Bobal

Bobal is one of Spain's most planted red grapes and one of its least known abroad, concentrated in Utiel-Requena and Manchuela in the high country inland from Valencia.

Its name probably derives from the Latin bovale, a reference to the bull's-head shape of the bunch. It is exceptionally drought-tolerant and thrives on the poor limestone soils of a plateau that sits between 600 and 900 metres and receives very little rain.

For most of its history it was grown for bulk wine and for its colour, sold by the tanker to blenders elsewhere, and enormous volumes were distilled. It is only in the last two decades that anyone has made a serious case for it.

The grape retains unusually high acidity for a hot-climate variety, and it produces a deeply coloured wine with blackberry, black cherry and damson, firm tannins and a savoury, earthy, faintly herbal character. Alcohol is moderate compared with other Spanish reds, which in a warming climate has become an advantage rather than a deficiency.

The most interesting examples come from old bush vines, many of them fifty to a hundred years old, farmed without irrigation. Those wines have genuine freshness and mineral definition.

It also makes a substantial quantity of rosado, which is deeply coloured, dry and structured.

Plantings have fallen sharply from their mid-century peak, but Bobal remains among the most planted varieties in Spain by area.