Red Grapes
Garnacha Tintorera
The predominant wine variety in Alpera is “Garnacha Tintorera“, which is native to the area and is so called because of its coloured flesh and because it has a higher colour intensity than other varieties worldwide. It comes from the cross between Petit Bouchet and Garnacha Tinta (French Grenache) and was introduced into the Alicante area around 1 800 years ago by French traders following the Phylloxera attack.
The large extension of vineyards, allows us to select year after year the ideal grapes to maintain constant the typicality and quality of our wines. From the free-standing vines, which are over 40 years old, we harvest the hand-selected grapes, from which we obtain our best wines.
Intensely coloured musts, with high alcohol content, very tannic and structured, with balanced acidity. Able to give very dense, alcoholic, coloured wines with aromas of very ripe red fruits.
Monastrell
Monastrell is a red grape variety found in warm areas around the world and, in Spain, it is abundant in the southeast, especially in Alicante, Almansa, Valencia and Murcia.
It is mainly cultivated in Murcia’s Denominations of Origin (D.O. Jumilla, D.O. Yecla and D.O. Bullas), in Alicante’s D.O. and Almansa’s D.O., in southern areas of France and in other countries such as Australia and California. For this reason, it is said that this type of grape needs a warm climate and good sunshine to ripen.
The Monastrell berries are medium sized and black or greyish blue in colour, while the bunches are compact and medium sized. It is a late variety whose harvest is normally done in mid-October and which has a medium-high resistance to drought and mildew and oidium. In addition, it is characterized by being a very sweet grape with a powerful and fruity flavor with hints of blackberry.
Monastrell is a grape capable of producing modern, powerful, high quality wines with a high alcohol content and a high level of tannins, especially in hot years, which sweeten after the passage through the barrel. They stand out for their intense ruby colour, their great taste, their fruity aromas and their medium-high acidity.
Syrah
A variety of Jordanian Palestinian origin, widely introduced in the Rhone valley, considered by some authors of French origin, from where it has spread throughout the world. Today we can find the variety syrah in Europe, Australia, Chile, South Africa and California.
The bunches of the syrah variety are medium sized, compact, cylindrical and elongated, with long, slightly lignified stalks. They have a very uniform berry size, and their musts are bright red and very dark. In addition, they have a high content of very soft tannins, which results in good quality wines with a high alcohol content.
Its red wines, very coloured, with a lot of body as they have a very high dry extract, age very well keeping their colour very stable. Syrah wine is a very colorful, dark, intense, aromatic, very famous in the world of wine growing. Its wines have aromas of ripe fruit, reminiscent of blackcurrants, violets, wild berries and raspberries, maintaining aromas of pepper or cinnamon and cloves.
When they age, they do not take on much of the aroma of wood, but their aroma is reminiscent of leather, tar, smoked foods and only slightly of vanilla.
white grape
Verdejo
A pleasant surprise has been to discover that the Verdejo variety has adapted very well to our soil and thanks to the high altitude of our vineyards (above 900 metres), we produce fresh and fruity white wines with a very marked tropical character. It is one of the most important white grapes in Spain. It is characterized by its small and upright bunches. Its leaves are small. The grapes are small-medium sized with a yellow colour. The pips are large and can be seen in the light when the grapes are observed.
The Verdejo grape is usually harvested at night, so that the grapes are transferred to the cellars at a temperature of between 10-15 C, as this is the ideal temperature for less oxidation of the must. This grape produces fresh and balanced wines, pale greenish-yellow in colour, slightly acidic and fruity, marked by a vegetal hue. They are very aromatic, full-bodied, glyceric and smooth wines. Good acidity and a characteristic bitter touch.
Sauvignon Blanc
A strain of French origin with very good production potential and quality. Sauvignon Blanc is grown mainly in France, Chile and California. It is also found in Spain (Rueda and Penedés D.O.). When we saw how well adapted the Verdejo variety was in our production area, we decided to go further by planting Sauvignon Blanc, achieving a fantastic result.
This variety of grape has small, very compact and uniform bunches, so that the berries are usually deformed by pressure between them and with very short peduncles. The Sauvignon Blanc grape variety provides us with acidic musts, with flavours of green fruits, grass and leaves, reminiscent of redcurrants, elderberries, mushrooms and flowers. We can thus produce white, dry, elegant and balanced wines, with varietal aromas present during the first years.
