Wine in restaurants 1.3: Coma Vella and Cérvoles negre at Cal Joan del Batlle

This last weekend, a long one in Catalonia because Monday was a holiday, my wife and myself escaped the city and climbed up the Pyrenees (in our car) to Cal Joan del Batlle, a small but well appointed hotel at 1’250 meter height close to Sant Llorenç de Morunys. Contrary to most surrounding restaurants, that serve straightforward, nourishing mountain food, Cal Joan del Batlle’s menu is made up of rather elaborate recipes cooked very competently.

Cal Joan del Batlle courtyard

Going more in detail about their wine service, the wine list attracted me immediately. It is not very long; adequate in my view for a remote place with less than a dozen tables. But with a nice balance of Catalan / foreign wines and mainly filled with carefully selected bottles from smaller cellars, it gives a compelling backdrop to the restaurant’s cooking with enticing proposals to the wine lover.

There is a good selection of dessert wines by the glass; the wine temperature was adequate; and a wine pairing was offered with the tasting menu.

On the minus side, glasses are certainly substandard. They know and are considering how to address the issue.

A mark-up of around 50% over shop prices is in line or lower than many comparable restaurants and rounds off, in my opinion, a very attractive offer.

We had dinner on Saturday and Sunday, and both bottles were worth mentioning.

Coma Vella 2006 is a red from Mas d’en Gil, based in Bellmunt, DOQ Priorat. This winery has over forty plots with different grapes; its wines show this complexity. They also produce excellent virgin olive oil and vinegar.

It is a coupage of 40 % garnatxa, 25 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 % Carinyena, 10 % Syrah and 5 % Merlot., Harvested by hand, with a first selection in the vineyard, grapes are collected in 20 kg boxes and taken to the winery, where they undergo a second selection. The wine is aged for twelve to fourteen months in French and American oak and clarified with egg white before bottling.

Dark cherry red, with a lot of fruit both red and black, balsamic, the minerality common in Priorat and some spicy overtones. In the mouth shows big structure, noticeable acidity, with fine tannins and long finish.

It paired perfectly with my veal entrecote with goat cheese fondue.

Cérvoles negre 2006 is a DO Costers del Segre red from Cérvoles Celler. Handpicked and manually selected grapes from Ull de Llebre 38 %, Cabernet Sauvignon 32%, Garnatxa 18 % and Merlot 12 %. Vine planted ca. 25 years ago in loamy soils at around 700 m over sea level.

Aged for twelve months in fine grain, slow growth French oak. Not-too-deep cherry red, with fruity nose and medium structure in mouth. Fine, fresh, elegant. A great match for my cêpe-stuffed pigs’ trotters.

I would like to end this entry, one year and forty-five posts since I started this blogging adventure, thanking my readers for their patience and menacing with more posts to come. Salut! Cheers!



http://www.caljoandelbatlle.cat/

http://www.masdengil.com/
http://www.cervoles.com/home.php?lang=EN
http://www.costersdelsegre.es/eng/index.php
http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php

Missenyora 2009

Missenyora is one of my favourite whites of Costers del Segre and I come back to it regularly. 100 % Macabeu, fermented and aged for six months on its lees in new French oak, in the glass shows a bright, pale straw yellow. In the nose it is flowery, also with citric notes and well integrated wood. Off-dry in the mouth, silky, crisp, with long finish. Production limited to twelve thousand bottles.

It is produced by L’Olivera, a cooperative that provides jobs for the mentally challenged. They have a range of white, sparkling, red and sweet wines worth exploring, not to mention top quality olive oil.

At a price of around 11 EUR, the QPR is outstanding IMHO.

The wine’s name (My Lady) is the title of the Abbess of the nearby Cistercian Monastery of Vallbona de les Monges, really worth a visit, together with Poblet and Santes Creus, which configurate the Cister route in the zone. As may be expected, all three have remarkable wines produced in their immediate surroundings.

