Alicante

Alicante is the wine country of the southern Valencian coast, where Monastrell ripens on dry limestone slopes a few kilometres from the Mediterranean. It is one of Spain's oldest delimited regions, with documentary references to Alicante wine going back to the 13th century, and the home of Fondillón, the over-ripened solera-aged Monastrell that travelled with Magellan in 1519 and shows up in Dumas's Count of Monte Cristo. Today the DO covers around 9,000 hectares across two distinct landscapes. La Marina, on the coast around Dénia and Teulada, leans on old Moscatel d'Alexandria on terraced cliffs above the sea. The inland Vinalopó valley, around Villena, Pinoso, and Monóvar, is hotter, drier, and Monastrell country. Bocopa, Enrique Mendoza, Bernabé Navarro, Sierra Salinas, El Sequé, and Primitivo Quiles anchor the modern identity.