Bodegas Sánchez Zahonero
Name Winery: Bodegas Sánchez Zahonero
Address: Calle Ricardo Serrano, 13, 46392 Siete Aguas (Valencia)
Telephone: 962 340 052
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Sponsor of Vino Valencia Wine Night at Tahine, December 16, 2009, with:
- L’Essència 2006
In between two well-established bodegas comes this new kid on the block. Alfonso Sánchez Zahonero has just begun making wine in his native Siete Aguas (D.O. Valencia), where he selects the choicest grapes from these highland (750-800 metres) local vineyards to make his two wines, Capricho (Tempranillo, Syrah and Merlot) and his premium wine L’Essència (Tempranillo and Syrah). 
The winemaking is carried out in his parents’ garage. So, he oversees everything and it’s completely hands on. It’s wonderful what you can do with training, enthusiasm and talent.
They are both young wines, the Capricho spending nine months in cask and the L’Essència eleven. The L’Essència won a gold medal at this year’s Concours Mondial de Bruxelles and is wowing the highly demanding sommelier and customers at the Michelin-starred La Sucursal restaurant.
Alfonso does his own distribution, knocking on doors and persuading shops and restaurants to stock his wines. It’s exciting to watch a project from its early stages, and I look forward to seeing both how this vintage of L’Essència develops and how Alfonso maintains and develops the high standards he’s set himself.
