Cueva Orange Utiel Requena

About Cueva Orange Utiel Requena

Cueva Orange Utiel Requena is a blend of Macabeo and Tardana. This vintage the Tardana got very mature and ripe (which results in little reddish-pink
dots on the grape skins) and also gives this vintage a more orange-pink color in the glass. All grapes are certified organic, hand-harvested, macerated on the skins in stainless tanks for 30 days followed by spontaneous yeast fermentation, and aged on the lees for several more months in a tank after harvest before bottling. Unfined, unfiltered, and zero SO2.Hazy coral-peach hued in the glass, with low acidity, some tasty apricotty skin-contact flavors, and wild, but only mildly so. Very enjoyable and well packaged as well.

About Bodegas Cueva

It doesn’t get much more old school than Bodegas Cueva. Founded in 2000, yet the original winery is from the 18th century, and not much has changed since then. Mariano Taberner knows his land intricately and in an almost mystical way translates the Mediterranean essence through his grapes. One of the first to be certified organic (by the Comité de Agricultura Ecológica de la Comunidad Valenciana) he is committed to biodiversity and the health of his vineyards.

Cueva hosts a variety of 100+-year-old centenary vines of Tempranillo, Bobal, and Tardana (a white grape that is used for most of the sparkling wines). All of the wines are kept naturally cool in long, undisturbed underground cellars. As a winemaker, he’s known for being a bit of a magician, using unique fermentation techniques and unconventional vinification methods. Everything is bottled without filtering, fining, or sulfur additions of any kind.