FEREVIN

A Spanish comarca wine fair is not a tasting room. The wineries set up tables in a public square, you buy a glass and walk from one to the next, which is the fastest way to drink your way across a whole appellation without driving between estates. The listing places FEREVIN on Plaza de Albornoz, in the old town of Requena. Opening hours for each day, and how the glass-and-tokens system works, should be checked on the official page — that detail is not in this listing.

What you are actually tasting

The fair started in 1991 to promote the wines of the area and is now one of the largest wine showcases in the Valencian Community. Requena and Utiel give their names to a denomination of origin on an inland plateau: higher, drier and much cooler at night than the coast, an hour from the sea and nothing like it. The dominant grape is bobal — red, high in acid, almost black in colour. For decades it was sold in bulk to add colour to wines made elsewhere; now it carries most of the reds and rosés produced here. Cava is made in the area too. Bobal is rarely exported under its own name, so this is one of the few places you will meet it properly.

Getting to Requena without a car

Driving from València takes under an hour on the A-3. Public transport is possible but not smooth. The C-3 Cercanías line (València–Buñol–Utiel) stops at Requena, but the inland section has spent long stretches replaced by road service since the 2024 flood, so check the day's status rather than assuming a train. The high-speed Requena-Utiel station is not in the town: it sits about five and a half kilometres away in the village of San Antonio, so it means a taxi at the other end. And the obvious one at a wine fair — whoever tastes does not drive back. Other options in the guide to reaching the villages without a car.

Making a day of it

Arrive early and the old quarter is worth the trip on its own: a compact medieval grid, shaded and walkable. Underneath it run the Cuevas de la Villa, cellars and grain silos cut into the rock, visited with a guide; above ground there is the castle keep and a wine museum. Note that inland Spanish towns still close properly in the afternoon — shops shut roughly from 14:00 to 17:00, and kitchens serve dinner from about 21:00. Requena also works as a plain day trip from València outside fair dates.