The Engineer, the Great-Grandfather & the Grape That Became a Dissertation
In Venta del Moro, on the high plateau of the Cabriel River, Rafael López — agricultural engineer, PhD candidate in viticulture, and great-grandson of a winemaker — makes zero-sulphite natural wine from 95-year-old Bobal vines at 750 to 1,000 metres, where the mountain and the sea collide.
Origin — 2000, the Cooperative & the Return to the Origin
Sexto Elemento is the project of Rafael López Díaz-Alejo — known as Rafa — an agricultural engineer from Venta del Moro, a small town in the Utiel-Requena region of Valencia. But Rafa is not merely an engineer who makes wine. He is a researcher — currently completing a PhD on the Bobal grape at the Polytechnic University of Valencia — and a great-grandson, continuing a family tradition that was interrupted by the industrialisation of 20th-century agriculture. The winery is a family project, run alongside his wife Silvia, and it represents one of the most technically informed and emotionally rooted natural wine estates in Spain.
The family had always cultivated vines in Venta del Moro. But the last person in the family to actually make wine was the great-grandfather. The craft was lost in the mid-20th century, when the family — like virtually every other family in the region — began delivering their grapes to the cooperative. The great-grandfather's bodega fell silent. The barrels were emptied. And for generations, the López family grew grapes but never transformed them. They were farmers, not winemakers. They supplied the industrial machine, but they did not create the bottle.
In 2000, Rafa and Silvia decided to return to the origin. They recovered the old family winery and the surrounding vineyards, fusing the knowledge of their ancestors with modern viticultural science. Rafa had spent eight harvests working in the village cooperative's bodega before launching his own project — eight years of learning the industrial system from the inside, understanding its limitations, and preparing to do something different. When they began, they were not following a trend. They were resuming a conversation that had been interrupted three generations earlier.
The name Sexto Elemento — Sixth Element — refers to the ancient concept of the classical elements (earth, water, air, fire, and aether), with wine as the sixth: the element that emerges when human intention meets natural transformation. It is a name that speaks to Rafa's scientific mind and his poetic soul — the engineer who understands chemistry and the grandson who understands memory. The project has since become a benchmark for natural wines in the Utiel-Requena area, recognised by La Vanguardia, El Mundo, and NEO2 among the reference wines of Spain's natural wine movement.
The Place — The Cabriel Plateau, the 20-Degree Swing & the 95-Year-Old Vines
Venta del Moro sits in the high plateau of the Cabriel River — the southwestern zone of the DO Utiel-Requena, in the interior of Valencia. The estate's vineyards lie between 750 and 1,000 metres above sea level — an altitude that places them among the highest in the region. The climate is shaped by a violent collision: the marine climate from the east meets the mountain climate from the west, creating a thermal amplitude of more than 20 degrees between day and night. The summers are hot, the winters are cold, and the grapes ripen slowly, accumulating sugar by day and preserving acidity by night.
The Old Vines — 70 to 95 Years, 1 Kilo per Vine
The heart of Sexto Elemento is its old vines — 70 to 95 years of age, planted in the traditional gobelet (vaso) system on clayey-sandy and clayey-calcareous soils. These are not young, vigorous plants. They are gnarled survivors that have endured decades of heat, frost, and drought, their roots plunging deep into the Cabriel plateau in search of water. The yields are extraordinarily low: in the Respeto vineyard, the 95-year-old vines produce just 1 kilogram per plant — a concentration that is economically irrational but oenologically extraordinary. The grapes are hand-harvested in small boxes, selected in the field, and transported immediately to the winery. This is not industrial agriculture. This is agricultural archaeology — the excavation of flavour from ancient wood.
The Hoces del Cabriel — Natural Park & Highest Vineyards
The David & Goliat cuvée comes from the highest vineyards of the estate, located within the Hoces del Cabriel Natural Park — a protected landscape of canyons, cliffs, and wild beauty at 900 metres above sea level. Here, the Bobal vine faces its most extreme conditions: thin soils, intense UV radiation, and the constant wind that sweeps across the plateau. The result is a wine of extraordinary concentration and freshness — a paradox that only altitude can create. The natural park status means the land is protected from development, ensuring that these vineyards will remain as they are: wild, isolated, and utterly singular. 1,500 bottles. No more.
