of interest. Felipe was in the functional new warehousey winemaking area, and gave us the usual look at the stainless steel deposits and things, then he suggested we head over to the recently refurbished casa rural for elevenses. I should say that this lovely old house surrounded by vineyards looks ideal for a rustic weekend getaway at any time of year. There is a huge fireplace for winter and the thick stone walls gave us respite from the unseasonal late September heat Spain is experiencing this year.

There’s something about these almuerzos in or near bodegas that makes them a real feast. There’s the guilty pleasure of drinking wine in the morning, accompanied by the fact that these morning meals have developed to refuel hungry farmworkers who’ve put in several hours hard work after a dawn start. We didn’t let our sedentary morning hinder us, and got stuck in to the local delicacy of “tortas fritas” (a sort of fried unleavened bread not dissimilar to Mexican tortillas) with cured meats, anchovies and other good things. The organic Evine monastrell rosado was as effervescent and invigorating as ever, and we were soon moving on to red wine in the form of the bodega’s taut and tasty Llano Quintanillas 2010 (100% monastrell).

Then we headed off to the vineyards, where we had our photos taken while we  pretended to help with the grape harvest, while giving unspoken thanks that we were not sweltering in gloves and overalls while hand-picking in the sun like the tireless and cheerful mainly Ecuadorean team.

We were passed by Felipe’s father in his tractor transporting grapes, and there was mention of a grandfather. The family has made wine here for generations, and it shows in the natural, unfussy and relaxed style of their wines.

I picked up a few bottles of the amazing value rosado to brighten up a friend’s birthday that evening and the group followed David for a quick tour of the ancient town of Yecla, described so vividly by Azorín. Then it was off for a quite spectacular lunch at Restaurante Ankora, where we were delighted to have Felipe join us despite his harvest responsibilities.

We didn’t get up from lunch until after six, which is the sign of a good meal and a good day. I’m afraid I was unable to do that evening’s birthday dinner justice, but I was certainly put in the right mood by Evine and Yecla.

The post Yecla, heck yeah! Visit to Evine. appeared first on Wines of Valencia.

There is a bunch of top-notch winemakers in this climatically privileged location around Fontanars dels Alforins, La Font de la Figuera and Moixent, who are keen to experiment with new possibilities alongside their regular monastrells and such. Several wineries have come together to set up “Terres del Alforins” to promote the virtues of this landscape and its wines.

So, we have Los Frailes excited by the possibilites of the marselan grape (a a cross between cabernet sauvignon and grenache, first bred in 1961 near the French town of Marseillan), in their excellent Moma (made with MOnastrell and MArselan). Similarly, Heretat de Taverners does great things with Rioja’s graciano grape, which you would not really expect to find, let alone thrive, in these climes.

It was Daniel Belda whom I first heard talk about rediscovering the virtually forgotten verdil in his vineyard, which had previously just lumped in with the bulk wines the area was known for. His Daniel Belda Verdil was first produced in the early 2000s and showed that in the right hands this grape could produce crisp, refreshing, distinctive white wines. It had the added virtue of being unique to this area, a valuable asset in a wine world that some saw until recentl, with some justice, as increasingly homogenised (it is good to see hitherto obscure grape varieties popping up from places like Greece, Turkey, and beyond, with critics excited by the quality of the wines).

Some other local producers began to join the party. From La Casa de las Vides came Vallblanca , with its distinctive blue bottle, soon appeared, made mainly with verdil alongside macabeo and sauvignon blanc. Recent vintages have gewürztraminer in there, too, I see. Bodegas Torrevellisca were also in early with a verdil, but they now offer Palacio de Torrevellisca joven (verdil, macabeo and verdejo). Another predominantly verdil wine is Bodegas Antonio Arraez‘s a2 (80% verdil plus 20% moscatel and malvasía ).

Perhaps the most persistent and innovative winery to follow Belda’s lead as regards the possibilities of verdil has been Bodegas Enguera. They started off with an interesting straight verdil, but took off for left field by devoting all their verdil to an icewine: Verdil de Gel. Of course, the freezing of the grapes was technological rather than meteorological, but this sweet ice wine was an unexpected development. I remember the winemaker talking about the difficulty that he had with the Valencia Denomiación de Origen in getting them to allow it in the DO. I reckon that they liked the Unique Selling Point possibilities of verdil as a variety unique to the area that could produce interesting wines. Alongside the Verdil de Gel, there is now their crisp yet creamy Blanc d’Enguera (70% verdil, 10% sauvignon blanc, 10% chardonnay,10% viognier).

