Don’t even tell me that you didn’t think “Orange!! Orange!!” If you’ve ever been a kid in the USA, you are well aware of the famous Valencian orange. Like Kleenex, Q-tips and Chiquita bananas, the name has been embedded in our heads related as a juicy, sweet fruit. However, I would suspect that the majority of people have zero idea where this city is located? I can admit, with my tail between my legs, that I honestly believed that Valencian oranges were from Venezuela as a child. I figured that because much of our fruit came from South America, this one was no different, and the name itself derived from a city deep in the jungles of the country. Shows you how well I was taught geography in Chicago.

So today, allow me to give you a quick recap of our trip, before we provide you with some deeper studies on the area.

Where is Valencia?
The political region of Valencia is located just south of Catalunya on the eastern coast just north of Murcia in Spain. Within this political region you also have the Denominacion of Valencia containing several vineyards that are all in Valencia province but are generally at least 30 km inland and often tucked within pocketed valleys. There are four subzones within DO Valencia, but I’ll get more into the regional wine information in a future article. For now, what I’d rather focus on is Valencia’s wide diversity and beautiful scenery.

Boats, Cars, Fruit and Fireworks
This was my first trip to Valencia, and hopefully, not my last. A city filled with sleek modern white architecture such as the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) and the Museo Príncipe …

Wine is the healthiest and most hygienic drinks. ~Luis Pasteur

I love this quote, as written on the front of Dominio de la Vega’s press kit. I love the idea not only because it incorporates a sense of wine being an intregal part of life, but also because it celebrates the act of seeing wine as merely a drink. The only value wine has is that for which you choose to place on it, and I choose to place a damn fine rating on this particular bottle of Arte de Mayor 100% Bobal.

So I found these articles online today. Evidently, my local independent newspaper (City Pages) from my home turf, Minneapolis, Minnesota, has taken to promoting Spanish wine.

Volume 26 - Issue 1297 - Cover Story - October 12, 2005
Wine Party: Spanish Reds
How old is Spanish wine making? It’s so old that when someone told it to act its age, it died. Well, that’s something that could have been said about Spanish wine 20 years ago, when Europe’s oldest grape-growing area (since around 4000 B.C.) was making wines the same way it had for centuries–strong and oaky. (Spanish wine is even mocked in Chaucer’s Tales for being strong.) Nowadays though, huge infusions of European capital, and the accompanying vast quantities of modern technology, have reinvigorated Spanish wine, and the shelves in every local wine shop are groaning with countless Spanish options….Click here to read more of this article on Spanish wines.

I’m mainly posting the article because it’s from hometown and you always need to check in every now and then, otherwise it would have fallen under ‘latest wine news” in the upper right hand area of this blog. However, since (someone for whom I never knew or met but followed avidly) Dara Moskowitz wrote it and the article does provide some good news/advice, I thought, what the heck. Interestly, the grape “Bobal” was mentioned in the article and I have recently been trying to get a interview with a leading producer of this exact grape here in Spain. Hopefully, I will be able to report more about this grape to you in the near future! It’s great to know that people back home can have a chance to try an example of this interesting grape when I do.
Bobal
Unfortunately, bobal lives under the radar. It doesn’t even get a peripheral mention in most of …