Bobal — The Subject of the PhD
Bobal is not merely the grape that Rafa grows. It is the subject of his doctoral research — a variety that he has studied at the molecular, agricultural, and sensory levels for years. Native to Utiel-Requena, Bobal is a thick-skinned, late-ripening grape that produces wines of extraordinary colour, fresh acidity, and wild berry character. It is also a variety that has been systematically undervalued by the Spanish wine industry, relegated to bulk production and blending material. Rafa's mission is to prove that Bobal, when grown at altitude, farmed traditionally, and vinified naturally, can produce wines of international stature. His PhD is the science. His bottles are the argument.
Graciano, Macabeo & Tardana — The Exceptions
While Bobal dominates the reds, Sexto Elemento cultivates exceptional exceptions. Graciano — a variety native to Rioja and Navarra — has been planted in a single vineyard at Venta del Moro, making it the only Graciano plot in the entire zone. Macabeo and Tardana — two native white grapes of Valencia — provide the raw material for the estate's whites and orange wines. Tardana, also known as Planta Nova, is a late-ripening white of extraordinary acidity that thrives at altitude. Macabeo contributes floral aromatics and Mediterranean generosity. Together, they allow Rafa to demonstrate that Utiel-Requena is not merely a red-wine region — it is a viticultural laboratory where the sixth element can take many forms.
Winemaking — Uva, Solo Uva & the Two Ingredients
Rafa López's cellar philosophy is captured in a phrase that appears on every label and in every interview: Uva, solo uva. Grape, only grape. This is not a slogan. It is a recipe — and a radical one. The wines are made without chemical additives, without artificial treatments, without selected yeasts, without enzymes, without chaptalisation, and without added sulphites. The only ingredients are the grape and the respect that Rafa brings to it. As the label for Respeto states: "This wine is made with two key ingredients: grape and respect."
The 6º Elemento — the flagship — exemplifies the method. 100% Bobal from old vines at 750 metres on clayey-sandy soil. Hand-harvested in small boxes. Fermented naturally with the grape's own yeasts. Aged for 12 to 18 months in French oak barrels, where it ferments and matures on its lees — a technique that gives the wine texture, complexity, and a subtle creaminess without the need for malolactic manipulation. The result is a wine that is simultaneously classic and unconventional — robust, expressive, and elegant, with the dark fruit and spice of Bobal softened by lees contact and oak ageing.
The 6º Elemento Orange pushes the philosophy even further. Made from 100% Macabeo grapes that have been raisined on the vine and harvested at the end of autumn, the wine undergoes a 250-day maceration — more than eight months of skin contact — followed by two years of slow fermentation in French oak barrels. The result is a natural sweet orange wine of extraordinary originality: intense orange colour, elegant, subtle, and unlike anything else in the region. It is a wine that defies category — not quite an orange wine, not quite a dessert wine, not quite a passito, but something that belongs to the sixth element alone.
Rafa's scientific training shows in his precision. He knows the chemistry of fermentation, the biology of yeast, and the physics of extraction. But he chooses to apply this knowledge through restraint rather than intervention. He does not correct acidity. He does not add tannins. He does not filter or fine. He simply observes, waits, and trusts — the engineer's mind serving the great-grandfather's tradition. The wines are bottled unfiltered and unfined. They may contain natural sediments. They are alive. And they are exactly as the Cabriel plateau intended them to be.
The Wines — From the Flagship Bobal to the 250-Day Orange
Sexto Elemento produces a focused range of natural wines — reds, whites, and oranges — all made with indigenous yeasts, zero added sulphites, and no chemical additives or artificial treatments. Production is tiny — approximately 10,000 to 15,000 bottles per year in good vintages — and every wine is a direct expression of the Cabriel plateau, the old vines, and the PhD-level attention that Rafa brings to every barrel. The range is not large. But it is deep.
Sexto Elemento "6º Elemento"
Red — Venta del Moro, Utiel-RequenaThe flagship and namesake wine — 100% Bobal from old vines at 750 metres on clayey-sandy soil. A very limited and humble wine, handcrafted in the traditional way, which gives rise to a truly expressive and elegant wine. This is the wine that every winemaker makes for his family — which is why it carries so much work. Made naturally, on its lees, aged for 12 to 18 months in French oak barrels. The nose is intense: smoke, forest, ripe plums, and black carob. The palate is robust yet refined — dark fruit, licorice, chocolate, and a mineral backbone that speaks of the Cabriel plateau. ~14.5% ABV. Zero sulphites. Unfiltered. ~15,000 bottles in good years.
