RSS FeedBodegas Vicente Gandia sells vast quantities of wine around the globe. Their wines are drunk by my in-laws in Moscow, and I’ve on occasion bought bottles in supermarkets in Mexico City so as to take a Valencian wine to parties. Behind this global reach is an energetic marketing division.
However, as a family firm, it is in the fortunate position of allowing itself to look beyond the obvious. They also do a good job of combining the local with the global. I well remember the chocolate bon-bons that they created in conjunction with the late lamented Choclatl to go with their Fusta Nova sweet moscatel.
Latterly Bodegas Vicente Gandia have added a visual feast to their undertakings, by commissioning artists to work with wine casks. 21 of the resulting works have now found a permanent home at the bodega’s Hoya de Cadenas estate in Utiel-Requena.
There are barriques painted by all sorts of artists, from figures of great renown to prisoners from Picassent gaol (as part of the work of Arco Iris Ríe). There is one by the retired bullfighter Luis Francisco Esplá.
I’m particularly interested in this cask painted by Inma Amo, not just because of its exuberant vitality and charm, but also because she is the wife of my friend Miguel Ángel Martín, who is uibiquitous in Valencian wine circles, as well as being an indefatigable wine educator with his myriad Enocata.com activities.
I’m pleased to see that it is Inma’s eyecatching work that is used in most of the photos of the opening that I’ve seen.
Here are the artists at the opening (in no particular order, the 21 artists are Uiso Alemany, Inma Amo, Monique Bastiaans, Carmen Calvo, Javier Chapa, Ramón de Soto, Mavi Escamilla, Luis Francisco Esplá, Cuqui Guillén, Artur Heras, Óscar Mora, José Morea, Natividad Navalón, Miquel Navarro, José Sanleón, Sebastián Nicolau, Vicente Peris, Cari Roig and Joan Verdú)
Congratulations to all concerned.
