The event was held at the 8th floor restaurant of the El Corte Inglés on Av. Francia, with its terrace overlooking the Ciutat de les Arts i de les Ciències.  There was a worrying array of men in suits at the head table, but their speeches were short, impassioned (in the case of the heads of Valencia’s 3 Denominaciones de Origen: Alicante, Utiel-Requena and Valencia), and some were very funny – the guy from the Academia de Gastronomía de la Comunidad Valenciana. It was good to see Joan’s 30 years of devotion to the cause of Valencian wine, both as wine writer and winemaker, being celebrated. The West Indian intellectual C.L.R. James famously asked, “What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?”, and so it is with Joan that his writing goes beyond wine to span life and literature, wisdom and folly.

Invitation to Joan Martín Book Launch

After the talks, the assembled company was invited out onto the terrace to enjoy some of the wines mentioned in the book. I wasn’t able to do the rounds, as I had been called by Bodega Primitivo Quiles (the Comunitat’s oldest winery) to say that they weren’t able to make it and could I lend a hand and look after their stand. I was delighted to do this, as I love their classically traditional wines and I have a lot of kindnesses to repay them.

After wrestling with the pull-up banner I saw that in addition to the 3 wines they had said they’d provide – their sweet Moscatel “Extra Extra”, the moderni-style Monastrell-Merlot “Roble”, their eternal Monastrell “Raspay” Reserva – the delivery company had mistakenly left 6 bottles of their historic Fondillón Gran Reserva Solera 1948. I was a bit nervous about opening this liquid treasure, but the public is no fool, and they made a beeline for these bottles. Some had never tried the region’s unique wine, and having heard Joan refer to it as the embodiment and pinnacle of the region’s ancient wine tradition, now was their chance.

We have several Russian friends visiting, who have a discerning sweet tooth, and the dark, golden, luscious “Extra Extra” hit their collective spot.

One woman offered to marry me, mistakenly thinking I was Primitivo Quiles in person and could get her a lifetime’s supply of the Raspay, I had to confess that I was an impostor but that she could get hold of the wine, for under 7 euros a bottle, at Bodegas Santander‘s two outlets in Valencia.

I didn’t even have to carry the remaining bottles, as Sergei used to work in a  circus throwing hefty Russian acrobats and Russo-Californian sun-worshipper Greg Orduyan, when not creating amazing computer animation, is to be found doing press-ups on the beach, and they insisted on carrying everything. I held the banner ahead of them, though.

A great event, and I was sorry not to reacquant myself with the wines of the other bodegas, listed below (apologies to any I’ve missed out):

Dominio de la Vega

Finca San Blas

Heretat de Cesilia

Vicente Gandia

La Casa de las Vides

Chozas Carrascal

Hoya del Castillo

Coviñas

Vegalfaro

Bocopa

Hispano-Suizas

Bodegas Hispano-Suizas gets its name from the fact that the three partners are two Spaniards, Pablo Ossorio and Rafael Navarro, and a Swiss, Marc Grin. It is also fair to say that the evocation of the luxury car marque sits well with their grand project to make sophisticated, cosmopolitan wines. They are not unabashed at taking on the French at their own game.

They offer two Cavas, the biscuity, Champagne-style (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir) Tantum Ergo 2007 (I have a feeling that the 2006 was 100% Chardonnay, but these things move on at speed), while the Tantum Ergo rosado is Pinot Noir through and through. It is very much a salmon-coloured rosé Champagne rather than the bright pink Cavas you tend to see. Nevertheless, it does combine Mediterranean effervescence with French elegance, being bigger and brasher than its paler sister.

We moved on to Rafael Navarro’s pride and joy, Impromptu, the highest-rated Sauvignon Blanc in Spain in the 2010 Guía Peñín with 93 points. This is a rich, dense, golden, unctuous white wine. To my mind it again blended an almost New World oomph (nose, colour, presence) with French style in terms of lingering flavour and balance.

The two reds are the Bassus Pinot Noir 2007 and the Bassus Premium 2007 (Bobal, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, and a small quantity of an unnamed fifth grape – Petit Verdot possibly?). The Pinot Noir is again a proper example of the grape, with its notably lighter colour than with most red wines from around here, but with that distinctive murky, velvet Pinot allure given a touch of Mediterranean vigour.

The Bassus Premium continues that balance of complexity with a certain approachable rigour. All in all, the wines are a tribute to the skillsof the three founders — Rafael in the vineyard, Pablo as a winemaker and Marc as overall packager and presenter of the project. Their Open Days straddling the anniversary of Spain’s Constitution and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception may not have been intended to convey practical effectiveness and progress blended with spiritual harmony and purity, but the dates seem well chosen.

There was talk of Ferrari visiting later in December, so it is good to see Hispano-Suizas keeping the luxury car connection and bringing Utiel-Requena wine to the top tables of Spain and Europe. I wonder if the Ferrari executives will christen the understatedly elegant private guest rooms that are being made ready on the second floor of what was the old house. I envy whoever does get to sleep here in the bosom of the vineyard with the bottles and casks whispering sweet nothings below.

However, it has given rise to a double project – to ascertain which wineries are open over the whole weekend, and more generally to put visiting time details on this site. At a guess, I’d say few are welcoming visitors on Sunday, but those that are should be patted on the back. Not that I begrudge anyone the kind of lazy Sunday I ended up having, watching Spanish and British football on TV and walking dogs in between.