But over recent weeks my attention has been caught by a verdil wine from Enguera that is not available in Spain, but seems to be catching the eye of critics and consumers in the UK. This is their export-only Casa Lluch Verdil 2010. First it was Jancis Robinson in the Financial Times writing: “Really distinctive white made from rare Verdil grapes grown at high altitude to produce a smoky, tense wine with broad lemon and lime fruit.” She was followed by Fiona Beckett in the Guardian writing about Oddbins “Wine Bloggers’ Case” of wines selected by six wine bloggers: “Highlights are Casa Lluch Verdil 2010 (£8; 13% abv), a lush, organic Spanish white from a grape I hadn’t come across before, the choice of David Lowe of Bigpinots.”

There are online reviews at Window On Wine (“great fresh acidity which is accompanied by lingering lemony length“), SipSwooshSpit (“lightly aromatic fresh apricot and raw almond wine with a creamy roundness and a spicy tingle“), thirstforwine (“surprisingly full-bodied with a complex mix of tropical fruit, flowers and herbs but still a fresh finish“), and no doubt others.

If you’re in the UK, you can find Enguera’s Casa Lluch verdil (there’s also a red Casa Lluch tempranillo) at the renascent Oddbins. Congratulations to them for rising like a phoenix from the flames of administration, and also for finding this little bit of Valencia and bringing it to the attention of the UK’s enviably eclectic wine sector.

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I spoke to Joan C. Martín, who told me that he’d not been told anything about the removal of his blog, so I wrote to El País Customer Service,  and received the response:

“Buenas tardes,

El blog Abstracta Vinícola se ha retirado de la web de EL PAÍS por decisión de la delegación de Valencia, sección a la que pertenecía.

Un saludo,

El equipo de Participación de EL PAÍS”

[“Good afternoon,

The Abstracta Vinícola blog has been withdrawn from the EL País web by the Valencia delegation, to which it was attached.

Regards,

The participation team of El País”]

At least this was confirmation that this is a policy decision and not an oversight. Joan confirms that he had accepted the invitation to create a wine blog from the editor of the Valencia edition, Josep Torrent, on the condition that he should have a free rein to write what he chose, and was assured that was the purpose of the blogs.

The whole thing raises a series of questions:

1. What led to the withdrawal of Abstracta Vinícola? Was it Joan’s denunciation in his second post (“La Gloria de Francia”) of the project spearheaded by the regional ministry of agriculture for a single giant Denominación de Origen Valencia, removing at one fell swoop the historic Alicante wine identity, not to mention Utiel-Requena and Castellón (for Spanish readers there is a thread on the subject in Verema)?

2. What accounts for the behaviour of El País? This daily has seen itself as a bastion of progressive liberal values since its foundation during the transition to democracy. It is not just the possibility that the Valencia delegation may have bowed to external pressure, but also the lack of professional ethics and courtesy in simply neglecting to inform and explain to the author what they were doing.

3. It also undermines the notion of what the purpose of a blog is. I would expect it to be an opportunity to connect and interact more directly with readers, to act as a forum for the expression of opinions beyond those of the main newspaper edition. To act in this arbitrary fashion, with such a complete lack of openness displays a disregard for readers, let alone the author. Why bother to have blogs? Are they simply to represent more pages in which to have advertizing?

I should declare an interest here, as I translated and published over 60 articles by Joan C. Martín that originally appeared in El País that constitute the book Valencia Land of Wine (ironically with a foreword by Josep Torrent).

I have written to El País requesting further explanation and suggesting that this arbitrary action is not true to the spirit of the newspaper. I have left a comment in Josep Torrent’s own blog, in which he routinely and highmindedly denounces the corruption and ethical shortcomings of Valencia’s politicians and society in general, and I have sent a tweet to @JosepTorrentB, but no reply has been forthcoming. I also wrote about this on my Facebook wall.

