Everything coming out of this young venture established in the Clariano subarea, in Valencia, is out of the ordinary. This includes the packaging, the quirky names chosen for the wines, the winemaking styles and the grape varieties.
Founded in 2011, Fil.loxera is the brainchild of three friends (Joan Llobell, and wife and husband Pilar Esteve and José Ramón Domenech) with long-standing experience in the wine business in Valencia. The name refers to the fact that this project marked a turning point in their lives, just like phylloxera changed the world of wine abruptly. “We went from doing what we were allowed to, to decide for ourselves. We just wanted to produce local wines exploring the potential of indigenous grape varieties,” says José Ramón.
From very modest beginnings with just a few thousand bottles, they have gone on to produce around 40,000 bottles a year. The bodega, which is located in Pilar and José Ramón's own home, has gradually taken up more space, while the bottled wine is stored in a rented warehouse.
The three partners are involved in the winemaking decisions. Each one contributes their own vineyards and they also work with some rented plots. Most of them are in the village of Fontanars dels Alforins, except for a few small parcels owned by Pilar in Villena, some 10 kilometres away. They manage 17 hectares of mostly goblet-trained vines, the oldest of which are over 60 years of age. There is a unique plot owned by a good friend of them with fruit trees planted among Arco vines. "It is a late-ripening variety that tolerates the summer heat very well and starts to change colour when the temperatures are milder. Sometimes, it even struggles to reach 12% alcohol,” José Ramón points put.
Discovered in 2013, Arco is in the process of being authorized as well as Ullet de Perdiu (partridge eye). This is another find by the team behind Fil.loxera: a variety with high acidity capable of enhancing almost any blend, according to José Ramón Domenech. "These varieties came our way; it's not as if we were trying to make wines from rare varieties because that’s now fashionable," Pilar explains.
They have indeed sought to attract attention with the wines’ names. The first three are biblical quotations from the Old Testament.
The range starts with Beberás de la Copa de tu Hermana (You shall drink your sister’s cup, €13, around 6,000 bottles). This is a white blend with Macabeo (around 45%), Malvasía (or Subirat Parent), Verdil and a small amount of direct-pressed red Monastrell grapes made as a blanc the noirs. Ageing takes place in stainless steel tanks (70%), French oak and acacia barrels for eight months. The style is really unusual, with a mix of fruit, mineral and chalky notes.
With higher availability, Sentada Sobre la Bestia (Sitting on the beast, €13, 18,000 bottles) is a distinctively Mediterranean red (ripe fruit, aromatic herbs) that blends Monastrell with Tempranillo, Garnacha Tintorera, Graciano and a bit of white Malvasía. Grapes are fermented separately and the wine is aged for eight months in various types of vessels (barrels, oak vats and stainless steel tanks). A similar blend of their best grapes is destined to El Cordero y las Vírgenes (The Lamb and the Virgins, €27, 3,000 bottles), which is aged in barrel for 24 months.
But their most striking wines are made from the ancestral varieties recovered by the Fil.loxera trio. Released in the 2016 vintage under the name “Bienvenidos al extraordinario mundo de la mujer caballo” ("Welcome to the extraordinary world of the horsewoman"), this analogy with the circus is intended to compare these sidelined grapes with the people who were cast aside by society because of their malformations and different physical appearance but who dazzled in the circus ring. The packaging is identical for the three wines in the range; what changes are the colours of capsules and labels. The orange label contains a skin-contact wine, made with Valencí (60%), Moscatel Romano and other grapes as yet unidentified. The blue label is for Arco, the late-ripening, high acidity red variety that conveys a fresh, vibrant expression which is truly uncommon for Mediterranean standards. The green sealed bottle is made from Ullet de Perdiu (partridge eye) -it is a slightly less expressive variety but shows impressive acidity as well. Retail prices for the three wines are around €24 in Spain.
The trio has still a lot of work to do in the vineyards -their latest discovery is an ancient clone of Graciano that they are trying to recover. Fil.loxera is a key producer to understand the new wine styles that are flourishing in Mediterranean Spain.
