Last August we had the opportunity to enjoy a very special visit in one of the most beautiful enclaves of the province of Alicante. We visited Bodegas La Zafra in the Vinalopó region, one of the main wineries in the province that produces natural wines.
Bodegas La Zafra is one of those very personal projects that when you meet them you understand that nothing can go wrong. Mar and Ignacio are the architects of this project, a perfect tandem that impregnates the winery with affection, and proclaims an ode to the work of the land and the farmer.
The enclave of Bodegas La Zafra, for you to situate yourself, is located in the interior of the province of Alicante at about 600 m altitude in the region of Medio Vinalopó, between the towns of Monóvar and Pinoso. On the road that took us to the winery we could see on one side and the other, both vineyards for winemaking and table grape vines, the well-known Vinalopó Uva Embolsada, which were making their way along with almond and olive trees in a magnificent natural environment that we must always preserve.
After this two-way road, we took a detour through a dirt road that would lead us to the small winery La Zafra, an old house-winery from the late nineteenth century. A heritage legacy where old wooden beams, old wine presses and notes on the walls, with more than 100 years, of inputs and outputs of grapes and / or barrels, show us the intense activity of the area in winemaking centuries ago.
As Mar and Ignacio tell us: “In La Zafra we take care of the land that has been cultivated by five generations of our family in Monóvar (Alicante), under the watchful eye of the mountain ‘La Peña de La Zafra’.
Natural wines from Alicante made with native grapes
Of course, if we have talked about the winery and the environment, we could not miss the final result of mixing these ingredients, their natural or minimal intervention wines that Mar and Ignacio elaborate without chemical substances, nor correctors, nor added sulfites with native varieties such as Monastrell, Alicante Bouschet (Garnacha tintorera), Merseguera, as well as the almost extinct Valencí Negre. With this grape variety they elaborate a stunning red wine, NU VA La Zafra.
Very old vines grown on ungrafted vines with sandy loam soils that give great concentration of fruit and a lot of salinity typical of the limestone soils of the area. An environment that every wine lover should know.
Finally, I would like to thank Mar and Ignacio for opening the doors of their home to show us this magnificent project and incredible wines.
See you in the next post!