I’ll finish by providing the English translation of my comment to Josep Torrent’s post “Es su vergüenza” [It’s their shame], followed by Joan’s rather forlorn response to an admiring reader’s comment to his final post.

My comment:

“Speaking of ethics, shame and concepts of transparency and respect for the citizen/reader, I am struck by the disappearance of the El País blog Abstracta Vinícola without warning or explanation (I believe also without informing its author Joan C. Martín). My question to El País Customer Services received the following brief response: “Good afternoon,

The Abstracta Vinícola blog has been withdrawn from the EL País web by the Valencia delegation, to which it was attached.”

It is in details like this, as well as the larger instances of corruption and absence of civic solidarity, that the attitudes that have contributed so much to the current situation are revealed. It seems to me that there is a contradiction between El Pais’s willingness to denounce the situation that we are going through and its own behaviour which reflects the very attitudes that have brought us to this pass.”

Joan’s response to a reader’s comment to his final blogpost (the reader wrote “Superb article. Carry on like this sr. Martín. By the way, it is getting harder and harder to find this blog on the El País site, a shame…”):

“Thank you very much dear reader. As to the blog, though it is still there if you type in the exact address, the Valencia delegation of El País led by the editor Pet Torrent, has decided to remove it from the Valencia region blogs, we don’t know why. I’ve asked, but have not received any reply either prior to or subsequent to the blog’s removal. Strangely, it was Mr Torrent himself who suggested I write the blog, I asked if if I was free to write as I pleased and would have the backing of the newspaper, to which he replied enthusiastically that I could write whatever I liked, but as we see this hasn’t been the case. I don’t know the reason, but other readers are put out and indignant at the way this has been done and it all looks as if it was my criticism of the minister in “The Glory of France”, so I’m sorry but as things stand I can’t post any more.

Regards,

joan c martín”

All in all, this is a sorry and strangely revealing state of affairs.

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“combine tradition with internationalization, to back innovation and quality, to promote wine culture, and to contribute to the welfare and progress of the society.

The values related to wine are also unchanged: premium quality, reasonable prices, and consistency from one harvest to the other.”

I can vouch for their success in penetrating international markets, as I have in my time bought Vicente Gandia wines in Moscow and Mexico City, all part of my boosterism of Valencian wines on my travels. They are in fact present in some 90 countries, and are the largest winery in the Comunitat Valenciana and one of the fifteen biggest in Spain.

In recent years they have opted to add to their comprehensive range of Valencian wines by adding wines from other leading regions of Spain. So, they have a Ribera del Duero (Dolmo), a rioja (Raiza), a verdejo from rueda (Nebla), an albariño from Rias Baixas (Con un par, a disconcertingly macho name — “With a pair of” — referring to the Spanish expression associating testicles and courage).

So, this is not a bodega that needs to have its profile raised, and I confess that the very ubiquity of their wines has me often looking elsewhere to bottles that I may not come across too often. Still, despite the scale of its operations, this is very much a family bodega. Founded by Vicente Gandía Pla in 1885 as a bulk exporter out of the port of Valencia, it was the founder’s grandson and current company president, José María Gandía, who set up the first production line of bottled wine in Valencia in the early 1970s with Castillo de Liria, still going strong. The fourth generation is firmly esconced now, with Javier Gandía de Cecilio in charge of marketing and his brother José in charge of exports.

I have been to a few events dreamt up by the ever-imaginative Javier since I first arrived in Valencia. I remember the launch of the Hoya de Cadenas Bobal Viñas Viejas in the port in full America’s Cup mode back in October 2006, the special chocolate created by the late-lamented Choclatl with the Gandia sweet moscatel Fusta Nova, the “art by the barrel” at their stand at the first Vinoélite, also in 2007 (and now quite a fine collection in Hoya de Cadenas).  I am particularly grateful to Javier for introducing me to the really excellent Restaurante Pelegrí in Chiva. I later went back with my father, and I think it is the only restaurant I’ve ever taken him to that has received his approval, both in terms of food and the atmosphere and the attentive friendliness of the service.

So, when I received an invitation to a tribute to José Vicente Guillem for his 25 years’  contribution to the development of Valencia’s wine quality and industry, I was quick to accept and be on the bus up to their fine Hoya de Cadenas finca on the morning of Friday 25 May 2012. When we got there, the tasting hall (with its eye-catching art barrels) had been set out for a tasting of ten wines, plus a surprise eleventh. Dr Guillen took us elegantly through the wines, without telling us exactly what they were, beyond grape variety. Readers of Spanish can see the full list and photos I wish I’d taken in this post by José Luis Contreras of Verema.

