La Mata wine selling for $30 a bottle!

LA MATA wine has become the latest tourism attraction and export for Torrevieja, in part thanks to a new endeavour called ‘Dancing with Vineyards’.

The Valencia Regional Government launched ‘Bailando entre viñedos’ or ‘Dancing with Vineyards’ last weekend, a new project which proposes a plan through landscape regeneration, to revive tourism and the economy of the Natural Park of Las Salinas de Torrevieja and La Mata.

The creator of the initiative is Victoria Bernicola Andujar, a ‘natural’ architect from Almoradi. Torrevejense Concepción Torres is the Director-Curator of the Natural Parks of Southern Alicante, which incorporates the Hondo de Elche, Santa Pola and the Natural Park of Las Salinas de La Mata and Torrevieja.

She said of the scheme “we believe in trying to find funds to undertake this project, either through public funding from the European Union or through private enterprise.”

Architect Bernicola Andújar said that her idea was to utilize the “viable regeneration of the landscape of the vineyards of La Mata, an area of about 75 acres, where we will try and recover a plot of land, of around 25 hectares that currently is abandoned and thus enhance the production and marketing of La Mata wine.”

The project also includes a plan for the construction of new routes through the natural park to enable tourists to visit and enjoy the landscape.

The route will run parallel to the canal (built in their day to fill the gap from the La Mata lake) and will include a pedestrian area passing under the N-332.

Last weekend was also the celebration of World Wetlands Day and the Natural Park of Las Salinas de Torrevieja and La Mata took the opportunity to host the presentation of the brand “Parks” in Valencia, a brand that encompasses 22 such areas throughout the Valencian Community.

It should be noted that the Torrevieja salt already is a member of the ‘Parks Brand’ through their Salt Production.

The third announcement over the weekend was of the Alicante Interpretive Wine Route, an initiative that integrates municipalities, warehouses, restaurants, wine bars and lodgings throughout the region and up into the Marina Alta.

The proposed project “Dancing with vineyards”, would include the implementation of a new multifunctional building.

The basement would house a cellar and barrels for winemakers; the ground floor would have a restaurant to allow visitors a taste of the local cuisine accompanied by wine from La Mata plus an information desk and administration offices.

The project includes a research laboratory and manufacturing skin-care products from by-products of the process, integrating classrooms and workshops.

La Mata wine is now being marketed in the United States by local winemaker Rafael Navarro, more specifically two varieties; one called ‘La Viña de Simón’ and the other ‘El Carro’ (The Chariot).

Surprisingly, while one can purchase a bottle of wine locally from Snr. Simon’s Bodega, which is located beside the La Mata Town Hall, for a couple of Euros, such has been the high demand for La Mata wine in the USA that all stocks have been exhausted, and that’s even though it’s distributed at a target price of about $30 U.S. dollars!

Not bad going for a fresh, table wine, from the hamlet of La Mata.

By Keith Nicol