Vallbona de les Monges monastery

http://www.olivera.org/php/index.php
http://www.larutadelcister.info/index.php?lang=en&id=&gal=

http://www.costersdelsegre.es/eng/index.php

DO Costers del Segre: continental wines

Costers del Segre is a rather geographically disperse DO with different zones that have three main things in common: its location on the basin of the Segre river (Costers del Segre may be translated as Banks of the Segre river): the soils, largely calcareous and with a healthy dose of sand; and the comparatively greater distance from the sea, offering better conditions for cold climate varieties. This is the more “Continental” of the Catalan DOs.

There are seven sub zones (see map) that show some difference in terms of height and climate. Raimat and Segriá are the ones with more continental climate, with extreme differences of temperature between day and night and foggy winters. Les Garrigues, Valls del Riu Corb and Urgell  are drier and sunnier, more adequate for strong red wine but with a winery with excellent whites: L'Olivera. Artesa de Segre and Pallars Jussà are starting to climb the slopes of the Pyrenean foothills, with colder and longer winters; excellent conditions for some Central European grape varieties.

The short-term history of Costers del Segre is chiefly determined by Raimat, a very large winery owned by the Raventos family of Codorniu fame that invested heavily in the lands and winery a century ago. Still now, Raimat is the largest operation by far, focused on high volume production, with mechanized processes like grape harvest. Another historic player is Castell del Remei, a winery built at the end of the 19th century in the style of a French Chateau and one of the pioneers in the introduction of foreign grape varieties. The rest of the DO’s wineries are generally smaller.

Costers del Segre is one of the Catalan DOs with a lower proportion of local grape varieties in its wines. Allowed whites are Macabeu, Xarel.lo, Parellada, Chardonnay, Riesling, Garnatxa blanca, Gewürztraminer, Malvasia, Moscatell d’Alexandria, small berry Moscatell, and Albariño. Allowed reds are Garnatxa negra, Carinyena or Samsó, Ull de Llebre, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Monastrell, Syrah, Trepat, and Pinot Noir.

With this range there is production of white and red wine mainly. A few rosé and sweet wines and a quality sparkling with second fermentation in the bottle with features and quality comparable to Cava. Raimat produces mainly monovarietals, while the other wineries tend to favour coupages, especially in the reds.

My personal choice of wineries: 

• Castell del Remei 
• Castell d’Encus 
• Cérvoles Celler 
• Celler Cercavins 
• L’Olivera 
• Tomàs Cusiné 
• Vall de Baldomar 
• Vinya l’Hereu de Seró

Some excellent wines are to be found in Costers del Segre, especially among the smaller wineries (Raimat aims more to the middle segment). The main issue for me has to do with personality. There is potential to produce great wines, but they lack personality: with their international grape assortments it is difficult to taste one of them and identify it as a Catalan wine, let alone a Costers del Segre, and that is for me the true test for the great wine zones.

http://www.costersdelsegre.es/eng/index.php

http://www.castelldelremei.com/en/chronos.php
http://www.encus.org/en/index.php
http://www.cervoles.com/home.php?lang=EN
http://www.cellercercavins.com/
http://www.olivera.org/php/index.php
http://www.tomascusine.com/en_index.php
http://en.vinyalhereu.com/
http://www.raimatvinas.com/

Wine in restaurants 1.2: Lasarte, Can Boix and Cal Gabriel

In the last two weeks I have enjoyed two top-level restaurants (due to special celebrations; unfortunately this is not the average for the rest of the year) and a basic, popular one, and all three deserve some comments about their wine management.

Lasarte is a Barcelona-based restaurant with 2 Michelin stars, located in the Condes de Barcelona Hotel, and managed by the Basque chef Martín Berasategui, owner of the 3-star restaurant of the same name in Donostia.

