A finale in Celler Generi

There always seems to be some winery that I forget to write about when I'm going about my vinoventures. This time, it was Arché Pagès. It was also nearly Celler Generi. Thankfully, as you can see, I've managed not to miss the Generi as I round out my European wine travels for the year.

This cellar was one that I really had no intention of visiting as I had never actually heard about it. It's in a small town called Agullana which I believe is more known for their water than their wine. It's remote and it's not in an area with much wine production; in fact this is the only winery there. In talking to other wine makers though, it was often mentioned that there is this enolog named, Jaume Serra Pagès who seems to make the rounds to a number of wineries in the area. Basically, whatever wine he touches, is nearly guaranteed to be fantastic and it was #1 Fan who mentioned to me that Jaume was doing the enolog work at Generi and that I should go have a taste and see how it is.

As it turns out, the actual winemaker is a fellow named Francesc. He's an older fellow who was actually a civil engineer that started growing wine some 20 years ago as a hobby. Once retiring, he turned to making wine full time, but he just does all the grunt work and have Jaume come in for the finishing touches. Francesc's fields are around the general vicinity of Agullana. And while he has shown that you can indeed grow wines in the area, he has also shown that the staple of Catalonia, Garnatxa, is perhaps not the best choice for the area given that he only grows Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay. Given that you can see the French border from his cellar, it would make sense to a large extent that he only grows French varietals.

As to the wine, it did indeed end up being 100% true that the Jaume Touch made all the difference with the wines all being excellent. For some time, Francesc made a low-end, basic wine that he sold for 3€. It is not a work of art, but it is quite good. Even though it is a strong wine, it is a well-balanced and nicely-crafted wine. It's great with food and is a tremendous value as it outshines any other wine you can buy for even twice the cost. Sadly, I don't think it's going to be made anymore given the amount of work vs. the small return on price.

The white that he makes was out when I was there. I assume it must be quite good and at some point, hopefully I'll be able to taste it as Catalan white wines are very interesting wines. There are few of them and as most people prefer red, they are often quite distinct in character to stand out more and attract folks to them. But, I wasn't sobbing over the lack of the white due to the red being tremendous. I didn't happen to know this at the time of purchase since Francesc only make 3,000 bottles a year and he doesn't do tastings. I had to buy his 2004 Reserve untasted at 10€. It sounds silly to say, but that was a large gamble I've rarely ever taken. But, his character was just right. I knew that it was going to be at least a good wine. Turns out that it's an extraordinary wine.

This red is strong, full-bodied and robust, but at the same time wonderfully balanced and smooth. What he has reached with this wine is the boldness that a winery such as Peralada tries to achieve with the smoothness that *lavinyeta constantly achieves. I've never seen two such discordant elements in one wine before that actually work. The only issue is that I have trouble describing it. The body has hints of cinnamon, cloves, blackberry, and this bright crisp element to it as well that I can only really describe as being akin to the sensation of fresh mint, but not like the taste of mint. A lot this comes from the fact that it's a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. I have no idea as to the ratios, but I have a feeling it might be similar to what the English call Claret as the depth must come from 80-90% Cab and the smoothness being from the rest in Merlot. And naturally, it finishes beautifully clean. Of course there are oak overtones to it as well given that it spends (if memory serves) 24 months in French oak. Francesc uses a combination of transport and aging barrels, the later being several millimeters thinner to allow more permeation of the air to give more flavor.

The above is all about the 2004, which I bought two cases of. There is a 2005 vintage as well. It is also quite good, but it lacks just a touch of the depth of the 2004 and currently has a touch stronger vanilla from the oak. Given another year in the bottle, I'm not sure how it will age, but I have a number of bottles still in Spain to see how that works out.

I am a bit sad as I don't think that Francesc has any children who will carry on with the winemaking. He apparently has family in Barcelona, who are more concerned with drinking the wine and not so much with actually making the wine. Time will tell in how this winery goes, but I truly hope it continues as these are wonderfully crafted, small-production wines that if they were being produced in California would not only be impossible to find, but also cost upwards of $100 a bottle.