Sexto Elemento "David & Goliat"
Red — Venta del Moro, Hoces del CabrielThe youngest, freshest, and most limited wine — 100% Bobal from the highest vineyards in the Hoces del Cabriel Natural Park, at 900 metres altitude on clay soil. A limited production of 1,500 bottles — the David that faces Goliath with honesty, soul, and passion. Aged for 12 to 18 months in French and American oak barrels. The wine is dark, brooding, and decadent — thick with spice, sweet black fruit, and fresh acidity. Named "Wine Revelation" by Club Vignerons. Bottled unfiltered and unfined. This is not a wine for the faint-hearted. It is a wine for those who understand that the smallest producer can make the biggest statement. ~14% ABV. Zero sulphites. ~1,500 bottles.
Sexto Elemento "Respeto"
Red — Venta del Moro, Utiel-RequenaThe most profound and singular wine in the portfolio — made from 95-year-old Bobal vines that produce just 1 kilogram per plant, at 750 metres on clayey-sandy soil. Aged for 24 months in premium French oak. The label says it all: "Two key ingredients: grape and respect. Respect for the work inherited from our ancestors, for the Bobal native variety, for the land, with traditional cultivation, for the vineyard, with 95-year-old strains and production of 1 kilo per strain, elaboration without intervention, grape, only grape." The result is a wine of colossal concentration and emotional depth — identity and terroir at their maximum expression. ~14.5% ABV. Zero sulphites. Extremely limited.
Sexto Elemento "La Royal"
Red — Venta del Moro, Utiel-RequenaA structured, barrel-aged red — 80% Bobal with 20% other varieties — aged for 12 months in oak barrels. The Royal is the most accessible of the estate's reds — a wine that introduces the Sexto Elemento philosophy to a broader audience without sacrificing the natural, zero-sulphite integrity that defines the project. The Bobal provides dark fruit and spice. The small percentage of other varieties adds complexity and softness. The result is a wine of power and polish — the kind of natural red that can stand alongside the great wines of Rioja and Ribera del Duero, while remaining unmistakably Valencian. ~14% ABV. Minimal sulphites. Limited.
Sexto Elemento "La Forastera"
Red — Venta del Moro, Utiel-RequenaA rare and exceptional red — 80% Graciano and 20% Bobal — from the only Graciano vineyard in the entire zone. Graciano, a variety native to Rioja and Navarra, is virtually unknown in Utiel-Requena, but Rafa planted it as an experiment and discovered that the clayey-calcareous soils at 750–800 metres give it a fresh, silky profile unlike anything produced in the north. Intense red colour. Aromas of red fruit and balsamic herbs. A wine with personality and character — the stranger (forastera) who arrived from another region and found a home on the Cabriel plateau. Aged for 9 months in French oak. ~13.5% ABV. Zero sulphites. Extremely limited.
Sexto Elemento "Finca El Romano" (Blanco)
White — Venta del Moro, Utiel-RequenaA white wine of paraje — 80% Tardana and 20% Macabeo — from the highest mountains of the Mediterranean in the region, at 800 metres on clayey-calcareous soil. Aged for 10 months on lees in French oak. The result is a wine of elegant Mediterranean fruit and crystalline minerality — white peach, citrus blossom, and a saline freshness that speaks of the altitude and the wind. Each sip transports you to the forest that surrounds the vineyard. A white wine that is authentic, pure, and expressive — proof that Utiel-Requena is not only a land of reds. ~13% ABV. Zero sulphites. Lees-aged.
Sexto Elemento "El Romano Orange"
Orange — Venta del Moro, Utiel-RequenaA natural orange wine from Tardana and Macabeo — the skin-contact sibling of the El Romano white. Aromas of lime peel, pine needles, and fine minerality. The palate is textured, grippy, and alive — a wine that captures the wildness of the forest that surrounds the vineyard and the patience of a winemaker who is also a researcher. Fermented with indigenous yeasts, aged according to the vintage, and bottled without filtration. An orange wine that is simultaneously intellectual and visceral — the kind of wine that makes you want to read a book and climb a mountain at the same time. ~14% ABV. Zero sulphites. Unfiltered.