Martín Berasategui

Its wine list includes most of the world’s remarkable wine regions. Local focus is adequate, as is the balance between famous workhorses and original, less well-known proposals. Prices are reasonable for this level, at perhaps 50% over retail price. They offer matching wines for their special menu, suggesting also selected beers in some cases. In the only mistake I could detect, this is not shown in the menu, but mentioned by the service. In our case we were not told, and took instead a bottle of Sot Lefriec 2004, a red Penedès by Alemany i Corrio winery. Dense, closed at first but opening later to show red and black fruit, toast and vanilla, and a long finish.

The sommelier is very knowledgeable and sensitive, and when I pointed out that we would have liked to get the wines that were being served to nearby tables, he offered us two samples: one glass of excellent Belgian beer and one glass of an Alella Marfil Generós Sec, which matched perfectly their two dishes.

Our wine was decanted and served at appropriate temperature in excellent glasses. To round things off, we were presented at the end with a printed menu including the wines and beer we had drunk.

Summarizing, wine management quite close to what should be expected in a restaurant at this level.

In a very different environment, at the feet of the Pyrenees and close to the road from Lleida to La Seu d’Urgell, the Hotel Can Boix boasts, among other attractions, a restaurant of creative cuisine that attracts gourmets from all over Catalonia. However, wine management is in some aspects a step below.

Can Boix Hotel

The wine list, indeed a book, includes a wide range of wine regions, with interesting information about each of them. But in many cases only a small number of wines of that zone are available. Wine vintages are not shown, except for a small list of bottles that appear at the end of the book and which I nearly overlooked. No wine matching was possible.

The sommelier was on long sick leave and his deputy was extremely pleasant and active, but had some ideas about wine service that could improve by training. He showed us the cellar, kept at a surprising 20ºC, and we discussed at length about wine.

Our bottle (at wine shop price) was decanted and served in glasses perhaps too wide and short. Anyway, the Penedès red Caus Lubis 1998, that I had tasted some years ago, was impressive in its maturity, with tannins present but perfectly rounded and complex aromas of mineral, red fruit and old leather.

Probably the absence of the sommelier was being felt a trifle too much; but the deputy, with some development, may well have the potential to upgrade wine management to match the cuisine performance.

Playing in another league altogether, Cal Gabriel is the restaurant of a bed-and-breakfast holiday cottage in the village of Tuixent, in the middle of the Cadí-Moixeró Natural Park. No starred chef here, but honest, nourishing, local product based cooking.

Cal Gabriel

What about wine? They propose some 20 references, from different zones, and with a surprising and welcome absence of run-of-the-mill best sellers, at moderate prices.

When we selected a bottle of Costers del Segre Bregolat red, (well structured, somewhat short in the nose) they changed the stemware ready for the house wine by glasses that were not Riedel, but nice and suitable. They apologized that the wine might be too warm (only marginally so, imo) and suggested to cool it down a little. And at the end of lunch offered us a bag to take home the remaining wine.

For a restaurant with a 14 € menu and in a remote village in the Pyrenees I felt that few more things could be asked...that’s the way to go!

http://www.condesdebarcelona.com/es/lasarte/

http://www.canboix.cat/01_principal.php?lang=EN

http://www.calgabriel.net/index_angl.htm

http://www.canrafolsdelscaus.com/en/

http://www.bregolat.com/



Wine cathedrals




Rocafort de Queralt

 

Probably many of you will be acquainted with the works of Antoni Gaudì. In the first quarter of the 20th century he was the top Modernist (Art Noveau) architect in Catalonia, and designed beautiful, improbable buildings like La Pedrera or La Sagrada Familia, the unofficial icon of Barcelona.

Rocafort de Queralt



Pinell de Brai



In that same period the Catalan government (la Mancomunitat) promoted setting up farmers’ cooperatives. In many cases, the cooperatives erected their own buildings (cellers) to make wine and olive oil, and it became the fashion to employ the best architects of the time. The resulting cellers were unmistakably Modernist. Many of them have survived to date, and are regarded as “wine cathedrals” on account of their configuration and size. A typical layout is having one central, higher aisle flanked in some cases by two lower ones. Vats stand in these aisles, and presses and destemming equipment are placed where the altar might be. In the would-be crypts not bishops but oak barrels rest.