19 12 2009      0 comments

Tags: catalonia, wine, wine reviews

The joys and frustrations of Catalan wine drinking

Take a look at the sign below. It's a wine menu from a wine bar in Barcelona next to church, Santa Maria del Mar. It's an exceedingly popular place that I've never actually been able to visit at it's always full. The setting is quite fantastic, so it's understandable why there are always so many people. It happens that I had never really looked at the wine list though.

They offer tiny glasses, regular glasses, and full bottles. Yeah, you can buy a full bottle for what a glass can cost in San Francisco. Disgusting, isn't it? It also happens that there are only two wines from Catalonia on that list. I don't know about you, but I find that to be rather ridiculous in a region swimming in excellent local wines.

I take this in two ways. The first is that I'm ecstatic that the wines of Catalonia as so hidden and no one knows about them so I can continue to enjoy them by the caseload at what I find to be reasonable prices. But then on the other hand, this is crap. If you actually have something good that is local, why on earth would you serve something that isn't just from another region, but another country?!! It's wasteful to transport things like this and insulting to your fellow countrymen.

Admittedly, there is the cost issue in that Catalan people perceive Catalan wines to be much, much more expensive than a region like Rioja. What you may not know is that in the rest of Spain, Catalans have a reputation for being cheap. Unfortunately these Catalans don't realize that the cheap wines from Rioja are going to rot out your innards. While drinkable, they're poorly made. For a decent wine from Rioja, you actually have to pay more than for a wine of the same quality from Catalonia and really, it's the better wines from Rioja that people are buying because it's only based on perception, not taste. I've been in a constant propaganda campaign with my Catalan father-in-law to actually buy Catalan wines instead of cheap French ones. Because if you want to go really cheap, you can spend 1.50€ a liter for the bulk stuff which is really good and super cheap.

Again, it's a mixed blessing drinking wines that no one knows about or understands. It's just that growing up in a country that has shipped its entire production base off to China, I get a little incensed when someone buys an inferior product solely due to laziness, ignorance, and limited perception. Who knows, someday maybe I'll have have a glass of wine at this wine bar in Barcelona and be able to ask them why they stock more wines from outside Spain than from Catalonia. Undoubtedly they'll tell me because no one asks for them to which I will further mention that it's hard to ask for something that isn't on the list...

07 12 2009      0 comments

Tags: catalonia, wine, wine bars, wine reviews

The post-harvest *lavinyeta visit

I seem to be hitting up *lavinyeta about twice a year these days to check in and see how things are going. After my first visit in 2007, things have grown a great deal. From something like six hectares they had in production two years ago, they are up to 24 now out of a potential 40. As I noted in my second visit, this has changed the structure of the Heus Negre and Llavors a good deal with these other vines now able to be used. It also bodes well for Josep and company as his wines have grown in popularity a great deal. The 2006 Puntiapart was the official wine for a very important EU cultural festival which naturally made not only the 06 vintage sell out, but also the first bottling of the 2007 vintage. Not bad for a 12€ wine, which is considered highly-priced in a country where 3€ buys you a great wine. Oh yeah, the label of the 2007 Llavors won a design award for its weather report/newsprint label that was quite cool.

This visit saw a lot of tasting from the stainless tanks as there remains a great deal of bottling to do for Josep in the coming weeks. Naturally, everything was solid, although I found the initial wines for the Heus Blanc to be a bit tart for my tastes. The bottled version mellows out considerably and makes for the solid white that it has been in years past.

This trip, I took my brother in-law with me who is rather new to the whole wine tasting thing, but growing to appreciate it. At first he wasn't too sure about tasting directly from the tanks given that that is how one gets bulk wine in these parts and it is not a method for drinking high quality wines. He expressed further doubts when we moved through the wines to a side by side comparison of four different Garnatxas that were going in to the Llavors and Puntiapart. Surely the differences would be minimal? Was it really worth the time to taste all these different fields of wine even though they're the same grape? I mean, two of the tanks are from the same field albeit one from a lower field terrace than the other.

From my experience in the Dingač region of Pelješac in Croatia, I learned that just the slightest change in angle of a field makes a considerable difference to the end result of the grapes. Suffice to say, my brother in-law was really surprised. Out of all of these, the most interesting where the two tanks that were from the same field at different terrace levels. The sun is the same, but the earth is just slightly different for the two and it resulted in one with a strong body and little nose and the other with all the nose, richer finish, but little body. For a winemaker like Josep, this must be heavenly to mix those two and get something golden in the end.

