D.O. Utiel-Requena 

An ancient wine-making region on a plateau amidst the hills and mountains marking the edge of the meseta, named after the adjacent (to each other) towns of Utiel and Requena. Its climate is more continental than Mediterranean, indeed is particularly harsh, but rainfall is low, sunlight plentiful, and the whole region is nicely drained by its gentle sllope towards the sea. The autochthonous Bobal grape variety is the most popular and is particularly suited to these climes, and was resistant enough to the phyloxara plague to allow the region to flourish in the late eighteen hundreds at a time when other areas were being devastated. Nowadays, as always, it produces red wine almost exclusively, of generally good but unexceptional quality, with a couple of notable exceptions. The link goes to the web site of the regulatory board of the Utiel-Requena denominación de origen's regulatory board, which is informative but not very exciting and available in English.
Added on: 08-Dec-2007 | hits: 42
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Requena 

Requena is the larger of the Utiel-Requena tandem of wine-making towns, and I think the more interesting. It is dominated by the old Moorish alcazaba, fortress, has atmospheric old streets and even remains of the city walls. The link above goes to the horrible infoville official municipal website, but if you click here, you will see an obsolete, also Spanish-only, but better tourist information site for Requena.
Added on: 08-Dec-2007 | hits: 83
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Utiel 

Utiel is not without appeal, either, having an interesting historic centre, the Museo del Vino, the Wine Museum of the Valencia Region, the Almazar, a kind of honey museum, the name of which refers to a kind of press used to extract not honey but wax from honeycombs, and a number of pleasing ecclesiastical buildings. The link goes to a very clumsy, old-fashioned and Spanish-only municipal web site.
Added on: 08-Dec-2007 | hits: 38
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