Pinell de Brai



Pinell de Brai



These magnificent buildings can be found mainly in the DOs of Terra Alta (Gandesa, Pinell de Brai), Montsant (Falset), Conca de Barberà (Espluga de Francolí, Sarral, Rocafort de Queralt, Barberà de la Conca, Pira, Montblanc), Penedès and Tarragona (Nulles). A few more are scattered over the rest of Catalonia, some of them in towns very close to Barcelona (Rubí, Sant Cugat del Vallès) where the agricultural past is far, far away. Some non-cooperative wineries have as well modernist buildings; the most interesting are Codorniu (DO Cava) and Raimat (DO Costers del Segre). My personal favourites? Pinell de Brai, Nulles and Espluga de Francolí. All three have undergone extensive restoration and can be seen at their best.

Pinell de Brai

A first glace at their often fancy structures and embellishments may give the wrong impression that the artistic side had taken preeminence over the functional. Usually that is not the case, and the state-of-the-art winemaking technology of the time was used in the design and execution. (By the way, that also holds true about Gaudì’s work. However fantastic La Pedrera may seem, layout of the flats and internal structure are surprisingly modern and comfortable).



Espluga de Francolí




Pinell de Brai



Gaudì designed only one winery, in Garraf. The main figure in this field was one of his disciples, Cesar Martinell, who built more than forty of these edifices, and many other outstanding architects had celler design as one of their sidelines.

Pinell de Brai





Espluga de Francolí



Unfortunately the pioneering spirit is long gone from most cooperatives. Excepting a handful of cases, cooperatives are dominated by conservative majorities that do not want to take risks and fall back on traditional winemaking, with average to poor equipment and techniques and a lower quality range output. Sadly, the words “Celler Cooperatiu” or “Cooperativa” are not usually a signal of quality in a wine label. It is to be desired that cases like Capçanes (DO Montsant), that jumped into state-of-the-art winemaking with excellent results, encourage the rest to modernize and improve.





Espluga de Francolí



In the meantime, a visit to any of these cellers as an architectural site is perfect to complement wine tasting in a good winery in the surroundings.

 

Pinell de Brai

http://www.crcava.es/catala/flash.html

http://www.doconcadebarbera.com/catalan/frame.htm

http://www.costersdelsegre.es/eng/index.php

http://www.domontsant.com/

http://www.dotarragona.cat/en/

http://www.dopenedes.es/index.php?lang=en

http://www.cellercapcanes.com/english.htm

http://www.codorniu.com/home.html?wlang=en

http://www.raimatvinas.com/



Pinell de Brai



Wine by the pool

A few weeks ago, and together with some friends (in fact, a wine tasting group, the GMT; more on that another day) and their spouses, we had dinner by the swimming pool. Being in such a company, obviously some selected bottles were opened, coming from Sicily, Ribera de Duero (an excellent Pago de los Capellanes Reserva 2000), Switzerland (a rare and delicious Amigne Fletrie 2000 from the Cave des Tilleuls, Vetroz), and Catalonia.

We started with Taleia, from Castell d’Encus in DO Costers del Segre, already mentioned in this blog. I was interested to taste VRM (Viognier-Roussanne-Marsanne) 2007, from Vins de Taller in DO Empordà, but I was somewhat disappointed; the oak was overwhelming the fruit and spoiling a little a wine with fine potential.