That was fine, but I was most impressed by the warmth and emotion of the prize-giving. This is carried off so well by the Spanish, without the verbal and emotional tongue-tied quality that characterizes the UK versions of this sort of thing that I’ve been present at. The presents, including a trip to South Africa, were delivered and received with open affection and sincerity. José María Gandía himself, president of the company and the very same who saw the company grow from that first bottling of Castillo de Liria to today’s international powerhouse, was overcome with emotion and simply enveloped José Vicente Guillen in a bear hug. There a nice sound-and-vision collage, and then we were on to the canapés.

It was then that I saw Rafa from Pelegrí, and I knew that these were not going to be your ordinary function canapés. They were simply superb, beginning with bright red and bright green cold thimbles of soup, then an endless supply of little concoctions, larger meat things, and small yet lavish puddings in a little glass. With the choice of a Vicente Gandia white, their cava and their Generación I, with the great main doors wide open showing the vineyards and countryside beyond teeming with life, it was really quite magical.

It was a privilege to be there, and reminded me that just because a company is big and successful, it doesn’t have to be soulless. I was reminded of Joan C. Martin’s poetic sign-off to his entry on Generación 1 in his Valencia Land of Wine, from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” in Leaves of Grass

“…bound my own way ready for trade, my joints the limberest joints on earth and the sternest joints on earth.”

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Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, I was happy to go to La Bodega de Alicia again, this time for a tasting of five wines from Bodegas Tobía. They have a new winery in Cuzcurrita de Río Tirón in La Rioja, but the eponymous founder, Óscar Tobía studied at the Universitat Politècnica de València, which is where he met the master of the evening’s cermonies, José Manuel Gallego, the winery’s Commercial Director, who is Valencian through and through and lives in the city.

Luckily, in my view, there was some mix-up over the projector, so we weren’t exposed to another winery video. It was explained that the bodega didn’t filter its wines, but used hi-tech grape-friendly methods aimed at harnessing the quality of the fruit alongside the ageing in cask associated with rioja. There was a lot of pride behind the information that eight of the bodega’s wines had been designated “Vinos Institucionales de D.O.Ca. Rioja“, that is wines presented by the DO as part of its international promotion.

The first wine offered was Daimon Fermentado en Barrica Blanco 2010 (56% malvasía and 44% viura). For a barrel-fermented white wine that spends three further months on its lies in cask,  it was elegantly pale (straw rather than gold). The nose was powerfully pineapple with other exotic hints (the fruitiness of the malvasía, with its 56%, imposing itself on the acidity of the viura). It was a well-made, enjoyable wine, falling perhaps a bit short of being lovable, but a good example of the high-class international style (in terms of that harnessing of powerful nose, good fruit and judicious acidity) white wines that Spain increasingly offers.

Though there was a rosado in the tasting, the next wine was the red Daimon Tinto 2009 (37% tempranillo, 26% garnacha, 24% graciano, 13% merlot — we were reminded that a maximum 15% of merlot is allowed in rioja wines). This was really modern in style, with its cold maceration open tank fermentation and malolactic fermentation in oak. It was inky and intense in clour and in terms of its dark fruit. The two Daimon wines (there is also a rosado) were clearly not aiming to be typically riojan, far from it. I did enjoy this wine. I’m all for old school artisan wines, but I’m also a bit of a sucker for these intense modern wines, especially when they are not all fruit and alcohol. This wine has more going on than that.

Now it was the rosado’s turn with Alma Tobía rosado 2010 (55% tempranillo, 35% graciano, 10% others) the original vintage of which (1996) was the first barrel-fermented rosado to be made in Rioja. It is a stonking, dark, rich rosé, which I’d be happy to drink on its own as a decadent statement, or to eat with plenty of dishes. from shellfish to chicken. I see it has just won a gold medal at International Wine Challenge Catavinum 2012.

