Wines of Valencia

Posted by Ray O'Connor | Filed under Trade Tasting

I attended the Valencia Regional tasting on Liverpool st, London on Tuesday to speak to a few of the producers there. The area is made up of D.O. Valencia, D.O. Utiel Requena, D.O. Alicante and ID “Vinos de la Tierra de Castellón” (ID= Geographic Indication). They are producing good quality cava in the region along with reds, whites and a good deal of sweet wines. Muscat seemed to work its way into most of the white wines which worked in favour of the blend with varieties like Sauvignon Blanc and Viura.  Considering the max. summer temperature is around 35-40 Celcius in the summer it’s a wonder they manage to produce these style of wines in the first place. Altitude reaches 600 metres which is the minimum requirement you would think you need to preserve any acidity and freshness in this environment. The reds made from Monastell, Tempranillo and Cab. Sav.  were  showing the best, particulary from Bodegas Francisco Gomez. They are situated 1 hour inland from the coast in Alicante and have been practicing organic farming for the past 5 years and expect to be certified next year. They use informatics systems to irrigate the vines and, through the work of the two oenologues they employ, have managed to obtain a  nice balance to the wines. Their Sauvignon Blanc, Fruto Noble 2008 won a Silver Medal at the IWC this year and it is still showing extremely well.

Valencia Tasting

Another winery worth mentioning is Bodega Les Useres, who, I’m told, are the only people in the world to grow Bonicaire, a thin skinned grape variety which they use alongside Monastrell for making their rosé wine. They are situated in the region of Castellón, north of Valencia. Like most of the other Bodegas in the room, they are looking for a UK importer. You can take a look at who was present at the tasting, with all their details here.

Tags: ,

Permalink | November 25th, 2009

One Response to “Wines of Valencia”

  1. “2009 Valencia Community Regional Tasting UK” — the rest is silence - Wines of Valencia Says:
    December 11th, 2009 at 8:23 am

    [...] I’ve been keeping an eye and ear out for any response, and I can’t help thinking that this event has received disappointingly little attention. To be frank, at the time of writing it is two weeks since the tasting, in which 11 bodegas took part, and the only Google results I can see are a pdf of the event catalogue on the PR company Hispanic Consulting’s website and a passing reference in the International Wine Challenge’s blog. [...]

Leave a Reply