L'Alfàs del Pi
Alicante/Alacant · Valencian Community
DO Alicante21.080inhabitants
1989wine documented
A municipality of the Marina Baixa with an Arabic place name (al-faḥṣ, 'the sown field'), formerly a settlement dependent on Polop, from which it became independent in 1836.
First mention: In the 16th century it was 'Alfaz del Polop'; Baroness Beatriz Fajardo de Mendoza promoted the Rieg Major irrigation channel (Wikipedia, no exact date).
The legend
first moscatel vines in the late 1970s; winery founded in 1989Enrique Mendoza's two thousand moscatel vines
L'Alfàs, an old sown field with an Arabic name that separated from Polop in 1836, lived off fruit trees, almonds and irrigation from the Rieg Major, and today lives off tourism. In the late seventies a wine enthusiast, Enrique Mendoza, planted some two thousand moscatel vines on an estate near the coast; after years of making wine at home, in 1989 he founded the winery in the district of El Romeral. The following year his son Pepe returned to run it with his brother Julián, and the house moved from foreign varieties to championing Alicante's monastrell. Today the Mendoza wines, mentioned even in the town's encyclopaedia entry, are still bottled in L'Alfàs.
Alive today: Bodegas Enrique Mendoza, on the Camino del Romeral in L'Alfàs del Pi
Wineries and their wines
- EM Dolç de Mendoza
- EM Estrecho
- EM Finca Xaconero
- EM La Tremenda Blanco
- EM La Tremenda Monastrell
- EM Las Quebradas
- EM Moscatel de la Marina
- EM Santa Rosa
Wine towns nearby