I wouldn’t say that there is much likelihood of any of these first three wines being included in that list of “Vinos Institucionales de D.O.Ca. Rioja”, as they are not distinctively riojan in style, but the fourth wine, Tobía Selección 2008 (80% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, 10% Garnacha) brought us firmly into this great wine region, though still on the “new wave” rioja side of things — it is worth noting that the grapes for this wineproceed from seventeen different vineyards in Rioja, highlighting the way that the bodega focuses on sourcing quality grapes from the different rioja areas, and focusing on blending and state of the art winemaking rather than concepts such as “terroir”. Despite its eighteen months in cask and nearly three years in bottle, this wine was if anything a little on the young and nervy side — it has only just been released for sale. It had plenty of structure and good fruit, but just lacked a little fullness and richness in the mouth. Maybe it could have done with being left a while on the glass to open up, the problem with tastings as opposed to bottles over a meal. La Bodega de Alicia has the 2007 in stock, and I look forward to trying that, and the 2008 again in the autumn, maybe. Still, they must be doing something right, as on the day of the tasting Decanter released the results of their Decanter World Wine Awards 2012 at which this wine was awarded a bronze medal.

Finally, we had the bodega’s flagship Tobía Reserva 2006 (90% tempranillo, 10% graciano). Despite its twenty-five months in oak, the emphasis on fruit and body and overall intensity, plus plenty of alcohol as with all the Tobía wines, marked it out as modern in conception and style. Really rather a heady and delicious wine. I see that the 2001, 2004 and 2007 vintages were selected as “Vinos Institucionales de D.O.Ca. Rioja”. This vintage was probably left out to give the rest a chance.

Though one thing did strike me as I was writing this and looking for links to Tobía wines. Namely, begging señor Gallego’s pardon, how relatively few online references and points of sale came up through searches (in the UK I found only Barwell & Jones of the Coe Group, but not much in Spain or elsewhere, either). They are not industrially massive producers, so perhaps their wines are selling through nicely as things stand.

This was an enjoyable and revealing tasting, as so often in La Bodega de Alicia — I wanted to buy a bottle of the rosado and the Selección, but there was an enthusiastic queue at checkout, so I left it for another day. Still, that rush to purchase is not inevitable after tastings, and especially given the elegant way in which Alicia and her team gracefully forebear to urge those attending to get their wallets out.

This event showed us a bodega that is doing interesting things in a personal, consistent and hi-tech style. It is, of course, rioja, and it made me want to do a lot more exploring in the region, old and new, to begin to get properly to grips with it. An enticing challenge.

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But as I was heading to the checkout I was rather shyly asked by a doe-eyed young thing in a little black dress whether I’d like to try some wine. “What wine?” I asked.

“Some wine from Valencia”, came the reply. “From Heretat de Taverners in Moixent.”

I know and like this bodega, who kindly provided wine for the Costa Blanca Wine Society tasting I did a while back, but I made no mention of my awareness of their existence, letting the girl do her stuff.  I have on occasion been baffled by the absence of any knowledge or enthusiasm for wine in general or the particular wine they proffer on the part of these supermarket “tasting” opportunities. Both in Spain and the UK, they have all too often responded to questions beyond name and price of the wine with “I’m sorry, I don’t know, I’ve just been contracted to offer the wine”.

On this occasion, however, my old codger preconceptions about the sweet young thing handing across a first tasting glass with Heretat de Taverner’s El Vern 2008 were shown up for the ageist and sexist prejudice they were. I asked about the grape varieties, and quick as a flash came “Tempranillo, Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot”. She added that it was a “vino joven” (young wine). As it was from 2008 and we were halway through 2012, I said that it wasn’t that young. And she began to explain that this was due to the winery not wanting to define its wines with the Spanish categorizations of “crianza”, “reserva” and “gran reserva”, with their equation of time (lots) in oak with quality. “Vino joven” tends rather unhelpfully to be used for wine without any of these on the label, as here. This despite the fact that it actually spends nine months in oak casks and a minimum further year in bottle. This 2008 has only just been released to the market.

As my hostess followed up with a glass of the same bodega’s Mallaura 2006 (64% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Monastrell, 12% Tempranillo, 12% Garnacha Tintorera), explaining that this was a more serious wine, from the deeper red of the wine in the glass (a less intense, almost brick-red towrds the rim denoting its added maturity — 14 months in oak casks, though again no “crianza” category specified).

