Lo Jaume’s wines

Jaume Balaguer (Lo Jaume, The Jaume (James) in Western Catalan parlance) is a many faceted man. He runs Bonviure, a wine and delicatessen shop in Gratallops (Priorat), and Celler Balaguer Cabré, a boutique winery in the same village; helps in Piró, the family restaurant; and sells to restaurants and wine shops wines from a number of small Catalan wineries. Apart from these trifling tasks, he writes a blog and is great in proposing wine-food pairings. What he does in his spare time, such as it may be, is something I have never dared to ask him.

It is about this last capacity that I wanted to tell you about. After the Tast amb Llops, my wife and I attended a pairing in his restaurant. By (lucky) chance, a few days later I enjoyed a similar occasion in a restaurant in Barcelona. That will come in my next post, to allow proper labelling of wines tasted.

Piró is a restaurant serving mainly typical Catalan food. As you know, I do not comment on a restaurant’s food unless I am disappointed. This was not the case.

The wines we tasted were the following:

Les Brugueres 2009 is a 100% Garnatxa blanca white from La Conreria de Scala Dei, DOQ Priorat, with a light golden yellow colour. Intense in the nose, with white fruit notes. Well structured in the mouth, with good acidity, and very long.

Humilitat 2008 is a red coupage of Garnatxa and Carinyena, produced by vino, amor y fantasia. Medium bodied, with lighter colour and spicy nose, its winemakers claim to have produced “the Burgundy of Priorat”. Quite true, although not a Grand Cru.

Trio Infernal 1/3 2007 is a Priorat red from 60% Garnatxa and 40 % Carinyena by Trio Infernal. Black fruit, complex nose, powerful but fine tannins.

Petit Gènesi 2009, Garnatxa, Carinyena and Syrah coming from the Vermunver winery in DO Montsant. With six months in different oaks, the nose points to black fruit and balsamic notes. Fresh in the mouth, with adequate structure.

Last but not least, La Guinardera 2006 is a 100% Garnatxa from Celler Balaguer Cabré, owned by Lo Jaume. This is no nepotism; La Guinardera is an elegant, medium bodied wine that comes from the property of the same name, an old vine plot that receives sunshine the whole day. Red fruit in the nose, with tobacco notes. Silky and long.

A perfect end for a day that included the visit to the Falset Wine Exhibition and the Tast amb Llops. Ten days later I was to have another pairing with Lo Jaume; and I was indeed looking forward to it.

http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php

http://www.domontsant.com/

http://bonviure.blogspot.com/

http://www.scaladei.org/

http://www.vinoamoryfantasia.com/

http://www.vermunver-genesi.cat/en/qui_som

http://www.trioinfernal.es/ 

http://cellerbalaguercabre.blogspot.com/

Gobe's friends

In the early eighties little Josep Barceló, still too young to read, would identify the peg to hang his coat on at his Priorat school by a drawing of a mushroom (“rovelló”) over it. In his childish speech, he would not pronounce the “r” sound properly, so his schoolmates promptly nicknamed him “govelló”, later shortened to Gobe.

Gobe grew up among his friends, meeting them also after school to play football (their team was called “La Xusma”, the rabble), and, later on, to share a bottle of wine. In due time, many of them worked in the world of wine; Gobe himself at the Celler de Capçanes, while planning to make wine from a small family vineyard farmed by his uncle.

Sadly, in 2004 Gobe died in an accident. A few weeks later, his friends visited Gobe’s family and suggested making the wine Gobe dreamt of, as a common effort, in a non for profit way, as a tribute to his memory. The twelve friends, with the help of Gobe’s uncle and brothers, would endeavour to make Gobe’s wish come to reality.

And so it did.

Amics del Gobe (Gobe's friends) was on its way.

The vineyard is in the Montsant DO, at a height of some 300 m: 1 hectare of sandy soil with 80-year old Carinyena and some new Garnatxa, farmed organically. Grapes undergo a first selection in the plot, are gathered in 12 kilo boxes and taken to the Venus La Universal winery, where a second selection is made before starting the winemaking process.

After destemming and 20 days of contact with the skins, the wine goes to second year 300 l French oak casks, where it stays for twelve months.

The wine itself is a good example of Montsant red. Dark cherry colour, with slightly tinted legs. In the nose red and black fruit, not overripe, with tobacco and balsamic notes. Not too much wood, letting the fruit shine. Tannins still noticeable, good structure in mouth, with a long finish. A very pleasant, straightforward, drinkable wine.

The output being around 1’000 – 1’800 bottles, it is not easy to secure one. I got mine in a visit to Gratallops, in the Bonviure wine and delicatessen shop, where Jaume Balaguer showed me his small winery (more on that on another post) and other small gems he has.

What is the future of this initiative? In the short term, the 2009 vintage will start to include some wine from the Carinyena planted in 2005. This will allow to eventually increase output to a maximum of 3’000 bottles. And with the support of winelovers, Gobe’s friends intend to go onforever; a support not so difficult to give, because at around 10 EUR per bottle the quality / price ratio is excellent.

Any of you interested in further details can join the Gobe group in Facebook or have a look at the video in Vintaix (see links below).

Perhaps from somewhere Gobe still looks after his vineyard…

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=181198642078&v=wall
http://vintaix.com/comunidad/blog/2009/12/10/els-amics-del-gobe/