**Winemaker John House, aka: Juan Casa**

While nearly forgotten, Utiel Requena was crowned one of Spain’s first DOs in the 1930’s. Approximately 45 miles off the SE coast of Mediterranean, within the Comunitat Valenciana - the arid, harsh climate from the northwest welcomes the strong Mediterranean influence of warming wind. The high altitude sites in Requena (1000m) are dotted with poor, organic soils of river rock, clay and limestone, make it the perfect setting for pesticide free farming practices.

Utiel Requena is also the home of one of Spain’s most widely planted, and often overlooked, red varietals, Bobal. Given the high elevation and acid retaining soils, UR is also one of the seven regions permitted to produce sparkling wines brandished with DO Cava.

Bodegas Coviñas, founded in 1965, is a union of the area’s most prominent landholders. Founded in efforts to create a distillery to utilize the abundance of must from their individual wineries. During the dismal times under the dictator, General Francisco Franco, the lion’s share of vineyard production came from unionized cooperatives that employed thousands of landowners. Each grape grower is considered an “Employee” and receives the benefits that go along stability. Bodegas Coviñas has always strived to take care of people of UR, paying top dollar for the highest quality fruit - becoming the foundation on which the region survives and with a desired destiny of quality fruit from the locals. Kiki & Juan are BIG bottles inspired by the big personalities of the hard working, small plot farmers of Utiel Requena.

“Kiki” uses her longstanding relationships with friends and grape growers in Spain to find the organic vineyards that OVUM winemaker “Juan” will use as his muse to create low-intervention wines that are a reflection of their vineyard and vintage.

Native fermentation in cement, amphora and stainless steel + nothing added except sulfur - our goal with Kiki & Juan Wines is to make simple, fresh wines from old fashioned techniques. Old vine Bobal grown in the high elevations of Utiel Requena is the foundation of our tinto as Bobal is perfectly suited to make fresh red wines with bright aromatics of sour cherry, framboise and juniper. Our white relies on the Mediterranean warmth and sunshine to ripen Macabeo into a luscious, textural white that enjoys some time soaking on the skins - so much so that in our second vintage of Kiki & Juan, we produced an orange wine as well with 24 days with skin contact. Sexy, racy stuff. Click the labels below to read and download our Tech Sheets.