February 2025 Blanco y Branco Club

Cañada París Baldovar 923, 2022 Merseguera Regular Price: $27.99 Club Price: $ 23.79 Buy Now

If you travel to the south-east coast of Spain, you’re likely to find dusty arid plains, oranges, and plenty of seafood paella. While the history of winemaking in Valencia dates back to over 2,000 years ago, the region has only recently gained international acclaim for its fine wines in the past 25 years. The small-scale producers here remain rustic and largely unchanged in the past century. Sustainable farming, and usage of clay amphorae are commonplace in the winemaking scene here. The region’s recent claim to fame has been some relevant expressions of Bobal, a local variety once disregarded for its simplicity, is now one of the most planted grape varieties in Spain. Local producers knew that if grape growers and winemakers simply treated vines well, Bobal could produce grapes that were both elegant and hearty. 

It's this philosophy that galvanized founders Nito Alegre Soler and Fransico Bosco when they created Baldovar 923. Nestled high within the Alto Turia mountain range of Valencia, ‘Baldovar’ is the namesake of the village in which the bodega resides, while ‘923’ refers to the elevation of the estate. Their mission was simple: to create high quality wines that display the quality of soil, the character of climate and altitude all while depending solely on indigenous varietals. After finding and renovating an abandoned cooperative from 1956, Baldovar finally opened its doors in 2016. Their plots are small, spanning a modest 14 hectares and range between 900 and 1,200 of altitude and 20-80 years of age. The soils are mostly chalky limestone and clay schists from the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods. Oyster and coral fossils can be found between the grapevines. 

The wine we’ve selected for the club is Baldovar’s Merseguera. It's an indigenous variety that has been goblet-trained and is farmed organically and biodynamically. The grapes are harvested by hand and are fermented in 90%stainless steel and 10% small format oak barrels. The wine is then rested on the fine lees for 9 months for texture and length. It is bottled unfined and unfiltered. Only 455 cases were produced this vintage. Look for notes of yellow pear, quince, and grapefruit peel, enjoy with seafood paella!

Villota 2022 Selvanevada Blanco Regular Price: $25.99 Club Price: $ 22.09 Buy Now

Picture yourself having been magically transported to a vineyard in Spain’s Rioja region.  The vineyard sits in a river bend of the Ebro river and is full of gorgeous vines loaded with plump black grape clusters and adorned with fall leaves turning red.  It’s the golden hour, and the sun’s rays are shining through the branches of a majestic old oak tree.  Under the tree is a long table set with white linen tablecloths and wine glasses. The wine growers speak, and alongside gorgeous nibbles of local fare, you get to try an array of white and red wines, whilst sitting amidst the vines that produced them. A dream, you ask yourself?  Well, as it turns out, the scene pictured above was one I got to experience in September of last year.  As a wine lover, it was certainly hard NOT to like any wine poured in such a setting. As a wine professional, I was able to determine objectively that the talent of the growers and winemakers at Villota is the ability to put the magic of that setting into the bottle. 

Let’s dive in.

The tree in the scene above is part of the vineyards of the Finca San Rafael owned by the Pérez-Villota family.  These vineyards span across a set of down-sloping terraces in a bend of the river Ebro, about 15 minutes north of the town of Logroño in the Rioja Alavesa subregion of the Rioja DOC. 

Soils here are iron-rich clay with a high proportion of limestone.  Owing to the fact that this section of Rioja was once under the ancient giant version of today’s Ebro river, the soil is littered with all different sizes of round riverstones.

Planted in the vineyard are Graciano, Mazuelo, Tempranillo, Viura, Tempranillo Blanco, and Garnacha Blanca.  The vines are 60 or more years old, goblet trained as is customary in Spain, and dry-farmed.  The Pérez-Villota family cares deeply about their land and vines, and refrain from the use of systemic herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, or fertilizers.  We were lucky enough to be there while fruit were on the vines, and the quality of the grape clusters and the taste of the fruit were outstanding. 

The Pérez-Villota family is quite famous.  For decades, they grew grapes as partners of CVNE’s famous Contino label.  Co-founded in 1973 by the Rioja wine giant CVNE and the Pérez-Villota family, Contino was a new venture focused on single vineyard “chateau-style” wines with wines from each plot of grapes vinified separately. For decades, Contino has been lauded for its quality.  Wine scores as we know them today do not date back to 1973, so there are no scores on a 100 point scale for early Contino vintages, but over more recent years, Contino has consistently scored in the mid to high 90 point range.  In 2013, unafraid to make great into even greater, the Pérez-Villota family decided to part ways with CVNE, starting their own Villota label.  Their Selvanevada is an easy drinking everyday blend in a portfolio that has many wines that easily reach the quality level of Contino, proving that the Pérez-Villota family has been able to continue doing the right things to put their terroir in bottles.  

This wine is a blend of Viura (91%), Tempranillo Blanco (6%), Garnacha Blanca (3%).  While Viura is usually the mainstay for Rioja whites, the Tempranillo Blanco and Garnacha Blanca add a twist to this blend.   It is simply a joyful wine!  It pours a very light yellow into the glass.  On the nose, it presents and intriguing mix of rhubarb, apple, riverstone, and the faintest hint of smoke.  On the palate, it is a crisp and fresh treat, almost spicy and herbaceous on the tip of the tongue, then a blend of warm pear, melon and some touches of wood.  The wine does not see malolactic fermentation, keeping it crisp and fresh.  Part of the wine see aging on the lees, which gives it its broader palate.  I often joke of "if X and Y grape had a baby".  To me, the joke for this wine goes like "if Albariño and unoaked Chardonnay had a baby, Villota's Selanavada Blanco would be its name." This wine is a great sipper with anything from a chilean seabass filet seared and baked, a seafood stew, a white sauce pasta, or if kept until a warmer spring day, for the first outside garden party with a cheese board (with some black olive tapenade) to summon the spirit of the table in the vineyard above.  I won't be able to wait that long, but maybe you will.

On a commercial footnote, we are the only California retailer to carry this vintage of this wine and we have committed to a large buy of this wine.  This means there is plenty for you if you love it. It also means we appreciate your sharing this with friends and family so we can sell through our allocation.