The Viver Cooperative is bringing back its successful summer festival, where it showcases its selection of wines and the municipality’s time-honored winemaking culture.
July 19, 2022.—The Viver Cooperative is once again hosting the Viver WineFest on August 5, following a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The summer festival, which has been a success in previous years, serves as the best showcase for the Cooperativa de Viver’s wine selection. Since 2016, the cooperative has been reviving the ancient winemaking culture that has characterized the town for more than 20 centuries. The event will take place in the cool, lush La Floresta Park, where at 8:30 p.m. the open bar featuring reds, whites, and rosés produced by the Viver Cooperative in its own winery will open. Accompanying the wine will be tastings of local cuisine and live music, all included with admission. Capacity is limited to 300 people, and to facilitate attendance, two bus routes have been set up to Viver: from Benicàssim via Moncofa, and from Valencia via Sagunt. Tickets are available at www.cooperativaviver.es/evento/wine-fest
Predominant production of red wines and the revival of native grape varieties
90% of the Viver Cooperative’s wine production consists of red wines, made as blends or single-varietal wines from its Tempranillo, Garnacha, Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. Notable among these are the award-winning Viento sobre la Piel, a 100% Syrah crianza that won a gold medal in 2021 at the Catavinum World Wine and Spirits Competition; and La Perdición, a 12-month-aged red whose 2019 vintage also won a gold medal in its category at the 30th Grand International Wine Award Mundus Vini 2022. Alongside its current wine production—which, in addition to the wines mentioned, includes three other red wines (two of them young), two white wines, and one rosé—the Cooperativa de Viver is committed to reviving native grape varieties that existed before the phylloxera plague, which devastated the region’s extensive vineyards in 1915 and relegated the strong winemaking tradition to near oblivion as almond, walnut, and olive groves flourished at the expense of grapevines. Thanks to the preservation of vine cuttings at the Valencia Botanical Garden and the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research (IVIA), it has been possible to recover the native varieties Mondragón, Pampolat de Sagunt, and Morenillo— which are also found in Terra Alta in Tarragona— have been recovered through grafting. These grafts are beginning to bear fruit, so the production of wines from these varieties is still in the experimental phase.
A long tradition of winemaking dating back to the 2nd century B.C.
Viver began growing grapes and producing wine with the arrival of the Romans in the 2nd century B.C. and gradually became the leading exporter of this beverage during the Roman Empire. This agri-food tradition was maintained and strengthened over time, to the point that Viver produced half of all the wine in the Valencian Community until the arrival of phylloxera in 1915. More than a hundred years later, the Viver Cooperative is working to produce quality wines in its own winery that will once again place wine culture at the forefront of its agri-food production, restoring the vine’s status as the region’s primary resource. The Viver WineFest was created in this context to showcase the wines of the Viver Cooperative in a fun, festive atmosphere set in a natural environment, while also serving as a catalyst for rural tourism linked to winemaking and gastronomy. This initiative is not only a commitment to continuing to position Viver’s wines on the regional, national, and even international wine scene, but also, ultimately, to champion a model of dignified and sustainable agriculture capable of producing high-quality products and marketing them fairly. Attending the Viver WineFest means celebrating and sharing this project in the most enjoyable way possible.
