Only Red Wines

In 1876, Mrs Filomena Pons y Pons, paternal great-grandmother of the Martínez Roda family, founded a wine and spirit making company in the Grao de Valencia region. Very soon afterwards, she began to export wines, a tradition which was to be kept by the generations to come. However, one of her grandsons, Francisco Martínez Bermell, who had been managing the winemaking of the company in the Utiel - Requena region since the 1940s, decided to break away and start his own company in Requena. He began to introduce new varietals such as tempranillo, which had never been grown in the area before, and in very close association with Pascual Carrion Carrion, then manager of the Requena Winemaking Station, started adopting new winemaking techniques which would substantially improve the quality of the wines of the region.

 

  
The CASA DON ANGEL estate comprises of the main house,winery, garden and agricultural land. It is situated in the borough of Utiel, at "La Cabezuela", which lies 2.5km west of the estate. To the east, it forms a border with the Rambla de Estenas (watercourse) which in turn is the natural border of the borough of Requena.

This family owned concern trades as a limited company, the Martínez Roda family being sole owners.At present the estate houses an elegant Art Nouveau mansion built in 1919, following the guidelines of the era, as well as the original cellar, since upgraded and streamlined. Adjoining this, the new cellar, ageing plant, bottling plants and museum are found.

With the exception of a couple of almond trees lining its pathways, the estate is dedicated entirely to the growing of vines. These range from over a hundred year old Bobal vines to the recently planted ones.

The vineyards are situated on a gentle slope stretching from the Sierra de Juan Navarro to the Vega del Magro (plains) very near the Rambla de Estenas (watercourse). Here we find a very sunny calcareous glacis where erosion has designed an undulating landscape of valleys and hills. The floors of the valleys are very rich and produce exceptional grape harvests. However, on the hills a calcareous crust with a stony surface predominates. Here the soil is poorer but very suitable for obtaining quality wines. This is something which has not gone unnoticed by Felix Martínez, who plants his most prized cabernet sauvignon, tempranillo, merlot and chardonnay vines here. Even with the help of localised irrigation, Felix does not allow the yield to exceed 3kg per vine.”

Due to its high altitude and continental position, this area is prone to more extreme temperatures then the rest of the Community of Valencia. The average temperature being 14ºC in Requena and 12ºC in Utiel, January being the coldest month, averaging 5ºC and August the hottest, averaging 24ºC. A very significant factor is the marked difference between day and night temperatures which can reach a 20 degree difference. The frequency of extreme temperatures must also be taken into account, these can drop to a freezimg 5 - 10 degrees below zero in winter and rise to a scorching 35 - 40 degrees in summer.