Cañada
Alicante/Alacant · Valencian Community
DO Alicante1.213inhabitants
1795first mention
1845wine documented
A municipality of the Alto Vinalopó that grew out of the Muslim farmstead of Benisamayo and houses along the irrigation channels; independent since 1836 and separated from Campo de Mirra in 1843.
First mention: On 14 December 1795 the district of La Cañada passed from Biar to Benejama; before that it was the Muslim farmstead of Benisamayo.
The legend
wine in Madoz 1845–50; casks from the late 19th century; cooperative 1960s; fondillón recovered 2018The sleeping casks of the Ferrero winery
Cañada grew out of scattered houses alongside the irrigation channels of Biar and did not become a municipality in its own right until 1836, separated from Campo de Mirra in 1843. A few years later Madoz already counted wine among its products. That wine was made in family wineries such as that of the Ferreros, which closed in the 1960s, when the village cooperative was born, and left inside twenty-five casks holding wines from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For decades no one topped up those soleras. From 2015 the oenologist David Carbonell and the family restored the casks, and in 2018 the first fondillones were released under the Luis XIV brand, one of which scored 99 points in the Peñín Guide. It is not a legend: it is a cellar discovery well told by the press, although the exact age of each cask is not documented.
Alive today: La Bodega Cooperativa Ntra. Sra. del Carmen and Colección de Toneles Centenarios, which bottles the wines from the old Ferrero casks as fondillón.
Wineries and their wines
Colección de Toneles Centenarios · since 2018
Bod. Coop. Ntra. Sra. del Carmen (Coop. Cañada)
Wine towns nearby