For a long time, people tried to explain Bobal through crossings, supposed kinships, uncertain genealogies. It was linked to Terret Noir, given Mediterranean cousins, made to travel to France under the name of Carignan from Spain. All theories born before DNA, attempts to order the living with the tools of another era.
Bobal grape variety, picture Verónica Romero
Today we know something simpler and stronger: Bobal is an indigenous grape, deeply rooted in the lands of Utiel-Requena and the Valencian Country. Adapted to dry climates, to altitude, to poor soils. A personality that needs no invented genealogy to exist.
For decades, Bobal was the grape of volume. Abundant production, intense colour, good acidity. Ideal for cooperatives, blends, industrial rosés, bulk wine. And so it inherited a reputation for rusticity: hard, rough, without elegance. But the problem was never the variety. The problem was how we looked at it. Bobal is vigorous, yes. It has thick skin, pronounced tannins, high natural acidity. If you force it, it returns hardness. If you listen to it, it offers truth. With low yields, old vines and respectful winemaking, Bobal reveals another face: freshness, clean fruit, tension, and an ageing potential that was denied for years. This is where the work of winegrowers who chose to listen to the vine rather than dominate it comes in. Verónica Romero with her sensitive and precise vision. Bodegas Pigar, recovering lost Bobals. Cueva de Mariano Taberner, where Bobal becomes sweet and oxidative too. Sexto Elemento, with twenty-four months of oak ageing. The Ferrer Gallego brothers and their Endemic project, with great oenological ambitions. Not forgetting Pablo from Bodega Escuadra, an architect who thinks wine through mathematics.
They all share the same conviction: not to disguise Bobal. To let it be. And perhaps that is its great lesson. This grape does not seek to please everyone. It does not give made-up wines. It gives wines that reflect the place, the vintage and the hand that works it. We always return to terroir.
Rediscovering Bobal is not following a trend. It is reconciling ourselves with a variety that has always been here, waiting for us to look at it with respect. This, too, is natural wine.