Lo Jaume's wines at Topik

Ten days later, in the Topik restaurant in Barcelona, I had another pairing led by Lo Jaume.

Topik is a restaurant with a blend of Catalan and Japanese cuisine. The owner, Adelf, having trained in Japan for some time, is able to dish out surprising combinations and a master rice cook.

The wine list shows a fair balance of Catalan and rest of the world wines, with many well chosen labels from small producers or less-than-glamorous zones. Prices are perhaps at a 50% premium over wine shops. Adequate service and glasses.

The white Vall Novenes blanc, from Algramar Celler in DO Terra Alta, was the first wine. A coupage of Garnatxa, Sauvignon blanc and Chenin, it was fruity and crisp.

The Parellada 100 % 2010 from Celler Carles Andreu, one of the leading wineries in DO Conca de Barberà, is rather unique. Parellada is often waved aside as the lesser part of the Cava trinity (Xarel.lo, Macabeu and Parellada). But properly grown, with lower yields, and using carbonic maceration and batonnage, this white shows a very fruity nose, acidity and creaminess in the mouth, and is a wine to have in mind.

From the same winery, Carles Andreu Rosat Brut, a rosé Cava with aging for fifteen months, made with Trepat, a red variety typical from Conca de Barberà that gives elegant, medium bodied, spice-scented wines. Perfect for the spicy dish it matched.

Later came Clònic 2008, a DO Montsant red from Celler Cedó Anguera. Carinyena, Cabernet and Syrah aged for eight months in new Allier oak. We tasted with the same dish Gènesi 2006, also from Montsant, the older brother to Petit Gènesi mentioned in the previous post. Old Garnatxa and Carinyena vines, aging for twelve months in French and Hungarian oak give a wine with more elegance but less structure than the Clònic.

The last course, rice with duck, also featured two reds. La Guinardera 2006 from Celler Balaguer Cabré is already described in my previous post. Celler Aixalà-Alcait from DOQ Priorat was represented by Destrankis 2009, Garnatxa and Carinyena with nine months in oak. Red fruit, chocolate, balance.

The sweet Algramar Dolç, again from Algramar Celler in Terra Alta, comes from overripe Syrah grapes, with a controlled fermentation and twelve months in oak. Not too sweet and with noticeable acidity.

An evening to remember; with a avocado-raw blue fin tuna-caramelized foie combination as culinary highlight and the balance of the wine choice.

http://www.domontsant.com/
http://bonviure.blogspot.com/
http://www.doterraalta.com/#/home
http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php
http://www.crcava.es/catala/flash.html
http://www.algramar.com/english/index.html
http://cellerbalaguercabre.blogspot.com/
http://www.cavandreu.com/en/index_en.html
http://www.vermunver-genesi.cat/en/qui_som
http://www.cedoanguera.com/english/history.html
http://pardelasses.blogspot.com/
http://www.topikrestaurant.es/index.php
http://elsvinsdeltopik.blogspot.com/

Three generations in thirteen years at Mas Foraster



In the outskirts of the beautiful medieval town of Montblanc, walled since the 14th century and seat to a dukedom, sits the winery and vineyards of Mas Foraster. My wife and I had to attend a calçotada in the zone later in the day and we took the opportunity to visit one of my favourite wineries of DO Conca de Barberà.

Eating calçots

(For those of you unfamiliar with calçotades: in the lands around Tarragona, mainly around Valls, it is typical to gather in winter to eat calçots, young onions that are in fact slightly burned by a dried vine shoot fire. Eaters peel with bare fingers the burnt outer layers to expose the juicy, tender inside, which is then dipped in a special sauce and taken dripping to the mouth, with a vertical entry. A giant bib saves the shirt. A rustic yet delicious meal, a feast for onion lovers, followed by sausages and lamb, topped with crema catalana and wetted with red wine and Cava).



Ricard Sebastiá and his mother, Julieta Foraster



Since 150 years, the Foraster family has grown vines. Not until 1998 Josep Foraster took over from his father and decided to make and sell quality wine himself. Unfortunately, he died prematurely, just before the first bottles of his wine hit the market. But his sister Julieta carried on, and now her son Ricard Sebastiá is at the helm, reaching the goals his uncle had dreamed up.

The property has 32 hectares (a little over 79 acres) of vineyards at about 400 m of altitude, with wide temperature differences between day and night. Soils are largely sandy, with slate on the surface. Vines are generally trellised. Harvest is done mainly by hand. Output per vine is around 0.8 and 3 kg of grape; and 2’500 to 6’000 kg of grape per ha. Total yearly production is around 100’000 bottles, with a maximum of 140’000.

The winery houses a small but delightful museum of rural life and winemaking as it was a century ago, together with temporary exhibitions of modern artists.

Mas Foraster wine range starts with the white Josep Foraster Blanc Selecció. Garnatxa blanca and Macabeu, with a little Chardonnay, is partly fermented and kept in steel vats and partly in French oak, with batonnage. In this way the wine is complex, with a properly integrated wood, but fresh at the same time. Unctuous and long.

Josep Foraster Collita is a young red wine of the year made from Ull de Llebre (aka Tempranillo) and a little Cabernet Sauvignon. Grapes are picked slightly underripe to accentuate freshness. The resulting wine is fruity, refreshing, easy to drink, with deep cherry colour with bluish overtones.

Josep Foraster Criança is for me the flagship wine of Mas Foraster. Coming from Cabernet Sauvignon and Ull de Llebre, with Syrah occasionally, it is aged for twelve months in French oak, and additionally twelve more in the bottle. A more complex wine, dark cherry with little evolution. Red and black fruit in the nose; also spices at the end. Full mouth, with rounded tannins.

Josep Foraster Selecció is the top wine of Mas Foraster. Produced only in selected years out of the oldest (20+ years) Cabernet Sauvignon vines, harvested in 20 kg boxes, with about 10 % Ull de Llebre. After the aging of 18 months in French oak and a similar time in bottle, the result is a dark red wine, with brown edges and good legs. Red fruit, wood and spice in the nose. Well structured and silky in the mouth. Limited production of around 4’000 numbered bottles.

Last wine in the market is Josep Foraster Trepat, made from 45 year old Trepat vines. This is a local variety, with medium colour intensity, a distinctive black peppery nose and great elegance. Five months of aging in French oak.

I guess that Josep Foraster, if he had the opportunity to look upon his winery, would be proud of the evolution.

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

http://www.josepforaster.com/index.html

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



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#