The Traveling Winemakers & the Micro-Vineyards
Aida i Luis Vinyaters is the project of Aida Cisnal Roig and Luis Serra Bernabeu — a couple of enólogos viajeros who, after years of professional experience in wineries around the world, returned to their native Alicante in 2018 to create something unmistakably their own: artisanal wines from the indigenous varieties of the Marina Alta, made in tiny quantities with maximum care and minimum intervention. Their philosophy is simple and profound: the grape must be the protagonist. They do not own a single large estate; instead, they seek out and lease singular micro-vineyards — each chosen for its specific microclimate, its specific soil, and its specific suitability for a specific wine. The Sierra de Bernia provides mountain freshness at 620 metres. The coast of Benitatxell provides maritime salinity and white sands. The Pla de Lliber provides shaded clay and old-vine delicacy. Every parcel is fermented separately, with its own indigenous yeasts, in small lots, unfiltered, unclarified, and with minimal additions. The result is a portfolio of limited-edition wines that capture the essence of one of Spain's most distinctive Mediterranean terroirs — a region where the mountains meet the sea, where the Giró grape has grown for centuries, and where the Moscatel vine is so close to the water that you can taste the salt in the glass. This is not industrial winemaking; this is viticultural cartography — mapping a landscape one micro-plot at a time.
Aida & Luis & the Return Home
The story of Aida i Luis Vinyaters is the story of two winemakers who traveled the world to learn their craft and then returned to their native soil to apply it with an independence that only experience can grant. Aida Cisnal Roig and Luis Serra Bernabeu are both trained oenologists who spent years working in wineries across Spain and beyond — accumulating technical knowledge, tasting hundreds of wines, and observing the full spectrum of viticultural approaches from industrial to artisanal. But they are also enólogos viajeros in a deeper sense: travelers who understood that the only way to make wine with true personality is to know intimately the place where the grapes grow, and that the only place they could know with that depth was the one they had known since childhood — the Marina Alta, the northernmost comarca of Alicante, where the Mediterranean crashes against limestone cliffs and the Giró vine has clung to mountain terraces for generations.
In 2018, they founded their project in Xaló — a small town in the valley of the same name, surrounded by mountains on three sides and open to the sea on the fourth. They did not purchase a large estate; they did not inherit family vineyards. Instead, they began a methodical search for singular micro-plots — abandoned old vineyards, forgotten terraces, coastal plots that had survived the region's rush toward international varieties and bulk production. They found them in three distinct locations: the Sierra de Bernia, a natural park rising to 620 metres just six kilometres from the sea; the coastal village of Benitatxell, where vines grow on white sands within metres of the Mediterranean; and the Pla de Lliber, a valley floor of clay and stones where old vines in vaso (goblet-trained) still produce grapes of extraordinary concentration. Each plot was chosen not for its size but for its voice — its specific microclimate, its specific soil, its specific ability to express a specific variety in a specific way.
The couple's division of labour is not rigid but complementary. Aida brings the precision of the oenologist and the intuition of the traveler — the ability to taste a vineyard before the harvest and know what it wants to become. Luis brings the technical rigour and the philosophical patience — the conviction that wine should be left to find its own path, that the winemaker's role is to protect the process rather than direct it. Together, they have created a workflow that is rare in the wine world: two people, a handful of small tanks, a few barrels, and a portfolio of eight distinct brands — each from a different plot, each with a different personality, each a limited edition that sells out before the next vintage is bottled. They are not trying to build an empire; they are trying to build a map — a viticultural atlas of the Marina Alta, one micro-plot at a time.
"The grape must be the protagonist. We make wines of minimal intervention where the grape is the star, fermenting each micro-vineyard separately with its own indigenous yeasts to achieve the maximum expression and singularity of each parcel."
— Aida Cisnal Roig & Luis Serra Bernabeu
Marina Alta & the Three Worlds
The Marina Alta is the northernmost comarca of the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community of Spain — a landscape of extraordinary geographical compression where the Mediterranean Sea, the coastal plains, and the mountain ranges of the Prebaetic System exist within a few kilometres of each other. The climate is typically Mediterranean: warm, sunny, and dry, but with the crucial moderating effect of sea breezes that ventilate the vines, prevent rot, and preserve acidity in a region that would otherwise be too hot for balanced viticulture. The soils are highly suitable for quality winegrowing — fine-textured, composed mainly of silt and sand, very draining and poor in organic matter, forcing the vines from a young age to send their roots deep in search of water and nutrients. This stress produces small berries, thick skins, and concentrated flavours — the raw material for wines of intensity and character.
