RSS FeedDays after giving a talk to the Costa Blanca Wine Society on the wines of the Moixent-Fontanars dels Alforins-La Font de la Figuera DO Valencia wine hotspot, I was invited to the press launch for “Terres dels Alforins“.
This is an initiative by the fifteen bodegas in the vicinity to join forces in projecting the special character of the locality and its wines. It is early days, and it was not made
quite clear how the collective was going to operate in practice, but the intention is there to join forces to promote the area.
In this respect, it is great to see wineries working together, seeing themselves as engaged in a collective undertaking rather than as rivals and competitors. It was also significant that the press event was chaired by the head of the Valencia Denominación de Origen, making it clear that this was far from being a schism, but is an initiative that has the approval of the DO.
Henry Kissinger wondering who to call
I plucked up the courage to ask a question at the launch, which went: “Henry Kissinger is said to have asked ‘Who do I call if I want to call Europe?’, and I’d like to put the same question in the context of Terres dels Alforins – what number do I dial to speak to the collective?”
I suppose underpinning the question is a sense that sometimes (often?) initiatives such as these take some conceptual and administrative shape, but only engage as an afterthought with the public at large, the most important people of all. It was explained that the website would be completed soon, and that all would be made clear.
I hope so, and it felt naughty but nice to be drinking wine at 11 a.m. on a Friday morning at the DO Valencia HQ after the presentation. The attendees were also given a monastrell vine root ready for planting (complete with some of the famously fertile earth from Fontanars dels Alforins). I’m pleased to say that I planted it today with due solemnity in the huerto urbano that we help out at on Sundays, and I hope that in due course it will flourish and be fruitful, which is also what I hope for the people and wines behind “Terres dels Alforins”.
For the record, the bodegas (and specified wines) in Terres dels Alforins at the time of the launch are:
La Viña (wines venta del puerto, casa l’angel, icono)
Clos de la Vall (pedro ximenez fermentado en barrica, crianza, tinto joven de cepas viejas)
Daniel Belda (verdil, ca’ belda, CS 08)
Los Frailes (moma, trilogía, blanc de trilogía)
Torrevellisca (bodegas torrevellisca)
Celler del Roure (les alcusses, maduresa, cullerot)
Enguera (paradigma, megala, blanc d’enguera)
Pago Casa Gran (falcata, casa benasal, reposo)
Los Pinos (los pinos 0%, salvatge blanco, tinto barrica)
Heretat de Taverners (mallaura, el vern, graciano)
Rafael Cambra (rafael cambra, el bon homme, minimum)
Antonio Arraez (a2, lagares, mala vida)
