# Flowers (2022)

- **Producer:** Bodegas Cueva
- **Colour:** rosé
- **Type:** sparkling
- **Grapes:** Bobal
- **Region:** Valencia, Spain
- **Style:** Natural
- **Alcohol:** 12.0%
- **Average price:** €21
- **Vegan:** Yes
- **Contains sulphites:** Yes
- **When to drink:** Now or Later
- **Serving temperature:** 6–8 °C
- **Aromas & flavours:** elderflower, blossom, rose, ginger, lemon, raspberry, bread, biscuit, dried cranberry

## About this wine

Bodegas Cueva, located in the village of La Portera within Spain's Utiel-Requena region, is led by winemaker Mariano Taberner, a pioneer of natural winemaking in Valencia. Operating from a historic 18th-century cellar, the estate produces artisanal, low-intervention wines from organically farmed century-old vines. Flowers is an innovative botanical natural sparkling wine that blends indigenous Bobal grape juice with natural infusions of elderflower, fresh ginger, and wild botanicals.

## Interesting facts

- Features direct-pressed Bobal grapes co-fermented with natural infusions of fresh ginger, elderflower, and wild herbs.
- Made in an 18th-century cellar in La Portera using organically farmed vines up to 100 years old.
- Crafted as a Pet-Nat with zero added sulfites, no fining, and no filtration.
- Bodegas Cueva was named Best Winery of the Year in 2014 by the Círculo de Enófilos Utiel-Requena.

## Food pairing

The high natural sparkling acidity and distinctive fresh ginger and floral accents cut through rich or fried dishes while pairing effortlessly with Asian-inspired spices, fresh seafood, and savory Spanish tapas.

## Wine making process

Crafted using the ancestral method (Pet-Nat), direct-pressed Bobal grape juice undergoes co-maceration with fresh elderberry, ginger, and wild flowers in stainless steel vats. Spontaneous alcoholic fermentation takes place with native yeasts without artificial cooling or additives. The wine is bottled before alcoholic fermentation finishes to complete its natural carbonation inside the bottle, followed by at least four months of aging on fine lees with zero added sulfites, fining, or filtration.