From: Valencia, Spain
Blend: 90% Macabeo & 10% Sauvignon Blanc
Taste: A vibrant orange color leads to a basket of dried apricots, tangerines, and flamed oranges drenched in acacia honey. The palate is rich with a medium-to-full-bodied texture. The grip on the mid-palate is intense and followed by a good amount of acidity. Crème de Apricot saturates the powerful finish with hidden layers of salted honey and citrus— technical details below.
90% Macabeo, 10% Sauvignon Blanc (co-fermented)
Macabeo from 40 year-old-vines
24 days of skin contact
Fermented with native yeasts
Pairing: This versatile orange wine is fantastic paired with a wide array of dishes like sweet and sour chicken/pork/tofu, fried rice, honey walnut prawns, grilled or sautéed shrimp, orange or lemon chicken, peanut chicken wings (not kidding, and check it out below), grilled cheese with apples and apple butter, corn casserole, tostones, and even the humble but delicious cheese pizza.
Peanut Chicken Wings
By Mark Bittman
About. A brand new project from one of your favorite PNW producers, Ovum Wines! Kiki & Juan are fun, organic wines in 1 Liter bottles that are all about supporting the farmers La Luz works with throughout Iberia.
“Kiki” uses her long standing relationships with grape growers in Spain to find the organic vineyards that will go into Kiki & Juan. With his low-intervention winemaking background at OVUM Wines, John House aka “Juan” focuses on making Kiki & Juan a close reflection of it’s vineyards and vintage as possible.
Native fermentation in cement, amphora and stainless steel + nothing added except sulfur (necessary for traveling here in one piece to Seattle) - the goal with Kiki & Juan Wines is to make simple, fresh wines from old fashioned techniques. The project actually began in 2019, and then, 2020 happened. Always determined, John House of Ovum Wines acted as consulting oenologist over the phone, and even shipped over his concrete egg and sourced amphora from abroad.
As far as a winegrowing region goes, Utiel-Requena is the new kid on the block. It is a relative newcomer, both to wine lists and to wine shelves. Its wines, and especially its lively reds and bright rosés, have a refreshingly contemporary feel, making them a welcome entrant to the diversity of the new Spain. Yet winemaking in Utiel-Requena is not in the least new.
Wine was made in the region at least as far back as the 7th century BC, as evidenced by traces of Phoenician amphorae found in the region. Every visitor to the vineyards must include a detour to the remarkable site of Las Pillilas. It’s the oldest remains of an industrial winery in the Iberian Peninsula and the entire Western Mediterranean. Archaeologists have also found grape seeds pointing to a wine culture that dates back to the 5th century BC. Coming forward in time, in 1BC the Romans settled here and introduced improved winemaking techniques.
Anyone interested in tradition in winemaking should be sure to visit the museum in the main square of Requena’s old town. In its underground caves, long time used as cellars, it has a remarkable collection of traditional amphorae that were once used for fermentation and storage. In the 21st century local winemakers are working with amphorae once more, exploring their stylistic features.
Requena also has a special place in the contemporary history of oenology in Spain. That’s because many of today’s leading winemakers trained at Requena, at a time when there were only two wine schools in the country (at the time the only other one was in Tarragona).
Utiel-Requena – named after two neighboring towns – became a denomination in 1957 In terms of Spain’s modern wine history this is early, as so many DOs did not come on stream until nearly a decade later.