The end result of this trip is that I vote for the Llavors at the moment as an immediate purchase. At 7€ it's a screaming deal and is a luscious 'gift to the world' as I told an abashed Josep. The body is strong but smooth. There are slight chocolate undertones to it. The fruit stays back while letting their flavors trickle out slowly with drinking. It's a reserved, yet strong wine that I assume is best had now or in a year or two is for some reason you feel like aging it. Great with a meal or great on its own.

Don't get me wrong though as the Puntiapart is still the better of the two wines, but at 12€ it's a bit more costly. If you can afford it in large amounts, go for it. It's much more complex wine overall and is something that I assume will age well with the body get more pronounced in a year or so. I appreciate the fact that Josep could cash in on the fame of this wine at the moment and pump out the next vintage for people to buy, but he doesn't and is holding back the amounts that require more aging. Really, you can't go wrong with anything out of lavinyeta including the forthcoming sweet wine that is yet to be bottled for consumption despite the photo below.

Such a difference two years have made from only being able to find lavinyeta wines at his parent's meat shops around the area to now having them available anywhere, including the United States soon as they now have an importer for the East Coast of the country.

30 11 2009      0 comments

Tags: catalonia, garnatxa, wine, wine reviews

Mas Oller and the Baix of Empordà

Any discussion about Mas Oller in Baix Empordà first needs to start with a bit of a Catalan lesson. You actually pronounce 'oller' like 'uhl-yay' and 'baix' is similar to, but not exactly like 'bash' in English. Just some of the joys of the language, which has complexities to it that are easier than, yet similar to French, while considerably more difficult than Spanish because yes, Catalan is not a dialect of Spanish, but its own language.

Linguistics aside, Mas Oller is one of the new wineries to spring up in the DO Empordà region. It's rather ironic that there are all these new wineries given that wine has been grown in the region for the last 2,600 years, first brought in by those saintly Greeks. I wasn't aware of it when I went for a tasting, but apparently this year was the very first release. They planted the 12 hectares of vines on this old estate back in 2000 and this was when they felt the fruit had enough flavor to properly produce the wines, which says something as you get decent production after five years and they could have started a good deal earlier.

Located near the small town of Torrent, the vicinity where Mas Oller is located has not been historically known for producing wines as Baix Empordà in general was a great deal more fertile than Alt Empordà. So the land was used primarily for farming other crops such as wheat, corn, and other general vegetables. In fact the owner of the estate, Carlos Esteva was actually making wine over in the much more well-known region of Penedès before starting up the Mas Oller winery.

I found the wines favorable overall and we tasted a great variety, starting with those that are bottled now in the first year of release and then moving to the tanks to taste what is yet to come. First on the list was the 2008 Blau ('blue' in English.) It's a mix of Syrah and Garnatxa. Obviously this leads to a wine deep in color. It's initially soft on the palate but gets a bit more bold with air and remains quite fruit forward all along. I would probably best equate it to being like a $25-30 Zinfandel from Napa, although this wine is 8€.

Next was the 2008 Pur. It's a blend of Cabernet, Syrah, and Garnatxa that spends two months in French oak. The bouquet is quite plush in the mouth initially and the wine is rather bold overall. In fact, there's an element to this wine that was somewhat present in the Blau, but is really present in this wine that pisses me off, which I call the Factor de Pijoficacion (yuppie-fying). This wine is overtly strong. It is not subtle and it costs 12€. This is rather expensive in Spain (think $50 in the US) and the wine is targeted at those with no taste for wine who want to act they have a taste by spending a lot. It's a trend that is extremely present in the wines of Perelada (which I hate nearly all that they make) and I blame them a great deal for influencing other winemakers in Empordà. Needless to say, I am not a fan of this vintage, especially at this price, and it takes a lot for me to say that about a Catalan wine.

The last bottled wine we tasted was the namesake Mas Oller 2005. This wine made up for everything I was hating in the Pur. It's a blend of Cabernet and Garnatxa that spends a year in French oak. The result is lovingly smooth and delicate. Light berry hints are balanced with vanilla from the time in the oak. The finish is just clean enough to sweep everything away, but leave a lovely, lingering note of the wine. A very well-constructed vintage. For some reason, this top of the line wine was priced at 6€. My brother in-law and I bought out everything that they had remaining. I guess they were clearing it out for the new vintage and we were happy to help them with this process.