Sexto Elemento "6º Elemento Orange"
Orange / Natural Sweet — Venta del Moro, Utiel-RequenaThe estate's most radical and original wine — a natural sweet orange wine made from 100% Macabeo. The grapes are raisined on the vine and harvested at the end of autumn, then given a 250-day maceration — more than eight months of skin contact — followed by two years of slow fermentation in French oak barrels. The result is a wine of intense orange colour, elegant subtlety, and overwhelming originality. It is sweet, but not cloying. It is an orange wine, but not in the conventional sense. It is a natural wine that defies every category — and it will certainly not leave you indifferent. A wine that only a PhD candidate could conceive and only a great-grandson could execute. ~14% ABV. 250 days maceration. 24 months French oak. Zero sulphites. Extremely limited.
Sexto Elemento "Fifty 50"
Red / Field Blend — Venta del Moro, Utiel-RequenaA recovery of ancestral field-blend winemaking — 50% Tardana and 50% Bobal — from vines at 800 metres on clayey soil. Aged for 6 months in a combination of barrels and stainless steel tanks. The name refers to the equal partnership of white and red — a practice that was common before industrial agriculture separated varieties into monoculture. The Tardana provides acidity, floral lift, and a pale, translucent colour. The Bobal contributes structure, dark fruit, and Mediterranean depth. Together, they produce a wine that is light, fruity, and utterly original — a sip of two worlds, as the label says. ~12.5% ABV. Zero sulphites. Unfiltered.
Sexto Elemento Experimental / Limited Releases
Variable — Venta del Moro, Utiel-RequenaRafa's experimental edge — small-lot cuvées that test the boundaries of what the Cabriel plateau can express. These may include single-parcel bottlings from specific 95-year-old vine rows, extended lees-ageing whites beyond the standard El Romano, amphora-aged Bobal with months of skin contact, or co-fermentations that blend three or four varieties in a single tank. The common thread is zero sulphites, indigenous yeast, and total creative freedom guided by the researcher's curiosity. These wines are not always available. When they are, they are shared with the small community of collectors who understand that Sexto Elemento's experiments are not diversions but genuine extensions of a doctoral thesis into the bottle.
Legacy — The PhD, the 95-Year-Old Vine & the Grape That Became Respect
Sexto Elemento matters because it is one of the most technically rigorous and emotionally profound natural wine projects in the Valencian Community — the work of an agricultural engineer who, after eight harvests at the village cooperative and four years of doctoral research on Bobal, decided to recover his great-grandfather's winery and prove that natural farming, indigenous yeast, and zero sulphites can produce wines of international stature from a variety that the Spanish wine industry had relegated to bulk production. In a region where cooperatives still dominate and Bobal is still dismissed, Rafael López has shown that Bobal can be profound, Graciano can thrive at 800 metres, and a 250-day maceration can produce a sweet orange wine unlike anything else in the world.
His legacy is agricultural. By farming old vines of 70 to 95 years on the Cabriel plateau at 750–1,000 metres, by maintaining traditional gobelet pruning and clayey-sandy soils, by achieving yields as low as 1 kilogram per vine, and by protecting vineyards within the Hoces del Cabriel Natural Park, Rafa has created a model for high-altitude Mediterranean viticulture that is closer to a research station than to a commercial winery. The vines are not merely plants. They are subjects — of his PhD, of his attention, and of his respect.
His legacy is also oenological. The Respeto — 100% Bobal, 95-year-old vines, 1 kg per plant, 24 months in premium French oak, zero sulphites — is a wine that almost no one else in the world could make, because almost no one else has those vines and that patience. The 6º Elemento Orange — 100% Macabeo, 250 days of maceration, 2 years in barrel, natural sweet — is a category-defying original that could only come from a researcher willing to test the limits of time. And the David & Goliat — 1,500 bottles from 900 metres, named Wine Revelation — proves that the smallest producer can make the biggest impact.
And his legacy is philosophical. "Uva, solo uva." "Two ingredients: grape and respect." These are not marketing slogans. They are the operating principles of a man who has spent his adult life studying a grape that the world ignored — and who has chosen to honour that grape not through intervention but through restraint. The great-grandfather made wine. The grandfather sold grapes. The father sold grapes. And the great-grandson — the engineer with the PhD — has returned to the wine. The circle is closed. The sixth element is complete.
From the cooperative to the natural park, from the doctoral thesis to the 250-day maceration, from the great-grandfather's silent barrels to the international natural wine bars of London and New York, Sexto Elemento is a testament to what happens when a researcher decides that the best way to honour knowledge is to apply it with humility — and that the best way to make wine is to add nothing but respect. The old vines are deep. The PhD is nearly done. And the drinker is transformed.