Javier Revert

Javier Revert (aka – Javi) belongs to the group of young Spanish growers who revolutionized the Spanish wine word over the last decade. Being close friend of Dani & Fernando from Comando G, and the Envinate team, his vision is following their vision when they decided to make wines in Gredos and Canary Island respectively – but he is doing it around his home town, Font de la Figuera, about an hour drive northwest of Valencia in southern Spain. This area is known for having vineyards for generations, growing old, regional grape varieties in the mountainous region, that due to mediocre wine making practices and low demand, many of them were neglected and abandoned over the years. After finishing his studies of viticulture at the Universidad Politécnica in Valencia, he decided to return to the region where he was born, and his first vineyard to work was the one planted by his great grandfather, named Pla del Micalet. This terraced site is surrounded by forest and scrubland at an elevation of 710-730m with poor and chalky soils. Established long before the craze for foreign varieties or productive clones destroyed much of the viticultural heritage of the DO, this site was planted higgly-piggly with white varieties best suited to the warm, dry Mediterranean climate – Tortosí, Trepadell, Malvasía, Merseguera, and Verdil. As the plots hadn’t been worked for years, and had merged into a patchwork of Mediterranean flora, olive and almond trees. Its rediscovery was the inspiration for the creation of Javi’s personal project, his own estate focused solely on vineyards around his hometown, featuring heritage varieties and wines made with minimal intervention.

Javi prefers north facing sites, and he recognized potential in these steep mountain terraces at the 700-800 metres above sea level planted with indigenous grapes such as Tortosí, Trepadell, Malvasía, Merseguera, Verdil, Monastrell and Arcos. He has been meticulously restoring and improving these vineyards, getting to know each macro-climate and planting some new plots, working hard to make wines of increasing purity and precision. Now totaling about 6 hectares, Javi has also acquired some sites where he can plant additional vines but only uses selection massale for these new plantings. Farming is organic but not currently certified, and vineyard work is manual, including harvest. Fermentations are with indigenous yeasts and entirely in neutral vessels – seasoned French oak, tank, demi-john, or amphora. The reds have varying amounts of whole clusters depending on the vintage and variety. He also makes experimental cuvées to better understand all the facets of each variety and parcel, and he has been replanting Garnacha in several sites he owns.

While he has plans to grow the estate modestly, he intends to retain a sense of place in each of his wines. Micalet, Simeta and the young planting of Forada are single-vineyard wines, while Sensal represents his village wine. His wines are honest and vibrant, transparent reflections of each site and vintage. They’re made in minuscule quantities and the present total production of the bodega is less than 20,000 bottles per year.