Comunidad Valenciana (Comunitat Valenciana)

Valencia is the name used for the autonomous region in the Levante region in Spain, one of the three provinces in this region (the others are Alicante and Castellón de la Plana), as well as for the capital of the province of Valencia (third-largest city in Spain) and for a DO region. The port city of Valencia was an important trading centre for wine in Roman times, and that has remained so right up to the present. The DO has a total vineyard area of around 17.000 hectares, two thirds of this is planted with the white varieties Merseguera (aorund 50% of the total area) and Moscatel Romano (Muscat d´Alexandrie). The latter is used to make sweet Mistelas. The most widely planted red variety is Monastrell, followed by Bobal, Tempranillo and Garnacha (Grenache). There is a special regulation which permits the wines of this region to be blended with those of the adjoining DO Utiel-Requena, which lies to the west, this applies on a reciprocal basis.