One of the peculiarities of the Valencia Denominación de Origen is its further division into four subzones: Alto Turia, Valentino, Moscatel de Valencia and Clariano. Perhaps the most distinctive in terms of both landscape and wines is the most southerly, Clariano, just the Valencia side of Alicante. At the heart of this subzone is the Vall d’Albaida, a fertile...

Editor’s Note: This is the 2nd chapter we are publishing of  Valencia Land of Wine (see chapter 1st, 2nd, 3rd). Articles are written by Joan C. Martin, and translated by John Maher. Each story is straight from the pages of El Pais’s Valencian edition that highlights an aspect of Valencian wine history through the story of one wine. If...

Coming across Fondillón is a bit like meeting Samuel Taylor Coleridge‘s Ancient Mariner, buttonholing you with stories of ancient glories and disaster. You’re half fascinated and half disbelieving. Yet he starts pulling bits and pieces out of his pockets – there is the price list of leading Alicante wine merchants Maisonnave & Co. from the nineteenth-century showing that its...

Editors Note: Last year, we published a book review for Valencia Land of Wine, composed of translated articles by John Maher and written by Joan C. Martin. Each story is straight from the pages of El Pais’ Valencian edition. Each one highlights an aspect of Valencian wine history through the story of one wine. After realizing that this book...