In my first trips to Croatia, I fell in love with all of the stone houses. Not having seen any other country in the Mediterranean, I had no idea that these types of houses not only existed elsewhere, but were in much better shape than those in Adriatic coast of the Balkans. Such is the case when meandering a bit north of Figueres, nearly towards La Jonquera at the French border, and then veering sharply to the right, further up in to the foothills of the Pyrenees to get to Cantallops. The name for English speakers might sound like, “cantaloupes”, but it’s anything but. If you take it at face value, in Catalan it means, “singing at wolves”. But it appears if you dig a bit deeper that the name has an old Latin root to it that means something more along the line of “wolves’ rock” which makes much more sense given that the town is built on a massive rock outcropping and they had a big problem with wolves up until the 19th century when man did what man does and wiped them out in the area.
This is a quaint, mountain town that seems small at first, but is actually surprisingly large given how remote it is. There are a great number of restaurants in the place that aren’t catering to the cheap French who stumble and grumble across the French/Spanish border for cheaper alcohol. No, this is a place that sees normal folks who go there specifically for the purpose of enjoying what the small town has to offer.
I found that beyond the restaurants, there are endless doggies and kitties running around the town making for great photos. The vast majority of them are friendly. Those that aren’t are chained up or happy to ignore you. They seem a bit starved for attention as the ones who are friendly are really friendly and are almost annoying with wanting to be pet so badly. I suppose it’s the country life. You need to have an animal or two.
But probably the best thing about this small hamlet is that they have two (count ‘em) two wineries. One is Masia Serra, which it seems only has its information on the Empordà wines website. It’s a nice place, but not often open, which makes it hard to judge the wines as getting a tasting is tricky.
The other winery is Vinyes dels Aspres. Now, this is a winery that we actually encountered back in 2007 at a Spanish wine show in San Francisco. I can’t say enough good things about this winery. For starters, the owner, David Molas Albertí is a very enthusiastic guy. He’s restarted his family’s winery after decades of their not producing wine. With the exception of picking the grape harvest, he does everything himself. He bottles, ages, and sells about 40,000 bottles of wine a year. As if that’s not enough, he works another job and is really just doing this winemaking part time at the moment. I have no idea how he finds all the energy.
But with all this exuberance, he is producing some incredibly top quality wines. This is the only winery I’ve ever found a White Garnatxa. The red version is everywhere in Catalonia, but no one seems to want to make a white wine of it. This is a serious error as in white form it is simply unlike any white that I’ve ever tasted before. Minerally yes, but with a strong, succulent body and light sweetness to it, that makes it great for both white and red drinkers alike. At €12, it’s more expensive than the vast majority of wines in the area, but oh, oh so worth it and quite affordable when you compare it to US prices.
There is also a young wine that he makes, which was unfortunately a 2008. I say unfortunately because he says and I completely agree that it shouldn’t have been released so early. He did so because he sold out of the 2007 long before the holiday season as it was his most reasonable wine at €5.50. Just like in the rest of the world, there is economic crisis in Spain as well and his distributors pushed him in to releasing the 2008 before it was really ready. The problem this caused was that the nose is quite off and needs another three months or more in the bottle to develop. The body however is luscious and smooth, which makes the clumsy nose more of a shame as many folks might be easily put off by that alone.
The other standouts for me were the S’Alou, which is a high-end red made primarily of Garnatxa. It’s a hearty, complex red. There is a lot of strawberry in the nose once it opens up properly and the oak in the body is subtle without really being overpowering, yet at the same time strong enough to be appreciated. Again, at €23, it’s getting rather pricey for the region, but is a wine that is very much worth every euro.
But the #1 wine that David is producing is the Bac de les Ginesteres. It’s a sweet wine make from the raisin grapes late in the harvest. If left to age normally, these Garnatxa raisins would produce a sweet wine just like the lower cost Negre de Panses. But, to punch it up another notch, David places the wine in large, clear glass bottles that he then ages them in the sun of all things. I thought they were a joke when I saw them sitting outside the winery, but no, they were the newest release of the wine aging. Again, at €30, it’s a decently high priced sweet wine, but it is transcendent. I have gotten a new appreciation of dessert wines in successive trips to Spain, but this wine, this creation is so above and beyond and Moscatell and Garnatxa sweets that I’ve had before. The wine is nutty in the glass and like the best sweet Sherries that I’ve ever had. It ceases to be like a normal sweet wine and reaches some other level that I don’t even know what to call. All I can say is wow. Of course with only 500 bottles a year being produced, it is not easy to come by.
If the wines didn’t speak enough for the winery, David is doing other things to make it stand out. For one, there is the website which despite my hatred of Flash, is a really nicely done site. He understands marketing, which, while something that California vintners know very well, is not something that European winemakers do that much of. He also sources all of his grapes from his own lands. He doesn’t buy any grapes from outside growers, which is nearly unheard of due to it limiting your production amounts. And of the grapes the he grows, Garnatxa is predominant. Every wine that he produces has Garnatxa in it. He does this because it is a local varietal (yeah, I know, it’s Grenache up in France, but it really is a Spanish Catalan grape) and he feels a good deal of pride in growing it. He doesn’t grow anything like Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay because they aren’t local. David wants to be a Catalan winemaker first and foremost and in this he is doing exceeding well. If Cantallops doesn’t know it now, he will be their star citizen in the coming years which will replace the current star, who was a farmer that shot six wolves in one year back in 1868. I’m joking,although it might not be far from the truth…
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