Found at Valencia, February '26.

 

The label reads 'Vicente Gandia Viticoltores desde 1885 Bobal Blanco Blanc de Noirs'

We went to Valencia to visit the Todoli Citrus Foundation an hour away at Palmera. Vicente ("I love all grapes") Todoli has 500 species of Citrus fruit in his collection. We will repoort on his magnificent obsession anon.

Meanwhile, the night before, we had a delicious dinner at a restaurant in town where there was a Bobal blanco by Vicente Gandia on the winelist. Bobal really is the red wine grape of Valencia and as we shall see, Merseguera is the white. 

 

We have never been excited by any Bobals we have tasted but this example vinified white was absolutely outstanding so much so that we had a 2nd bottle right there and then.

 and later bought a bottle from 'La Bodeguilla' in the Mercado Central to take home.

  

At another, even finer restaurant called 'Yarza' we went for this Merseguera 'Las Travinas' from Bodegas Entre Aldeas which was in its way just as stunning as the Bobal Blanco. This was a pleasant surprise because 'Wine Grapes' has it that this variety is 'Uninspiring...generally lackluster...' Not in this case. Nicely aromatic and food-friendly, again we asked for an encore but this was the last bottle. Instead we drank a blend of Caino Blanco and a couple of 'friends' but although pleasant enough was nothing special.

Our last taste of Merseguera had been in 2013 when we tried Bernabe Navarro's 'La Vina de Simon' 100% Merseguera. This one had a bigger impact.

 

We had been to Valencia not so long before and hadn't realized that Merseguera was their signature white grape. On that occasion we had made a pilgrimage to the most venerable wine merchant 'Baviera' where we had bought a bottle of Miguel de Arcos which turned out to be Moristel. So this time we thought we wouldn't bother but then we remembered we have been searching for a good Prieto Picudo and maybe Baviera had something of interest?

 

We called and were offered this Prieto Picudo from Peregrino. At 13.5% the alcohol was below some of the disappointing PPs we had gone through recently and at less than 7 Euros, what could we lose? In the event the wine was pleasant enough. The search continues though.