From the barrels, we tasted the Mar, a white that's fresh and tropical in nature, but definitely needs to be chilled to 12C for enjoyment. Then there is their Rosé or Rosat, the Aquare-lo (meaning 'watercolor') which is an enjoyably clean and light Rosé. I don't typically like these wines, but this one fell in to the category I enjoy, which is to cleanse the palate and act as a refresher wine.

Lastly we sampled a sweet Malvasia, which is the first time I've a) had this wine in Catalonia and b) had it as a sweet. In a word, it's awesome and I can't wait for it to be bottled. It's like drinking honey and almonds. It's not quite as clean in the finish as I prefer a sweet to be, but given the flavors it leaves behind, I can forgive it.

This was an interesting first tasting of this winery's first year of releases. I'm curious to see which direction they head with the next if it will be moving towards more of this Pijo crap that seems to be what a lot of Spain is producing these days and targeting towards the export market. As long as they don't mess with the Mas Oller, I will be a happy camper/customer.

22 11 2009      0 comments

Tags: catalonia, emporda, wine, wine reviews

A trip down Capmany way to Arché Pagès

I have to admit that I actually visited Capmany last summer, which means that I also visited Celler Arché Pagès last summer as well. Why am I getting around to writing this now, in November? Some of it is just a touch of sloppiness and some of it is that I was all blogged out after writing my ass off about the Maker Faire Africa and Ghana in general over on Subsaharska. So here I am now, with a number of Catalan wine articles to write and am finally getting back around to the lovely trip I had up to this winery.

The family behind Arché Pagès has been making wine for the last four generations with the current winemaker, the son, Bonfill taking over in his mid twenties; lucky bastard. This name is a very old Catalan name which was his grandfather's and it means, "good son". Obviously, it's a bit to live up to.

There is a lot to appreciate about this winery in regards to their praving approach to winemaking. For starters, they found out that old milk pasteurizers were mighty cheap, very large, and worked extremely well as wine tanks for aging. They are in process of replacing all of this, but apparently for starting out, they worked just fine. Then there's the fact that they actually need to both chill and humidify their cellar. Why both? La Tramuntana, that's why (that fucker.) It dries out and warms the air among others things, like knocking around your house while trying to sleep, or blowing you off the castle walls when trying to run...

But of the 14 hectares that they grow on and produce 40-45,000 bottles from, there is enough Garnatxa to go around so that every wine has some. We saw a similar approach in Cantallops where there is a strong belief in the power of Garnatxa as it is an awesome wine. Anyways, on to the wines themselves.

The Sàtirs Blanc has a tart, melon nose that is quite refreshing. The fact it gets no oak leaves it a bit dry, although it is generally rather plush. There is a touch of peach and pear to it, but it remains rather bitter at the end. Then there is Sàtirs Negre (or red) which is very light, gentle wine of about 40% Garnatxa, 30% Cabernet, and 30% Carinyena. There are touches of licorice and mint to the nose, but it loses a good deal of this on the finish, while at the same time remaining quite clean. It should noted that since tasting this year at the winery, I've tasted the new 2005 release and find it to be a great deal more enjoyable with brighter flavors and more bang for the buck.

The Cartesius starts to get more bold. The nose is stronger with a great deal more oak, but it still retains the fruit and berry elements that you find in the Sàtirs. The body is quite dry, but not in an unpleasant manner. The 50% Garnatxa, 30% Cabernet, and 20% Merlot mix works quite well in balance as well as dusting out a touch of sour cherry on the body as it breathes more. Although, overall, I didn't care much for this year, but am anxious to see where the new vintage has gone.

The Bonfill is their top of the line wine and is the namesake of the winemaker. It's 70% Garnatxa and 30% Cabernet, but more importantly, it spends 14 months in new French oak. Apparently they tried American oak with a small batch but didn't care for it. The nose is deliciously smooth with cinnamon and spice to it. The French oak really comes through on the nose as the vanilla heats up quite quickly. The body is wonderfully smooth and clears out very well. Definitely a tasty wine that I've enjoyed since the visit as naturally I bought some of it.

