And now for some much-needed good news in wine: I’m happy to report that there’s been a new Vi de Finca announced which is also the first one from DO Terra Alta! Yes, “El Mas d’Edetària Selecció” has joined this exclusive classification of top-tier wines from Catalunya bringing the total number of finques to 12 across five different Catalan DOs.
If the name Edetària seems to ring a bell, it’s because I named their Edetària Selecció Blanc as theBest Catalan wine of 2018. This wine for the Vi de Finca and its corresponding vineyard are the red siblings to the white wine and is one singular vineyard of 1.18ha situated right next to the winery, at about 380m in elevation with a limestone soil base in overall composition. The vines in the vineyard are: Hairy Grenache, Red Grenache, and Carignan that are all 40 years of age or more.
It’s great to finally see a Vi de Finca pop up in Terra Alta as they’ve a lot of really stellar sites down there which are ripe for this certification. Keep in mind that Vi de Finca is certification for a single vineyard, which is why the Selecció Blanc can’t qualify as it’s blended from five old vineyards. Also keep in mind that while Vi de Finca doesn’t have any requirements in terms of varieties and vine age, the production levels need to be lower than the corresponding DO and most importantly, the wine being produced from it needs to have “renown” as in, you can’t just apply for the certification because you think you have a great wine. Others need to think that the wine is great as well and as shown by the history of this wine, others have indeed agreed.
You can see my tasting notes below for the 2015 vintage which was included in the Terra Alta 2019 Report. Despite spending 12 months in 500l barrels, it’s not heavily marked by the oak and is a wonderful, balanced wine that has ‘Terra Alta’ written all over it.
In addition to this wine, Edetària also has several other single vineyard wines that are quite stellar and the winery overall presents a solid line of wines from Terra Alta which, along with a handful of other producers, prove the quality of wine which can be produced there.
