If you are a wine nerd like me, looking for low-intervention natural wines in Spain will take you to many different areas. Catalunya, Andalucia, and Castilla y Leon are a few regions to find such wines. One region that usually does not stand out is Valencia. Valencia is Spain’s biggest port, its third largest city, and lends its name to the autonomous region. This  is bulk wine country. The region for cheap, manipulated reds and whites. It is dominated by five large producers that take up most of the harvest each year. However, there are a few small wineries working their own vineyards and making wine the natural way. One such winery is Bodegas Y Viñedos Pigar in the subregion of Utiel-Requena. 

Juan Piqueras and Susana López

Bodegas Pigar is the consolidation of a dream for partners Juan Piqueras  and Susana López. The winery was born in 2014 when Juan decided to take the leap into winemaking. It was not that big of a jump as Juan’s family had owned a number of vineyards throughout the region. Over the years, his family cultivated the vines to sell to the local co-operative and always kept a little back for their own consumption. But Juan was the first of his family to take on the title of winemaker. His first vintage was with three bottlings in 2016 and now he and Susana are producing more than eight different labels of wine.

Juan and Susana have eight hectares of organic vineyards they harvest grapes from. There is a lot of Chardonnay planted here, as Utiel-Requena is an authorized Cava region and this is the grape Juan’s family planted. However, they are working with and are recovering some neglected indigenous grapes of the region like Tardana, Tortusi, Royal, and Bobal. The winemaking here is very low-intervention with no addition, no fining, no filtration, and no sulfur additions. Aging for the wines takes place in neutral vessels including cement vats and amphora. 

We currently have three wines to offer from Bodegas Pigar; a pet-nat blanco made from Muscat of Alexandria, a pet-nat rosado made from Royal and Bobal, and a young red wine made from only Bobal. You are going to love these wines.

The Wines of Bodegas Pigar