Bodegas Nodus

Bodegas Nodus farms at Utiel-Requena, inland from Valencia on a high plateau at around 700 to 900 metres, where the Mediterranean influence gives way to something distinctly continental.

The region exists because of Bobal. The grape is the third most planted red in Spain and grown almost nowhere outside this corner of the country, and for most of the twentieth century it went into bulk wine and grape concentrate. It has thick skins, deep colour and unusually high acidity for a warm climate, and old bush vines produce something considerably better than the region's reputation suggests. Growers have only recently begun bottling it seriously.

El Renegado, the renegade, is the estate's range name, and the wines are made in a fresh, unoaked style intended to show what Bobal actually gives rather than what oak can add to it.