La bodega de Beniasia. Wine expression by Huang

Colin Harkness
Benitachell’s Chinese Restaurant, Beniasia, opened in 2003 and became instantly popular. The old town was expanding. Madrileños, desperate to escape the escalating heat (climate change had been acknowledged over a decade ago) wanted a casita by the sea. Conversely, Northern Europeans still sought the sun, despite there being increasingly more of it in their own countries. The demand for more dining out options, in particular more exotic cuisine was immediately satisfied – Beniasia arrived and prospered.

Fourteen years later the family who’d opened the restaurant so successfully decided that an upgrade was necessary. Whilst keeping the high quality of the food being cooked and served on the premises they wanted a more elegant look, a more sophisticated ambience. Keen to please their established clientele as well as gain diners from further afield, new decorations, furniture etc were skilfully introduced and the ante was impressively upped!

Young Huang, like many Chinese children whose parents owned and ran restaurants, grew up working in the original version of Beniasia, learning the ropes, recipes and everything else, perhaps one day to take over the business from his parents. Once the reform had been completed and everyone, the family and the clients, had been able to stand back and admire their work, one particular client, had suggested to Huang that now was the time to think about ensuring that the wine list reflected the class of the restaurant and the wines selected were of a similar high quality.

Huang, whilst in his restaurant formative years had started to develop an interest in wines – not a passing interest and not simply because he liked wine. His was also a professional interest, resulting in him enrolling in the esteemed Valencia course to become a ‘Sumiller Profesional’, which he passed in 2021. This prestigious award made him the first Chinese Sommelier in the Valencia Comunidad and one of the few Chinese people living in Spain who really know and understand wine!

Now 35 years old, experienced and keen to make his own way, whilst remaining a driving force in the family business, Huang added, just two years ago, another branch to the already very successful business. La Bodega de Beniasia was born, adjoining the original restaurant and enjoying the same high standard of decoration, furniture etc as well as the same elegance and welcoming ambience.

This dedicated bodega, Huang’s wall to wall wine emporium, boasts local, national and international fine wines many of which are exclusively sourced and imported by Huang, with over 95% of them having been tasted and specially selected by the man himself. But that’s not all. There are wonderful spirits, sherries, fortified wines, sparklers and even some very elegant glassware. As I said in a recent social media post, it’s an Aladin’s Cave!

And still, that’s not all! At 17:00 hrs, La Bodega de Beniasia also becomes a Gastro Bodega, inviting patrons to come in for a glass of wine, chosen from the oft changing list of wines by the glass, perchance to be accompanied by a gastro tapa. And, if you want a little more than just tapas to eat – well you’re in the right place, just walk straight into the restaurant! We haven’t yet taken advantage of this – but you can be sure we soon will, when my wife’s badly broken leg is fully healed!

Plus, La Bodega de Beniasia hosts a variety of, often themed, wine tastings, an example of which was the recent ‘Los Chardonnays del Mundo’ – which we had to miss out on, you know why! So, all in all, the good folk of Benitachell and surrounding area are really lucky to have such wine palace! When you next/first visit I’d recommend you enquire how you might be able to be added to the list of clients who are regularly updated with information about forthcoming tastings etc – as did I, of course.

I really enjoyed my chat with Huang. It’s clear that his philosophy dovetails perfectly with mine. Huang wants to help clients expand their wine experience and knowledge. He’s proud of being the exclusive importer of several small international wineries’ wares which means he can offer a broader variety of choices and can keep prices down too! There’s a spectrum of price points – you can buy inexpensive through to very expensive, but you can be assured that the ‘buy line’ is quality, always quality!

You see, to paraphrase the Welsh comedian, Max Boyce – I know because I was there (and I bought)!

The Cristia Collection Côtes de Provence Rosé 2024 is just the sort of rosé wine we’re all looking for in the heat of summer. At 13% abv it’s not just a pretty wallflower wine (though it is certainly lovely to admire in the glass!) Typical of the current trend for very pale rosé and, in fact, coming from Provence, initiators of this trend, this rosé has an inviting aroma too. You’ll find some red rose perfume on the nose with a super ephemeral touch of honeysuckle too.

I’d expect some soft red fruit, raspberry more than strawberry in this case and I wasn’t disappointed but also an add-on, loganberry, the soft red fruit that has a touch more flavour, in my view. Curiously, and certainly engagingly, I also found a faint red apple flavour in the mix. Dry, very pleasant drinking.

Hill, Pinot Grigio is from the Alto-Adige area of Italy – and proud of it! Pinot Grigio can sometimes be a fruit-bomb crowd-pleaser and for the crowds of people who adore that style, it delivers in abundance. However, if you’d like fruit, yes, but a little more subtlety with more pronounced, yet finely balanced, acidity then look for Pinot Grigio grown in vineyards of a higher altitude – Alto-Adige for example.

There’s freshness and faint minerality with some green melon fruit a promising aroma that delivers on the palate and, it’s thirst quencher too! I’d like this wine as an aperitif as well as with fish dishes (far better here than the very fruity efforts), with or without sources as the acidity will cut nicely through cream as well as garlic infused olive oil. Try it also with salads – cheese and even chicken.

Regular readers of my writings and posts will know that I’m a big fan of the quality and certainly the price of Cava, when it comes to Sparkling Wines, but that doesn’t, of course, mean I’m averse to Champagne! Far from it – as Champagne can be wonderful. Tradition from Pierre Brocard is very well priced for a Grower Champagne of this quality. When I was in La Bodega de Beniasia a Belgian chap came in to buy two cases of his ‘got to’ Champagne.

It’s another of the wineries with whom Huang enjoys exclusivity – you won’t find it anywhere else in these parts – and it is definitely worth seeking out. Predominately Pinot Noir, it could almost be called a blanc de noir Champagne, were it not for the small proportions of Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc included in the blend. The Pinot Noir adds, as well as a certain fullness common to white wines made with black grapes, a very, very pale pink hue in the glass. Plus, and speaking of fullness, some 10% of the still wine used to make the final product has been fermented and aged a little in oak barrels. It’s excellent!

La Grillat, La Comarcal wine ‘is a little bit crazy in a fun way’ which is a translation of the word grillat (which I’ve now added to my Valenciano vocab!) A fruit driven, but not overpoweringly so, red wine made with Monastrell and, toning down the rich and dark red of the former grape, Garnacha. Made by two leading young Spanish winemakers Javi Revert and Víctor Marqués in the area it comes from vineyards at about 700m above sea level and is about transmitting the benefits of the local varieties as well as providing fresh acidity, with a little tannin too.

This wine is a fine aperitif wine for those who like to drink wine by the glass that is fresh and not necessarily to accompany food. Don’t get me wrong though – this wine will be super with red meats and I’m thinking particularly of BBQs. I don’t recall the exact price but it was about 14€ – as with all Huang’s wines, it’s a fair price.

The final wine from my haul was another red – one with 14 months oak ageing but fashioned in a fruit-sensitive manner. Too often in the past some of the world’s wines have been made with too much oak. In Spain, not that long ago, the most comprehensive wine guide, Peñín, made a point of listing how many oak barrels a winery had – believing this to be a great advantage.

Oak can enhance a wine, but it should never hide the fruit. Rather, it should be in the background in the same way that a double bass is an integral part of an orchestra. So, 14 months may look like a long time – but Planella red from Joan d’Anguera uses oak in a restrained way, adding depth and complexity with very little barrel aroma or taste. It’s just a part of the finished product.

You’ll find La Bodega de Beniasia on Facebook and Instagram @gastrobodegadebeniasia  – and I strongly suggest you do!

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