Aida and Luis farm three distinct terroirs that might as well be three different countries. The Sierra de Bernia is a natural park and mountain range that rises to 620 metres above sea level, just six kilometres from the sea in a straight line. The vines here are among the highest in the comarca, grown in vaso on ferric clay soils with abundant limestone rock. The altitude provides freshness, the proximity to the sea provides humidity and maritime influence, and the poor, stony soils provide concentration and mineral tension. This is the source of the estate's most profound reds — the Maboi and the Gironauta — where the Giró variety achieves a complexity and mountain freshness that belies its Mediterranean origin.
The coast of Benitatxell is the opposite extreme: a coastal village where the vineyards sit on white sands within metres of the Mediterranean, exposed to constant sea breezes and the saline influence of the water. This is one of the zones with the strongest maritime influence on the entire Iberian Peninsula, and it produces a microclimate that is uniquely suited to the Moscatel de Alejandría — the great aromatic white variety of the Mediterranean, here expressed with a saline freshness, a floral intensity, and a sea-breeze delicacy that distinguishes it from the heavier, sweeter versions of the grape found elsewhere. The white sands reflect light, the sea moderates temperature, and the result is a white wine — the Tahúlla — that tastes of orange blossom, salt, and the Mediterranean itself.
The Pla de Lliber is the third world: a valley floor of clay and stones, shaded and cooler than the exposed coast or the open mountain, where old vines of Giró — some forty years old, trained in vaso, unirrigated — produce grapes of extraordinary freshness and delicate aromatic complexity. The clay retains moisture, the stones provide drainage, and the shade provides the cool temperatures that Aida and Luis seek for their rosé — the Ou Yea — a wine of cherry, lychee, and pink grapefruit that could only come from this specific combination of soil, exposure, and vine age. The farming across all three sites is minimal-intervention: no irrigation, no chemical pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers. The vines are old, dry-farmed, and treated with the respect that comes from knowing that each plot is irreplaceable.
Aida i Luis Vinyaters is located in Xaló, Marina Alta, Alicante, Spain. A young artisanal project founded in 2018 by Aida Cisnal Roig and Luis Serra Bernabeu, two traveling winemakers who returned to their native region to craft wines from indigenous varieties. The estate operates across ~3 hectares of leased micro-vineyards. A benchmark for micro-terroir, minimal-intervention winemaking in the Spanish Mediterranean.
The estate farms three distinct terroirs: Sierra de Bernia (620m altitude, ferric clay with limestone, 6km from sea — mountain freshness); Benitatxell (white sands within metres of the Mediterranean — maritime salinity and floral Moscatel); and Pla de Lliber (shaded clay and stones, 40-year-old vines — delicate rosé freshness). Three worlds, two grapes, one philosophy.
All vines are old, trained in traditional vaso (goblet), dry-farmed and unirrigated. The poor, draining soils force deep root systems that produce small berries, thick skins, and concentrated flavours. No chemical pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers. The vineyard is treated as a collection of irreplaceable micro-ecosystems rather than a production unit.
The estate works exclusively with two indigenous varieties: Giró — the native red grape of the Marina Alta, historically confused with Garnacha but genetically distinct, producing wines of red fruit, Mediterranean herbs, and leather; and Moscatel de Alejandría — the great aromatic white of the Mediterranean, here expressed as a dry, saline, floral wine rather than the sweet styles typical of the region.
The Grape as Protagonist & the Eight Brands
The cellar philosophy at Aida i Luis Vinyaters is governed by a single, non-negotiable principle: the grape must be the protagonist. This is not a marketing slogan; it is a methodological constraint that shapes every decision from harvest to bottle. Aida and Luis do not blend across parcels; they ferment each micro-vineyard separately, in small lots, with its own indigenous yeasts, allowing the specific character of each plot to express itself without homogenisation. The wines are not clarified, not filtered, and receive only minimal additions — the absolute minimum necessary for stability, and often none at all. The goal is not to create a house style but to create a collection of individual voices — eight distinct brands, each from a different vineyard, each with a different personality, each a faithful portrait of its origin.