We moved to the reds, including a bottle I brought myself: a magnum of Clos Mogador 1998. Unfortunately, I do not open bottles like this every month; this one was a birthday present from my wife after a particularly memorable tasting session back in 2002. Organized by Vins Noè, we sampled some of the most relevant Priorat wines from the 1998 vintage (reportedly Excellent). Mas Igneus was rated sixth; Clos de l’Obac fifth; Clos Dofí (Finca Dofí nowadays) was considered fourth; Cims de Porrera and Clos Martinet, from the same winemaker (Pérez) but very different, tied for the second place, and the undisputed winner was Clos Mogador. I have lost whatever notes I might have taken that day, but I remember well the enormous structure of the then young Clos Mogador and the broad spectrum of aromas and flavors that filled nose and mouth. At that point in time a discussion thrived: could these Priorat wines (the others were not so different) age well? Clos Mogador 1998 was 40 % Garnatxa, 40 % Cabernet Sauvignon, and 20 % Syrah. The high proportion of Garnatxa, according to some, boded ill for the long-term evolution.

I had the pleasure to meet briefly Rene Barbier, Clos Mogador owner and winemaker, a few weeks ago, and his advice was to drink this 1998 soon.

So I was understandably anxious to open this magnum. (One remark: my experience with magnums is that it is a nice bottle size to open with friends, provided it is not too “special”. If so, I find it difficult to convene a group that can really appreciate it. What do you think?)

In the end, all went well. The wine evolution had been beautiful. The mighty young Mogador I remembered had evolved into an elegant, but still full-fleshed gentleman which integrated the rich secondary aromas with the tertiary developed in 10 years in the bottle. Toasted, mineral, spices, coffee. Great aroma evolution after 1 hour in the glass, and a veeeery long finish.

The rest of the evening’s wines were, in my case, a kind of anticlimax. I had treasured this bottle for years, and I had not been disappointed. Only that now I face the traditional dilemma between drinking wines (relatively) young or giving them time to ripen in the bottle with a little more weight in the latter alternative.

Will I be patient enough?

 
 
http://www.costersdelsegre.es/eng/index.php
http://www.encus.org/en/index.php
http://www.doemporda.com/index.php?action=home
http://www.vinsdetaller.com/in-menu.html
http://www.vinsnoe.com/
http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php
http://www.masigneus.com/
http://www.costersdelsiurana.com/en/index.asp
http://www.masmartinet.com/
http://www.closmogador.com/

Wine in the cloister

In the Middle Ages, life in the monasteries revolved around the cloister. Apart of serving as communication, it was a place in which monks walked, relaxed and meditated.

Nowadays these monuments are put to many other uses. In Sant Cugat del Vallès, the town where I live, there is an Abbey with a  magnificent cloister from the 13th century with 140 beautifully carved capitals. As most cloisters, it is warm in winter and cool in summer. All this makes an ideal setting for a popular wine tasting event, perhaps not very scientific, but enabling a lot of interaction with the winemakers.

And that is what took place last Saturday as part of the local fiesta. Organized with the usual (this being the 11th edition) efficiency by the Vins Noè wine club, there were eight wineries, five of them Catalan. Of the other three, a special mention to Bodegas del Jardín, the new enterprise of the Guelbenzu family after selling the Guelbenzu brand (Lautus, Evo), with similarly excellent wines.

First winery in the row was Castell d’Encus, from the DO Costers del Segre. This is a project, led by Raül Bobet of former Torres fame, with vineyards at a height of 800 – 1000 m, expecting climatic change to raise the temperature in the coming years, and using gravity for grape movement and geothermal energy as much as possible. However, they also do use some ancient vats carved in stone for some fermentations.

I liked Taleia, a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon, flowery and citric, and Ekam, a 100 % Riesling, somewhat disappointing if you expect a full bodied varietal, but very fresh, and showing the aromatic profile of the grape. Also very interesting was ThALARN, a 100 % Syrah fermented partly in oak, partly in steel, and partly in the above mentioned stone vats. This may be the reason of the complexity of aromas, especially of red fruits.

From the DO Catalunya, Ca N’Estruc offered a new wine, the white L’Equilibrista from Xarel•lo grapes and fermented in oak. A pleasant surprise: big, rich and a worthy match to the red version, out of Syrah, Garnatxa and Carinyena and fourteen months in French oak.