I said that I’d actually enjoyed El Vern more. I found the oak a little obtrusive in the grander bottle. Maybe it was the football match that was minutes away, but I enjoyed its energy and verve. We amicably debated the relative merits of the wines for a bit.

I had the sense that my companion might not have actually had many buyers over the course of the evening. This is no criticism of her or the shoppers, it was refreshing to be communicated to rather than being given any hard sell. Anyway, I bought a bottle of El Vern, which went very well both with the football and the roasted goat’s leg, a challenging combination.

As I left, I was given a leaflet with information about visiting the bodega, with lots of enthusiasm about how beautiful it is at this time of year, with blankets of poppies all around and the vines bursting into life. I hope that the bodega realises what a wonderful ambassador they have here. The enthusiasm was genuine and contagious.

At checkout I bumped into Rodolfo Valiente of Vegalfaro doing his Saturday shop. I apologized for not having a wine of his in my basket, but he graciously said that any purchase of Valencian wine was fine with him. My bet on Chelsea to win in 90 minutes (odds of 4-1 against were too tempting to pass up) didn’t come good, but the unexpected encounters and bottle, and Chelsea’s eventual win, made for a celebratory evening.

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Joan C. Martín's Abstracta Vinícola blogpost (La Gloria de Francia)

So, off we went, chewing the fat — in every sense, as we always have the “almuerzo popular” (a titanic egg, fried potato and ham sandwich with vino con gaseosa) at Restaurante Fiesta in Requena. We shared opinions about the Pancho Campo–Jay Miller saga, and then the misguided plan to create a giant Valencia denominación de origen that is being surreptitiously pushed by Valencia’s agriculture ministry.

We dropped by Dominio de la Vega, then the Utiel-Requena DO, Pago de Tharsys (whose Pago de Tharsys Millésimé Rosé Brut Reserva 2009 has just been awarded a “Grand Médaille d’Or” at the 2012 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles) and the fine Swiss-owned Casa lo Alto, of which Joan was once director.

As we were driving back, still chatting away, Joan asked what I thought of his blog. I confessed that its very existence was news to me. So, when I got home I googled El País and “La gloria de Francia“, which he’d told me was the title of his most recent blogpost, and it came straight up. In this piece, Joan contrasts the love, value and respect that the French have for their localities and local products, which in turn enables them to sell them with conviction and efficiency. Joan points out that Corbières, with its 13,500 hectares of vines (to DO Valencia’s 15,000), has profits fifteen times those of Valencia’s.

Joan writes:

“why have we allowed the destruction of the Valencian res publica by the Agriculture Ministry, with its ministerial order destroying the Valencian denominaciones de origen signed 36 hours before the last regional elections, when the period of government was over, the government in purdah, the regional parliament closed, all for the benefit of a bunch of monopolists? Isn’t it the idea of prizing the value in names that saves a country and generates the wealth produced by the soil and its plants”

He contrasts what appears to be an attempt to enable the largest wineries to buy their grapes from anywhere in Valencia — to their economic benefit, but to the detriment of the specific local character that underpins the different Valencia region wine areas: DO Valencia, DO Utiel-Requena, DO Alicante, Indicación Geográfica Protegida Castelló, and not forgetting the excellent Cava produced in Requena). It is worth mentioning that the regional minister of agriculture, Maritina Hernández Miñana, has as her right-hand woman Marta Valsangiacomo Gil, part of the fifth generation of the family currently at the helm of heavyweight Bodega Cherubino Valsangiacomo. I think we may be in conflict of interest territory.

Joan finishes by contrasting this gigantism with the philosophy of ethical and sustainable smallholding that underpins Joan Cascant’s Microvinya and excellent Celler la Muntanya. It’s not just sentiment and romanticism, either. Scientists at the University of Valencia have published research showing that state of the art optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES technique apparently) can detect the specific origin of wines that are close geographically. 67 wines from Valencia, Utiel-Requena, Yecla and Jumilla, in this study, can be identified as a result of differences in soils, vines, microclimates and even the  particular storage systems used in the production of the wines.

I’m with Joan Martín all the way on this.

“Vive la République!“, “Vive la Résistance!” and “Vive la différence!”

Vinos de España y Portugal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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