The red wines are made from 100% Giró, the indigenous red variety of the Marina Alta. The Maboi comes from the Sierra de Bernia at 620 metres — hand-harvested, fermented with indigenous yeasts, with partial whole-cluster inclusion, aged for eight months in stainless steel. It is a wine of mountain freshness, red fruit explosion, and the leather-and-herb complexity that only high-altitude, poor-soil Giró can achieve. The Gironauta comes from the same Sierra de Bernia but from a different parcel, fermented with 50% whole-cluster and aged for twelve months in French oak barrels — a more structured, more complex expression of the same mountain terroir, with cherry, Mediterranean bush, and a long, savoury finish. Both are unfiltered, unclarified, and bottled with minimal sulfur.
The white wines are made from 100% Moscatel de Alejandría, but expressed in a style that challenges the region's tradition of sweet Moscatel. The Tahúlla comes from four micro-parcels in Benitatxell, within metres of the sea, on white sands — hand-harvested, given two to five days of skin maceration, fermented with indigenous yeasts at low temperature, aged on fine lees for three months and then for five more months in tank. It is a dry Moscatel of extraordinary aromatic complexity: white flowers, pear, apricot, honey, dry grass, and a saline finish that speaks of the Mediterranean's proximity. The Bashara pushes further: a Moscatel with long skin maceration, aged under a velo flor — a film of yeast that develops nutty, balsamic, and citrus notes, creating a wine of gastronomic complexity and oxidative depth that is entirely unconventional for the variety.
The rosé and sparkling wines complete the portfolio with the same attention to micro-terroir. The Ou Yea is a rosé of 100% Giró from 40-year-old vines in the Pla de Lliber — only the free-run juice, fermented at low temperature (14–16°C) over four weeks, aged on lees for six months. It is a wine of cherry, lychee, pink grapefruit, and rose petal — fresh, elegant, and complex. The Dame Rosé is another Giró rosé from old vines in the Jalón Valley, fermented and aged in French oak barrels for three months — a more structured, more gastronomic rosé that challenges the idea that pink wine must be simple. The Las Fieras is a pet-nat of Giró — a sparkling wine with a subtle, crispy, elegant bubble that makes the wine even more refreshing, capturing the playful, joyful side of the project. And the Las Fieras Moscatel is a sparkling white of Moscatel — full-bodied, complex, with wild flowers, orange peel, laurel, and a creamy, elegant bubble that invites continuous drinking. Every wine is a limited edition. Every wine sells out. Every wine is a map coordinate.
Unfiltered, Unclarified & Spontaneous
The guiding principle of Aida and Luis's winemaking is that the wine should be a pure reflection of the vineyard, not a product of the laboratory. Their approach — hand-harvesting, spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts, no commercial inoculations, no filtration, no clarification, and minimal additions — is not a rejection of technique but a refinement of it. The eight brands allow them to explore the full spectrum of their micro-terroirs: from the mountain freshness of the Maboi to the maritime salinity of the Tahúlla, from the delicate elegance of the Ou Yea to the oxidative depth of the Bashara. Each wine is distinct, but all share a common origin — the indigenous varieties and micro-vineyards of the Marina Alta — and a common destination: the glass, where the grape is indeed the protagonist.
The Eight Brands & the Micro-Vineyards
Aida i Luis Vinyaters produces a portfolio of eight distinct brands from approximately 3 hectares of leased micro-vineyards in the Marina Alta, each brand representing a specific plot, a specific microclimate, and a specific expression of either Giró or Moscatel de Alejandría. All wines are hand-harvested, spontaneously fermented with indigenous yeasts, unfiltered, unclarified, and bottled with minimal additions. The portfolio is deliberately small in quantity — total annual production is under 10,000 bottles — and each wine is a limited edition that captures the singularity of its origin. The reds express the mountain freshness of the Sierra de Bernia; the whites express the maritime salinity of Benitatxell; the rosés express the shaded delicacy of the Pla de Lliber; and the sparkling wines express the joyful, playful side of the project. The following represents the core cuvées as they have emerged from Aida and Luis's years of passionate, micro-terroir winemaking in the mountains and along the coast of Alicante.
"The grape must be the protagonist. We make wines of minimal intervention where the grape is the star, fermenting each micro-vineyard separately with its own indigenous yeasts to achieve the maximum expression and singularity of each parcel."