Next winery was La Vinyeta, from the DO Empordá. This company has a curious preference for complex blends; I tasted three wines and the simplest included four kinds of grape! The Llavors red is a blend of Carinyena, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Kept for five months in French, Hungarian and Romanian new oak, it is complex to the nose and very well rounded, with an already good integration of alcohol and oak.

The Celler Dosterras (DO Montsant) offered a very light and fresh white, Eterna Flor, and two reds: Vespres, from Garnatxa and Merlot, and the big, complex and mineral Dosterras, 100 % old Garnatxa with sixteen months in French oak and 12 months in bottle.

I could not taste the Cava from Bertha. Time was up; with fine wines and surrounded by walls eight hundred years old, what are two hours?

 
 
 
http://www.vinsnoe.com/
http://www.encus.org/en/index.php
http://www.costersdelsegre.es/eng/index.php
http://www.torres.es/eng/asp/index.asp
http://www.do-catalunya.com/english/engmenu.html
http://www.lavinyeta.es/en/wines/prologue/
http://www.doemporda.com/index.php?action=presentation
http://www.dosterras.com/english/index.html
http://www.domontsant.com/
http://www.crcava.es/catala/flash.html
http://www.cavabertha.com/eng/index.htm

What can we find in Catalonia?

Catalonia comprises a wealth of different landscapes and climates, from the Mediterranean coastal hills to the Pyrenees, including the inland plains. Soils are similarly varied. This means that very diverse conditions for vine growing are available. Paired with the many different grape types used we find as a result a huge assortment of wines: white, rosé, red, sparkling, sweet, fortified.

Regarding grapes, local, indigenous varieties are on the rise after many years of neglect when it was fashionable to plant the ubiquitous Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, or Syrah. Now there is a quest for local character, and many wineries are looking back to traditional grapes like Garnatxa (Grenache) in its many forms, Carinyena (Carignan), Monastrell/Mataró, Ull de Llebre (Tempranillo) for reds, and Xarel·lo, Macabeu, Parellada, Garnatxa Blanca, Moscatell (Muscat) for whites. Fortunately, lots of old vines (over 50 years old) have survived to yield excellent, if scarce, grapes used to generate many of the best and more personal wines.

Wine regions are organized as DOs (Denominació d’Origen, Appellation of Origin). There are 12 of them: 

• Alella
• Cava, for sparkling wine produced following the traditional method used for Champagne, with land scattered all over Catalonia and usually overlapping other DOs
• Catalunya, blanket DO covering the whole country except Priorat
• Conca de Barberà
• Costers del Segre
• Empordà
• Montsant
• Penedès
• Pla de Bages
• Priorat, a DOQ (Qualified DO), with more stringent quality rules
• Tarragona
• Terra Alta

Winemakers in Catalonia are in many cases heirs of a family tradition that may span centuries, although frequently winemaking has been revived recently in the wake of the increase of demand for quality wines. Also a number of celebrities have turned winemakers; some of them are really engaged and active, while others only show up in the more glamorous occasions. In most cases, if you visit a small producer you will find an energetic, enthusiastic small team that will proudly show you their vineyards and premises and make you taste their wines. An experience radically different to visiting one of the bigger companies displaying videotapes, hostesses and a shop at the end.

Catalan people personality is usually defined as a balance between seny (Catalan for common sense, reliability, dependability) and rauxa (craziness, originality, creativity), which can tilt either way (you may remember Antoni Gaudí or Salvador Dalí for instance; more solid, conventional Catalans are obviously less well-known). Catalan wines also show this duality: it is every wine lover’s choice to tend to favour one or the other, perhaps each at different moments.

http://www.doalella.org/index_eng.php

http://www.crcava.es/catala/flash.html

http://www.do-catalunya.com/
http://www.doconcadebarbera.com/
http://www.costersdelsegre.es/eng/index.php
http://www.doemporda.com/index.php?action=home
http://www.domontsant.com/
http://www.dopenedes.es/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
http://www.dopladebages.com/index
http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php
http://www.dotarragona.cat/
http://www.doterraalta.com/index.htm#