Baldovar 923 ‘Cañada París’

I was lucky enough to spend some time in Valencia, Spain this September with my partner. We got connected with Nito Alegre at Baldovar 923 who was kind enough to welcome us to the winery and incredibly generous with his time, especially given that we were visiting right in the middle of harvest season! Our journey to the winery took us up winding roads and through tiny villages - the view sprinkled with vines and almond trees and rolling countryside. We went up and up and up to Baldovar 923 - named after the village and its elevation (923m = a little over 3000 ft) that sits in the Alto Turia. Nito and his team work out of a cellar built in the 1950s that they restored before production started in 2016. Nito formerly worked in corporate marketing before starting this project.

We spent time in the cellar looking at all the juice on its way to becoming wine, watching as Joan and Thomas processed the Mencia they’d been harvesting earlier that morning - running it through a small de-stemmer and getting it into a stainless steel tank. Tasting from barrels and getting a view into their process. After tasting through the bottles he had opened for our visit, Nito turned to us and said, “We have a bit more harvesting to get done today if you want to come help us?” Extra hands around harvest time are never put to waste. So we hopped in his car and drove a few minutes through the village and down some back roads to the Mencia plot. 

I can’t tell you how fun and worthwhile it is to see with your own eyes the care and attention given to picking these grapes. How each cluster is looked over and lovingly put into small crates (so nothing gets crushed before it should be and they can breathe). And once we were up in the vines, it was striking how cool and breezy it was here compared to hot and humid Valencia. Nito worked with us through the row, explaining what to harvest and what to leave, how so much quality control goes on at this stage, and we asked all about his life and his winemaking and the surrounding area. We worked through the end of this row of Mencia as the rest of the team was finishing up for the day. The crates were loaded up and we headed back down to the cellar where we finished up with some late lunch and obviously more wine - trying to keep up with the rapidly changing languages around the table and swapping stories.  

This week’s crush is their ‘Cañada París’ a white wine made with Merseguera - a variety of grape grown in the Valencia area (and a bit in Alicante and Jumilla) that requires a lot of care and attention and is rarely seen on its own. The vines range from 20 to 60 years old and are mostly growing on chalky limestone and sandy schist soils. After harvest, the juice is spontaneously fermented and rests on the fine lees for 9 months in mostly stainless steel and a little time in French oak. It’s refreshing and crisp like the wind coming in from the sea while still deeply flavorful. There’s a fair bit of acidity that really nicely balances its apricot/stone fruit side. Aromatic, full of flavor, and surprisingly well suited to every season. What a treat to taste this varietal for what it is and see how it can thrive under the right care!

We had a really wonderful day at Baldovar 923 and I think the joy we felt there is infused in all their wines. I can’t wait to share these bottles with you all and tell you more about our visit. Grab a bottle, some tinned fish, get a little tapas spread going, and pretend you’re in Valencia too.

-Marina