— Aida Cisnal Roig & Luis Serra Bernabeu
The Micro-Vineyard Atlas & the Limited Edition
To understand Aida i Luis Vinyaters, one must understand that they are not merely winemakers; they are cartographers — mapping a landscape one micro-plot at a time, creating a viticultural atlas of the Marina Alta that did not exist before they began. They do not own a large estate; they do not aspire to volume. They lease small plots, often old and abandoned, and restore them to production with the patience and care that only traveling winemakers — people who have seen what industrial viticulture does to wine — can bring. Each of their eight brands is a coordinate on this map: Maboi and Gironauta for the mountain, Tahúlla and Bashara for the coast, Ou Yea and Dame Rosé for the valley, Las Fieras for the joy of bubbles. This is not a portfolio designed for supermarket shelves; it is a portfolio designed for connoisseurs, for Michelin-starred restaurants, for natural wine bars in Tokyo and Barcelona, and for anyone who believes that wine should taste of a specific place rather than a generic style.
The identity is also defined by the limited edition. Every wine is produced in tiny quantities — from 3,000 to 12,000 bottles depending on the cuvée — and every vintage sells out before the next is released. This is not artificial scarcity; it is the natural consequence of farming micro-vineyards. The Sierra de Bernia parcel cannot produce more than it produces. The Benitatxell sands cannot support more vines than they support. The Pla de Lliber old vines cannot yield more than their age allows. The result is a winery that operates in a state of permanent sell-out, where the wines are allocated to restaurants and retailers who understand their value, and where the consumer who finds a bottle has found something that cannot be replicated.
The future of Aida i Luis Vinyaters is tied to the continued discovery of new micro-vineyards, the deepening of their relationship with their existing plots, and the gradual expansion of a portfolio that will always remain small by design. New cuvées may emerge — perhaps a sweet Moscatel that honours the region's tradition while subverting it, perhaps a red from a new mountain plot, perhaps a skin-contact Giró that pushes the boundaries even further. But the core will remain: two traveling winemakers, a handful of small tanks, a few barrels, and the conviction that the grape must be the protagonist. The Sierra de Bernia will continue to provide mountain freshness, the Benitatxell coast will continue to provide maritime salinity, the Pla de Lliber will continue to provide shaded delicacy, and the indigenous varieties — Giró and Moscatel — will continue to prove that the Marina Alta is one of Spain's most distinctive and underappreciated wine regions.
In an age of increasing industrialisation in wine — of global varieties, engineered yeasts, and bulk production — Aida i Luis Vinyaters stands as a compelling alternative, not because they reject modernity but because they have embraced a deeper modernity: one that values micro-vineyards over large estates, indigenous varieties over international imports, leased plots over owned land, minimal intervention over technological control, unfiltered clarity over sterile brilliance, the limited edition over the mass market, spontaneous fermentation over inoculation, dry-farmed old vines over irrigated young ones, the traveling winemaker over the sedentary vigneron, the eight brands over the single house style, and the specific voice of the Sierra de Bernia's ferric clay, the Benitatxell white sands, and the Pla de Lliber's shaded stones over the standardised replication of a global luxury style. Aida Cisnal Roig and Luis Serra Bernabeu are not merely making wine; they are proving that two winemakers can map a region with 3 hectares, that the indigenous Giró can achieve complexity that rivals Garnacha, that the Moscatel can be dry and saline rather than sweet and heavy, that a rosé can be gastronomic, that a pet-nat can be elegant, and that the simplest philosophy — the grape must be the protagonist — is often the most profound. From the mountain to the sea, from the valley to the glass, from the micro-vineyard to the limited edition: all united in one bottle, one map, one unanswerable argument for the possibility of authentic, micro-terroir, indigenous, passionately honest wine from the Marina Alta.
Aida and Luis are enólogos viajeros who worked in wineries around the world before returning to their native Alicante. Their global experience gave them the technical knowledge to work cleanly without additives, and the philosophical independence to reject industrial models. They did not inherit vineyards; they discovered them. They do not own an estate; they lease micro-plots. Their traveling identity is the foundation of their creative freedom.
Every wine is a limited edition — from 3,000 to 12,000 bottles — and every vintage sells out. This is not artificial scarcity; it is the natural consequence of farming micro-vineyards. The Sierra de Bernia cannot produce more. The Benitatxell sands cannot support more. The Pla de Lliber old vines cannot yield more. The result is a winery in permanent sell-out, where allocation to Michelin-starred restaurants and natural wine bars is the only distribution model that makes sense for wines that cannot be replicated.