RSS FeedBook launches, in the UK anyway, are synonymous with warm, cheap white wine. The invitation to the presentation of Joan C. Martín‘s 
latest book, Los mejores vinos y vinateros valencianos (an extended Spanish version of Joan’s Valencia Land of Wine), was doubly enticing – it’s always good to listen to Joan, but equally impressively his standing in the Valencian wine community saw over a dozen bodegas from the Comunitat Valenciana provide wines for tasting after the speeches.
The event was held at the 8th floor restaurant of the El Corte Inglés on Av. Francia, with its terrace overlooking the Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciències. There was a worrying array of men in suits at the head table, but their speeches were short, impassioned (in the case of the heads of Valencia’s 3 Denominaciones de Origen: Alicante, Utiel-Requena and Valencia), and some were very funny – the guy from the Academia de Gastronomía de la Comunidad Valenciana. It was good to see Joan’s 30 years of devotion to the cause of Valencian wine, both as wine writer and winemaker, being celebrated. The West Indian intellectual C.L.R. James famously asked, “What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?”, and so it is with Joan that his writing goes beyond wine to span life and literature, wisdom and folly.
Joan Martín Book Launch Invitation
After the talks, the assembled company was invited out onto the terrace to enjoy some of the wines mentioned in the book. I wasn’t able to do the rounds, as I had been called by Bodega Primitivo Quiles (the Comunitat’s oldest winery) to say that they weren’t able to make it and could I lend a hand and look after their stand. I was delighted to do this, as I love their classically traditional wines and I have a lot of kindnesses to repay them.
After wrestling with the pull-up banner I saw that in addition to the 3 wines they had said they’d provide – their sweet Moscatel “Extra Extra”, the moderni-style Monastrell-Merlot “Roble”, their eternal Monastrell “Raspay” Reserva – the delivery company had mistakenly left 6 bottles of their historic Fondillón Gran Reserva Solera 1948. I was a bit nervous about opening this liquid treasure, but the public is no fool, and they made a beeline for these bottles. Some had never tried the region’s unique wine, and having heard Joan refer to it as the embodiment and pinnacle of the region’s ancient wine tradition, now was their chance.
We have several Russian friends visiting, who have a discerning sweet tooth, and the dark, golden, luscious “Extra Extra” hit their collective spot.
One woman offered to marry me, mistakenly thinking I was Primitivo Quiles in person and could get her a lifetime’s supply of the Raspay, I had to confess that I was an impostor but that she could get hold of the wine, for under 7 euros a bottle, at Bodegas Santander‘s two outlets in Valencia.
I didn’t even have to carry the remaining bottles, as Sergei used to work in a circus throwing hefty Russian acrobats and Russo-Californian sun-worshipper Greg Orduyan, when not creating amazing computer animation, is to be found doing press-ups on the beach, and they insisted on carrying everything. I held the banner ahead of them, though.
A great event, and I was sorry not to reacquant myself with the wines of the other bodegas, listed below (apologies to any I’ve missed out):
