Valencian Community · Vall d'Albaida · Terres dels Alforins Terres dels Alforins, the heart of radical wine

“A land of red limestone, dry summers and cold nights that make the vine work. One of the corners of the Mediterranean where radical wine has the most reason to exist.”

The territory: altitude and continental character

The Terres dels Alforins spreads across the Costera region, in the south of the province of Valencia, on the border with Alicante. The reference municipalities are Fontanars dels Alforins, Moixent, La Font de la Figuera and Ontinyent, at an altitude ranging between 600 and 750 metres above sea level.

This altitude is the key to everything. In a Mediterranean setting where heat could erase any varietal expression, the 700 metres add a continental element that slows ripening, lengthens the season and lets the grape reach harvest with natural acidity, fresh aromas and an ageing potential rarely seen in the coastal areas of the Levante.

Vall d'Albaida and Terres dels Alforins: two regions, one plateau This corner of southern Valencia isn't a single region, but two neighbours sharing altitude, limestone and dry farming: the Vall d'Albaida Terres dels Alforinsand the

. Both make wine outside of industry, but with their own sensibilities. This corner of southern Valencia isn't a single region, but two neighbours sharing altitude, limestone and dry farming: theIn the , with Carrícola as its symbolic centre —a village of little more than a hundred people surrounded by organic farming and mountain art— what's made is mostlynatural wine Terres dels Alforins: spontaneous fermentations with native yeasts, little or no sulphur and no oenological additives. It's the territory of

, one of the clearest voices of Valencian natural wine. Terres dels Alforins In the (Fontanars dels Alforins, Moixent, La Font de la Figuera) two schools coexist: projects of minimal intervention —clean, precise wines, with corrections kept to the essential minimum— and fully. Celler del Roure, Rafael Cambra, Fil·loxera & Cia, Spiral de Vi, natural, projects. o Can Leandro LEBULC

Manu Sanmiguel —with vines in both regions and a winery in the Terres dels Alforins— cover this whole spectrum.One name that can't be left out is Javi Revert, one of the most notable growers and winemakers of the new Valencian generation, known for recovering historic vineyards and forgotten local varieties. His own-label project, Javi Revert Viticultor, is rooted in

La Font de la Figuera, within the Terres dels Alforins and the D.O. Valencia, where he began making wine in 2016 after recovering an old family vineyard planted in 1948. He farms about 12 hectares organically and biodynamically on calcareous hillside soils, between 700 and 800 metres altitude, and in the winery avoids new oak —concrete, clay jar and glass demijohn— in search of freshness, chalk and a pure expression of the terroir. His single-site and single-plot wines — Micalet (a white field blend of Tortosí, Trepadell, Merseguera and Malvasía from ungrafted 1948 vines), Sensal (a red of Garnacha Tintorera and Monastrell), Simeta) o (a red of the rare Arcos Celler del Rourevariety) and Foradà (a plot on Moorish terraces at the foot of the Penya Foradà, above 800 m)— are today among the most sought-after Valencian labels. His career includes years on the technical team at , the négociant project La Comarcal Spiral de Vi.

with Víctor Marqués and, since 2020, technical direction at Finca Sandoval, in the D.O. Manchuela. At Terroir Radical we don't yet have his own-label wines, but we do have those he makes with

Alessandro “Sandro” Manzoni

—his winemaker and partner— in the shared project

The soil: red limestone and clay

The Monastrell The subsoil of the Terres dels Alforins is mainly clay-limestone, with a surface layer of iron-rich red earth that stores heat during the day and releases it gradually at night. This daily thermal swing —which can exceed 20 °C in the height of summer— is the territory's signature and one of the reasons its wines tend to have a tension hard to find in less continental areas. Rafael Cambra o projects.The soil type also shapes the style of viticulture. The roots of Monastrell, the area's main variety, dig down into the limestone in search of moisture, creating wines with mineral structure and a noble rusticity that minimal-intervention producers know how to bring out without masking it.

The The varieties: Monastrell, Garnacha and the return of native grapes is the undisputed queen of the Terres dels Alforins. Suited to aridity and extreme temperatures, it produces dense, deeply coloured wines with notable ageing potential. In the hands of producers such as Bobal, Monastrell with no added sulphites or minimal intervention is an argument in itself. Malvasía Riojana —as unusual in the area as it is revealing— is the heart of Luca Bernasconi's Témide, one of the most singular orange wines to have passed through Terroir Radical.

The DO Clariano and denominational identity

Fontanars dels Alforins is the heart of the DO Clariano, a designation of origin that gathers the best of the southern Valencian plateau with a character of its own. Some producers work under the DO Valencia —which covers the whole territory— while others favour the DO Clariano as a mark of geographic distinction. Either way, the origin is the same: a dry-farmed, limestone landscape with century-old vines that needs no big name to express itself.

Why does the Terres dels Alforins concentrate so much talent?

It's no coincidence that a relatively small region gathers such a high number of interesting producers. Three factors come together: land prices —far lower than in the Priorat or the Penedès—, a climate that allows wine to be made without heavy winemaking intervention, and a centuries-old wine tradition that new producers have found as a foundation to build their own story on.

Established wineries sit alongside recent projects such as that of Luca Bernasconi / LEBULC Celler, a contemporary négociant who selects plots in Fontanars to make wines with a strong identity. Alongside them, Celler del Roure, Fil·loxera & Cia, Rafael Cambra, Spiral de Vi o Can Leandro complete a map of producers with no equivalent in any other Valencian wine region.

Producers of the Terres dels Alforins at Terroir Radical

All the producers we work with who have their vines or their project in this territory: