Down from great-grandmother Bàrbara Forés.

Sometime in 2001, my friends from Vins Noè, knowing my partiality to good reds, told me to taste a new wine. It came from Terra Alta, a comparatively obscure DO better known until then for strong, partially oxidized whites.



House entrance



The wine, Coma d’en Pou, was outstanding, and the first of a series of bottles from this and other wines made by the Bàrbara Forés winery that I have enjoyed in this last decade.

The winery is in Gandesa, relatively far (two hours drive) from Barcelona. This may explain the fact of having waited for ten years, until spending holidays in the Tarragona parts, to visit them.

My wife and I approached the unprepossessing house in the centre of Gandesa, only the placard on the wall announced we were on the right track. However, after entering, the interior was beautiful and airy, and hid some surprises. Underground, the glazed tiled underground tanks once used for wine production now harbour oak barrels.



Barrels underground



But first to the vineyards. Carme Ferrer, great-granddaughter of Bàrbara Forés (born in 1828), explained en route that Bàrbara’s pharmacist son, Rafael Ferrer, inherited her mother’s love for winemaking. He built the house and winery, and wine production continued with ups and downs until in 1994 Carme and her husband Manuel Sanmartin upgraded the winery installing state-of-the-art technology.

In the meantime we arrived to La Cometa plot, where we could see the Garnatxa blanca vines that were planted there 60 years ago, grown as bushes in the calcareous, sandy soil.

We then moved closer to the Pàndols hills, where the Garnatxa negra and Morenillo vineyards grow in a soil with higher clay content, fenced to avoid attacks of wild goat.

Close to Pàndols hills

And we finished the tour at the magnificent Coma d’en Pou vineyard, in the lower lands at the feet of the Cavalls hills near Corbera d’Ebre (a coma is a shallow depression). Here grow the red varieties mainly (Garnatxa Negra, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot) along with some Garnatxa blanca in a calcareous soil.

Grapes are harvested by hand and placed in small boxes after a first selection. The winery has a number of smallish tanks that enable separate processing for different grape / plot combinations.

The wines are as follows.

Bàrbara Forés blanc is the young white, Garnatxa blanca with 5% Viognier. Shows the typical citric aromas, very fresh.

Garnatxa blanca

El Quintà, a 100% Garnatxa blanca white from old vines, is fermented and kept for six months in French oak. Pale yellow with white fruit aromas, along with vanilla and toast notes. Unctuous and long. One of my favourite oak fermented whites.



El Quintà's Garnatxa blanca vines



Bàrbara Forés rosat, a rosé with body, from Garnatxa negra, Syrah and Carinyena. Raspberry red, with red fruit aromas, and a slightly bitter aftertaste.

Bàrbara Forés negre, the basic red out of Syrah, Garnatxa negra and Carinyena and with fourteen months of Allier oak. Deep cherry red; nose rich with red and black fruit, well structured and long in the mouth.



Tasting room



Coma d’en Pou is the red mentioned at the beginning. Garnatxa negra, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot aged for sixteen months in Allier oak. Cherry red, with lots of red fruit and balsamic reminiscences of the flora around the vineyard. Wood and tobacco as well. Wide and full in the mouth, but still elegant and long.



Coma d'en Pou



El Templari is a red wine that, contrary to normal Catalan practice, it is actually termed as red (vi vermell) and not black (vi negre). Half of it is Garnatxa negra, but the other half is Morenillo, a variety close to extinction. The vines are quite big in all their parts, including the grapes, and perhaps due to that the colour of the wine is a bright cherry red. Cherries also predominate in the nose, along with other red fruits, and the mouth is acid, light and elegant, rounded by sixteen months in oak. The name (The Templar) is a homage to the warrior monks that protected the zone after it was fought back from the Muslims in the Middle Ages.

Morenillo

Bàrbara Forés Dolç Natural is a natural sweet white from overripe Garnatxa blanca. Deep gold, not very sweet and well balanced with acidity, and white fruit aromas. Production limited to ca. 500 half-litre bottles.



Garnataxa blanca for sweet wine at Coma d'en Pou



All together, Carme and Manuel produce some 50’000 bottles each year. Look for them; they are good, personal, with excellent QPR and a great introduction to Terra Alta, a DO that is finding its place in the sun.

http://www.cellerbarbarafores.com/fores-en.html

http://www.doterraalta.com/#/home
http://www.vinsnoe.com/

Wine in the cloister 2011

Last year I wrote about the highly pleasing public tasting organized by Vins Noe in my town’s Abbey cloister. Here we go again!

The Tast de Vins amb Ritme had this year eight wineries on display. One of them was a very promising Rioja: Tobelos. The other seven were Catalan: as usual, we will focus on them.

Three of them have been already reviewed in this blog. It was an opportunity to sample new vintages and, in one case, taste a novelty.

Can Feixes Huguet (DO Penedès and Cava), Gramona (Penedès and Cava) and Ferrer Bobet (DOQ Priorat) offered me the chance to revisit their wines and see that they continue to perform notably well, each one in their style.

In the case of Gramona, there was a surprise in the form of Frisant de Gel.