Overall, you can taste the youth of the winemaker and that the wines have some work ahead of them. At the same time, they are indeed quite strong as they are and solid for everyday drinking, especially after I tasted the new Sàtirs Negre.

20 11 2009      0 comments

Tags: catalonia, the europe, wine, wine reviews

Now and forever a fan of Catalan bulk wine

There's nothing sophisticated about it. You walk in to a winery like Empordàlia and go straight to the back of the place. There, you will find the massive 10,000 or 25,000 liter stainless steel tanks. At the bottom, a spigot. Nearby, your selection of large or small plastic bottles if you forgot your own.

In Spanish and Catalan it 'a granel' or 'bulk' wine. There is no big secret to it here though. You can find it anywhere in Europe where they make wine, although I'm of the opinion that the best versions of it are in countries along the Mediterranean. In 2007 I stayed with a Croat who owned a pension in Dubrovnik and every week he would lug in a 10L bottle of bulk Plavac Mali that he bought.

Naturally the assumption is that if you're paying €1 a liter instead of €10 for a 750ml bottle, then the quality is going to be less. In some wineries this may be the case, but for everything I've ever tasted that was bought in bulk, such as the wines I just picked up yesterday from Empordàlia, I taste no difference. Their bulk Criança and what you buy in the properly bottled and corked version are the exact same, although there may be a scratch less alcohol in the bulk version. Naturally the big difference is the staying power down the line as air is both your best friend and your worst enemy with wine.

If you buy the bulk wine and plan to keep it for more than a day or two, you need to a) put it in a glass container and b) keep as much air out of there as possible. Otherwise, it will oxidize quite fast and while this is desirable while one is drinking the wine, when one is storing it, it's going to produce something squalid. Given the difficultly in this, it's not a surprise that during the summer, the main bulk customers are fat Germans and French stocking up on cheap booze for the beach as Empordàlia is on the way to one of the closest beaches to the French border.

But all of this is a painful reminder as to how out of control the fancification of wine has become in California. If you can actually find wine to buy in bulk, it's typically of very low quality, which is most likely that way to keep people buying the bottles. I mean, even a wine like the namesake Rubicon from Coppola's winery has a cost-of-goods that is less than $4 per bottle, which includes the grapes, labor, bottle, label, and cork (one of the more expensive elements in wine production.) The wine retails for $110. It's ridiculous. I'm assuming that per liter, if one doesn't bottle the wine, the cost much be somewhere around $0.50 given what bulk sells for here in Spain and elsewhere in Europe, which is about €1 a liter. A 100% markup is pretty typical in business. So why is it not possible to get a bulk wine in California for even $4 a liter? That would be a massive markup, yet it just isn't done. And of course it isn't because of the same reason why we don't use the Metric system or have soccer as our national sport (like the rest of the world on both counts) in that wine, Metric, soccer, and hell, even cheese are seen as European and thus fancy. They're either to be avoided or priced to cost a great deal for the allure of being fancy.

I must now shrug this off and return to living up my cheap, delicious wines and weighing myself in kilograms, thank you.

24 10 2009      0 comments

Tags: better buying, california, the europe, wine

Visiting the one and only Capmany

Capmany (the 'ny' is just like an ñ and is not 'many') is your typical village up in the northeastern reaches of Catalonia. You wind along some twisty road in the hills and suddenly you see the church spire, shortly followed by the rest of the town. The roofs are red. The walls are brown. Everything about the village fits in with the hills from which is emerges. I experienced something quite similar when visiting Cantallops last winter.

It's hard to really say what there is to see in these villages because rarely is there any one site that is a must-see. Instead, it's the charm of the village that is alluring above all else. Capmany is no different. There are nice little restaurants and a miniature church in the middle of town. A public fountain that probably had excellent spring water at one point is there too. There are also a number of guesthouses for people to stay at who are looking for the slow life of the village.

More than anything else in Capmany though is the fact that there is a lot of wine in the area. I don't even know how many wineries there are, but probably more than you can cover in a one day visit. One that I checked out was Celler Arché Pagès which I'll do a more proper review of when I have time to go through all my notes. In short, they make good wine up in Capmany though. I guess it just adds to the overall charm of the place if you can get drunk on the local alcohol.

