RECOVERY OF NATIVE GRAPE VARIETIES AND ICONIC VINEYARDS IN THE VALENCIAN COMMUNITY
Sopla Levante was born from my partnership with Hilarión Pedauyé, Alberto Soriano, and Álvaro Ruiz, with a clear goal: to recover iconic vineyards, unique winemaking methods from the Valencian Community, and native grape varieties that are on the verge of disappearing.
We began the project in one of the most magical places on the eastern coast of Spain: La Mata Natural Park in Alicante. A truly unique setting, with ancient ungrafted vineyards just a few meters from the beach and pink saltwater lagoons that lend a remarkable personality to the wines.
From there, we decided to keep exploring new locations that would allow us to showcase the rich winemaking heritage of the Valencian Community — something we deeply value and want to bring back into the spotlight.
The challenge at Sopla Levante is to bring out the full potential of the simplicity found in an unknown grape variety or an exceptionally distinctive terroir. That’s why our philosophy is minimal intervention — starting with traditional viticulture, crafting the wines naturally, and avoiding unnecessary enhancements to let something truly unique speak for itself.
Our goal in this project is to highlight traditional grape varieties and iconic vineyards that are fading away. That’s why we manage small-scale vineyards individually, using traditional and fully respectful viticultural practices.
We collaborate with the University of Valencia to identify grape varieties that don’t even have names yet, and to study lesser-known varieties that have never had much recognition — but which we believe have exciting potential today.
Of course, we also work with plots planted with more well-known and traditional varieties from the Valencian Community, such as Bobal, Monastrell, and Cariñena.
All of this reflects our pure commitment to express the unique character of legendary vineyards that were on the verge of being lost.
Our challenge is to fully capture the essence of a little-known grape variety or a remarkably unique terroir.
That’s why our philosophy is based on micro-vinifications at each site, done naturally and with the least possible intervention.
For some of our wines, we use wild yeasts found in the vineyard itself, preparing a starter culture right there, which we then bring to the winery to begin the fermentation process for that specific plot.
In our pursuit of innovation, we’ve adopted some completely new techniques for certain wines, such as aging on wood chips made from dead vines from that same vineyard, aging in barrels previously used for Cantueso liqueur, sun-drying followed by pressing in winter at below-zero temperatures…
All of this is combined with traditional methods, reviving old local techniques such as biological and oxidative aging, and the time-honored process of maturing wines in demijohns.
Carretera de Pétrola Km 3,2
Chinchilla – Albacete – España
Financión NT 6k Botellas