This 100% Gewurztraminer is produced by the selective cryoextraction process, exactly at the beginning as the Gewurztraminer Vi de Glass. As late autumn temperatures do not freeze grapes in the vineyard, Gramona has a cold chamber at minus 24 to freeze the already overmature grapes. Pressing renders a highly concentrated must that is slowly fermented. Additional fermentation in the final bottle produces a degree of gas that gives the Frisant its name. The floral aromas that are typical of the Vi de Glass evolve to white fruit, especially pear. A very unusual wine!

Acústic is a Montsant winery that can boast one of the outstanding reds of the DO. Auditori is a 100 % very old vine Garnatxa of very limited production that I was fortunate enough to taste some months ago.

Their white is called Acústic blanc and is a blend of Garnatxa blanca, Garnatxa roja, Macabeu and Xarel.lo, partly fermented in French oak. Pale yellow, with white and tropical fruit, fresh and silky.

Acústic negre is the simpler red, from Garnatxa and Carinyena vines some forty years old, and with ten months in French oak. Braó is the flagship of the winery, with a blend similar to Acústic negre but coming from older vines and with thirteen months of aging.

There were two wineries from DO Pla de Bages. One was Abadal, the most refined part of a large company with its main interests in the lower price segment, and the other was a newcomer, Collbaix (Celler el Molí).

Abadal was the main force behind the creation of the Pla de Bages DO (I must write a post about it soon) and leads the way with a drive to produce wines with personality, especially around the Picapoll white varietal. Indeed, there was on offer the Abadal Picapoll, a white made 100% with these grapes. Also Abadal 5 Merlot, a complex blend of Merlot coming from five different plots and aged for twelve months in American, Hungarian and French oak.

Abadal 3.9 is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah coming from a single plot, with one year of aging. A new wine for me was Abadal 25 Aniversari, a special blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Syrah that celebrates the 25 years of the launch of the winery.

Collbaix is a new winery with organic farming and promising wines. Collbaix blanc is made from Picapoll and Macabeu: crisp and fruity. Collbaix rosat comes fully from Merlot grapes and boasts an attractive ruby shade and red fruits in nose and mouth.

The third wine on display was La Llobeta, a red with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and twelve months of aging in American, Romanian and French oak. Deep cherry red, with a complex nose showing ripe fruit, lactic and spicy notes.

The last winery was still newer: Herencia Altés, from DO Terra Alta. For the time being, their only assets are old-vine plots; the winery is still to be built and they use the premises of a neighbour.

However, their wines repay attention: Benufet is a 100% Garnatxa blanca, complex and dense. The red Garnatxa negre is young, very fruity and with mineral notes. L’Estel is old vine Garnatxa negra and Syrah with three months oak ageing; more complex and tannic.

These two last wineries are really worthy following; I will keep you posted!

http://www.vinsnoe.com/

http://www.cellerelmoli.com/en

http://www.abadal.net/index_ING.html

http://www.ferrerbobet.com/

http://www.canfeixes.com/
http://www.gramona.com/web/en/home.html
http://www.acusticceller.com/
http://www.dopladebages.com/index
http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php
http://doterraalta.com/esp/index.html#/home
http://www.dopenedes.es/en
http://www.domontsant.com/en
http://www.crcava.es/catala/flash.html



Clos Martinet vertical: today may be a great day…

The lyrics of the song by the local folk singer Joan Manel Serrat were dancing in my head as I drove towards Priorat. This may be a great day…will it? The first steps were clear and had its roots some months before.

When I was visiting Mas Martinet in March, Josep Lluís Pérez, while discussing with him his first wines, made a remark: “We must make a vertical tasting of Clos Martinet!” I agreed heartily, and, with the help of Oleguer from Vins Noè, gathered a group of twelve fortunate wine lovers, including some top bloggers like David González (Adictos a la Lujuria), Jaume Aguadé (Vins de Catalunya) and Ricard Sampere (Els vins que vaig tastant).



Josep Lluís Pérez



We first met in Mas Martinet with Josep Lluís and then visited his Serra Alta vineyard. I had been there in March; the sight was more astonishing then, with all the iron rings plainly in view, but now it was beautiful with all the green shoots blooming.

Serra Alta in March



Serra Alta in May



There, by the plot, we could enjoy an impromptu master class about vineyard management by Josep Lluís. His absolutely scientific approach (he had figures and ratios for everything) left us speechless, especially those with scientific background. He spoke, among other things, of vigour, production limitation, watering, leaf surface, bag-in-box wines…always with this scientific yet practical approach.

Some of the happy participants

A phone call from his daughter Sara pulled us back to reality and the winery. There we met her laying the last glasses for the tasting.

The grapes-to-be

I (most of us, perhaps) had several goals in mind:

• The most obvious, enjoy a bunch of excellent wines 
• Meet Sara and Josep Lluís and benefit from their knowledge and personality 
• Last but not least: check whether great Priorat wines age well. This was a big discussion from the beginning of Priorat’s new era, and many voices had cast doubts on the aging potential of wines with a high proportion of Garnatxa.

