Cueva Orange 2025

Bodegas Cueva is the personal project of Mariano Taberner, who works an 18th century winery in La Portera, within Valencia's inland D.O. Utiel-Requena. The wine is built on Tardana, a native white grape farmed organically, with biodiversity and minimal intervention guiding the cellar. This is an orange wine, so the must takes skin contact before settling on its lees, where extended lees contact lends weight and a faintly savoury, yeasty texture as the spent yeast cells break down and release mannoproteins that round the mouthfeel. The continental climate of the Utiel-Requena plateau, with warm days and cool nights, holds acidity in the fruit and keeps the wine fresh despite the skin maceration. In the glass it is amber-gold, with aromas of orange peel, white peach and apricot framed by chamomile and dried herbs. The palate is dry and lightly textured, with gentle grip from the skins, a saline thread and a citrus-peel finish. Serve at 10 to 12 degrees in a white wine glass. It suits grilled white fish, prawns and roast chicken with herbs, and works equally well on its own as an aperitif.