If you'd like to see a bit more of the village, take a look at the gallery that I put together.

07 08 2009      0 comments

Tags: catalonia, the europe, wine

Hudin Recap 02-08-2008

My writing here has been a bit hit and miss as far as regularity goes. This is because I've been writing a good deal more at other sites. It's not to say that I'm neglecting Hudin, but more using it as a place to write about my personal shiznit. I'm sure that the next time I go traveling (next month) I'll be putting up more here. But, for those interested who don't follow my Twitter spam feed, here are some of the recent things I've written:

Subsaharska on Maneno:

The Camera is not the Important Part Musing on the crazy equipment people buy when they really need to focus on the basics of photography first.

Finding the Names to Explain Chatting about the myriad of domain names. Honestly, probably not my best work, but it would be weird not to mention it sequentially.

W00t for more Languages! Excitement over Google expanding their African language options for search which is cool stuff.

The 'Web Free' (Web 3.0) Starts in Africa Part of the OLPC debate that went around the web a week or two ago as well as talking about the next iteration of the web (Web Free as I call it). One of the stronger things I've written, although it could be no end of boring for a deal of people out there.

Global Voices:

Croatia: Changing Eminent Domain for a Golfing Gain Maybe it was the cheesy title, but I hoped this would get more play on the site not just because I think it's the best researched article I've written there, but also because some people are really getting screwed in all this corruption happening in the name of golf!

Blue Danube Wine Blog:

A Cold, Wintry Revisit to La Vinyeta Tasty wines in Northern Catalonia.

A Taste of Slovenia at CAV Minor tasting event that was decent of Slovenian wines.

Cantallops, Where the Fruit is Wine From about a month ago, but another great tasting Northern Catalonia.

08 02 2009      0 comments

Tags: croatia, hudin, in to africa, wine, writing

Freakin' Rosé

For a good long time, I looked and Rosé and thought, "What the hell is that?" Is it a white wine that's sexually confused or a weak red wine? Obviously, I knew what it was, but I just never really knew what the purpose of its slightly sweet, slightly clueless flavors were. It was to me what Merlot was to Miles. Then, while researching Vinologue a year and a half ago, I was kindly educated to the practical purposes of the wine.

As I quickly found, a meeting with Alen Bibich is not without a lot of food and wine. I tasted everything he had at a time when the legal drinking limit in Croatia was 0.00% (I heard it's recently been reformed to lovely 0.50%, but only for drivers over 24 as they can obviously still find their keys at a 0.50 much better than an 18 year old). Alen could see I had had a bit of it and so, for a final glass of wine he poured up a Rosé, which I was ready to promptly turn down, but he "coaxed" me to drink it by saying it was for "refreshment". Naturally, being a consummate winemaker, he was right, it was refreshing and as weird as it sounds, it gave me the boost I needed to get home.

Since then, I've been less afraid of Rosé. There is no way in hell I'd ever buy it though. I can appreciate subtleties in the very expensive variations on the type and that's where a good many people go wrong with it. They buy the cheap Rosé which is always invariably crap as the wine has far too much sugar because the grapes were forced to over-ripen just for the sake of picking and not for the sake of taste. This is wine that will kill you and not be the refreshing blast that I appreciate now.

If asked for my ideal wine lineup for an extensive evening dinner, I would have to say that it would depend a great deal on the foods served, but an overall plan would be:

- Bubbly: French ideally, Catalan Cava if not, and Californian lastly, otherwise skip it

- White: A minor glass of something to go along with the appetizers. Perhaps a White Garnatxa or a Verdejo.

- Red: Gimme the most of this. Serve me something deep with body. If it overshadows the food, that's not the end of the world as I'm probably starting to get drunk somewhere around here and only can taste the wine, so bring it on. Cab, Pinot, Garnatxa/Carignan.

- Rosé: Here it comes. Gotta have that pinky stuff to wash out everything else. You can see that by placing it here, I'm not appreciating the texture of the wine, but rather using it solely as a functionary wine. A grape mouthwash if you will.

- Sweet: Moscatell if at all possible. Garnatxa otherwise.

- Sherry: If still conscious a slightly dry fino to polish up the end of the meal.

- Bed: I'm not probably coherent at this point, or I'm trying to hit on a really sexy potted plant. Just roll me in to bed and make my excuses for me.