Let us start with the wines.

The first was 1990. This was in fact still a wine made together with Rene Barbier, Alvaro Palacios and Carles Pastrana, and bottled under different labels for each of them. Very much alive, with utter elegance.

The second bottle was 1993, the second year than Josep Lluís made his wine independently. I was a little bit disappointed; I had looked forward to tasting again a 1992, the first Clos Martinet I had, but never look a gift horse etc…And 1993 did compensate: big, flowery, long, one of the best.

1996, said Josep Lluís, was his last wine. Sara answered back instantly: “It was my first, not your last. You still have a lot of wines in you!” It was great to witness the play between the two personalities, sometimes agreeing, sometimes not; after all, as explained in my previous post, if he is the scientist, she is the philosopher, or perhaps the mystic (thanks, Oriol!).

The lineup

1998 was a wine in turmoil. Sara explained that, after some 12 years, their wines undergo a transformation from big, youthful puppies to more elegant, sedate adults. 1998 had just done this, and showed still many primary and secondary aromas, but the tertiaries had started to appear. A great wine nevertheless; racing with 2000 in the preference of many.

2000 was perhaps the most appetizing for me. Still young, very fresh, fruity, big, but starting to migrate to the senior status.

2004 was in comparison young and, although it showed plenty of potential, needed time to show its hand.

As Sara and Josep Lluís explained, with aging, after the twelfth year transformation, wines smoothed the differences between vintages and tended to homogenize, showing the minerality and common terroir underneath. 

I have now little doubt that Priorat wines can age well, and will have to seriously plan ahead to be able to taste these memorable wines at a riper age than I am doing now.

Explanations by the two winemakers were both precise and emotional. They remembered the details of each year in terms of weather and coupage (there was a trend to increase Carinyena and decrease Cabernet) and seemed very happy to share these memories and their wines with us. It was a real pleasure to be invited to this event, which will be one of my most remarkable wine memories so far.

Sara and Josep Lluís

But the day was not over. In the afternoon, after a quick but rewarding visit to Mas Sinén to taste, just before bottling, their Coster 2009, Mas Sinén Negre 2009 and a surprise they have up their sleeve (I am looking forward to it!), I was back home in time to see FC Barcelona beat Manchester Utd to our fourth Champions League title.

It sure was a great day!!

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

http://www.masmartinet-ass.com/eng/index.html
http://www.massinen.com/

Oriol Rossell Brut Nature Reserva de la Propietat 2006: Cava for castellers

 The December selection from the Vins Noè wine club brings usually Cava. This year was not different, and a few days ago I poured one of the bottles, Oriol Rossell Brut Nature Reserva de la Propietat 2006.

The composition is 70% Xarel•lo, 20 % Macabeu and 10 % Parellada, with 5 % of the Xarel•lo aged in oak. Vines are 40 – 50 years old, and there is a double grape selection: at the vineyard and just before pressing. Only the first juice is used. After second fermentation, bottles are aged for at least 45 months before degorjat.

Colour is pale yellow, with small, persistent bubble. In the nose I could find apple and pineapple, together with pastries, balsamic tones and toast. Complex and elegant, not too intense.

In the mouth is still fresh, in spite of the ageing, creamy, with well integrated gas and acidity.

Balanced and versatile, can be enjoyed by itself or with a full meal without red meat. Price at shop: around 28 EUR.

Oriol Rossell, the founder of the winery, passed away recently, and he was mourned not only by the wine people, but by the castellers as well, as he was also founder of the Castellers de Vilafranca del Penedès, and member of their Consell de Savis, Council of the Wise. But what are castellers? Easy: those that build castells.

Castells were inscribed in 2010 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. I now quote the description of UNESCO:

“Castells are human towers built by members of amateur groups, usually as part of annual festivities in Catalonian towns and cities. The traditional setting is the square in front of the town hall balcony. The human towers are formed by castellers standing on the shoulders of one another in a succession of stages (between six and ten). Each level of the tronc, the name given to the second level upwards, generally comprises two to five heavier built men supporting younger, lighter-weight boys or girls. The pom de dalt – the three uppermost levels of the tower – comprises young children. Anyone is welcome to form the pinya, the throng that supports the base of the tower. Each group can be identified by its costume, particularly the colour of the shirts, while the cummerbund serves to protect the back and is gripped by castellers as they climb up the tower. Before, during and after the performance, musicians play a variety of traditional melodies on a wind instrument known as a gralla, setting the rhythm to which the tower is built. The knowledge required for raising castells is traditionally passed down from generation to generation within a group, and can only be learned by practice. “



Castellers de Vilafranca at work



A pretty good description of a popular Catalan tradition that has special following in the wine zones close to Tarragona (with Valls as a center) and Penedès. Castellers de Vilafranca is one of the leading colles (groups) of castellers, toghether with those of Valls.

I can only encourage you to visit those parts, taste their wines and look up at the castells that rise amid the sounds of the gralles (see video below). An experience not to be forgotten.

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

http://www.oriolrossell.com/default.asp?pag=201

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b68Nl8iYGt4

http://www.vinsnoe.com/

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