Anyways, that's my plan and how Rosé fits in. I'm still at a loss as to why they produce so much of it. Every wine shop always has endless dusty bottles of the pink that never seem to sell. Hell, when going to Auchan this last time, half of one wine aisle was just Rosé. Why? I mean, most of us aren't having six course meals that often, so it seems as if we're producing a wee bit much of it.

19 01 2009      0 comments

Tags: croatia, wine

A Cold, Wintry Revisit to La Vinyeta

It was just a bit over a year and a half ago that I first visited the new (at the time) winery of La Vinyeta. What a difference 20 months makes. For starters, they now have their website fully up and running which does a great job of showing the design aesthetic that goes in to the look of all things Vinyeta, which are created by the winemaker's brother. It was a bit hard to convey that in 2007 as the winery wasn't finished and they only had a couple of releases. The winery is indeed done now and open for visits most of the week, although they generally follow the sun, meaning that winter hours are shorter and summer hours, longer. Visiting in the winter probably isn't allowing this region of Catalonia to be all that it can be. Upon getting out of the car, it was like getting clocked by a sack of ice cubes as the Tramuntana wind ripped through every layer I had on, freezing me to the core until I got inside the winery.

But beyond all these superficial changes, there is the fact that the wines have matured and not just in aging; they're massively more complex and I would say demanding a great deal of respect now. While winemaker Josep Serra Pla is youngish at 31 and it would seem that he is steadying his hand with his craft, it's actually the material available that has changed the wines more than anything else. In my prior visit, he still wasn't harvesting from Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Merlot vineyards. This means that the Heus Negre was good in 2007, but not outstanding. This has solidly changed. The addition of blending the grapes from his new vineyards has made this wine delectable. With a blending of 27% Syrah, 26% Merlot, 25% Samsó, and 22% Garnatxa, the Garnatxa is not as pronounced now and it's creating a more round wine with chocolate touches to it, as well as bold, unwavering depth to the body. The best part is that it's still high enough in tannins to be great with food and only 6€. If I ever live in the region, I think I know what my daily drinker is going to be.

But there are more wines to his lineup now and what's great is that they just build upon each other. The Llavors (pron. Lya-bors) takes off from the Heus and presents an even stronger wine, albeit still smooth. Comprised of 55% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Samsó and 12% Merlot and 8% Garnatxa, it spends five months in an oak regimen of French, Hungarian, and Romanian barrels. It is firm in the mouth with touches of boysenberry and strawberry, yet it pulls back enough to still be had with foods.

The Puntiapart, with it's very clever boxes you can see here, is the boldest of all the reds that Josep is making. This blend of 53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Samsó, 23% Merlot makes for a strong wine, yet oddly enough, it's the smoothest of the lot. It goes through a grueling, slaving, absolutely treacherous 13 months of lying in the oak to reach the point where you get what you taste from the bottle; a delicately balanced wine with a great deal of substance to the body. It is at once both mineraly and tannic, but not harshly so. While I feel it would be best enjoyed on its own, it would pare with with a nice grilled lamb or pretty much any grilled meat with a lot of character that would pick up the notes of the wine. Chicken need not apply, although the Heus could get cozy with the bird.

Lastly of course, there is a sweet Garnatxa, because in Catalonia, you're just not officially a winery until you're producing a sweet wine, or so I think. The Sols is an equal blend of red and white Garnatxa from the 75 year old vines that Josep has. And while I'm usually always a Moscatell man when it comes to Catalan sweets, if you put up a bottle of Moscatell and a bottle of this Sols and made me choose just one, I would be very, very unhappy. It's a mighty fine sweet. It's aromatically nutty in the glass and has a pleasant, lingering sweetness, that sticks in the mouth after the swallow and slowly slips away as the perfect close to a meal.

Ah, let's not also forget that La Vinyeta is also putting out an olive oil, which is just as natural a progression for a winery as producing a sweet. It's all from locally grown olives in the Empordà area. Yes, it's aromatically fantastic and of course it tastes great. Toss in a little jamón with some pa amb tomàquet and you've really got yourself the quintessentially perfect Catalan meal.

15 01 2009      0 comments

Tags: catalonia, wine, wine reviews