Espelt Viticultors has obtained exceptional scores in the prestigious Guía Peñín 2025, reaffirming its position as a benchmark in the world of Catalan wine. This recognition is the result of the constant effort and passion for the vineyard and the territory that define our way of understanding wine.

Among the most outstanding wines, we find Les Elies 2020 and Coma Bruna 2018, both with an excellent score of 93 points. These wines reflect superior quality and care in every detail of the production process, from grape selection to aging in the cellar. Les Elies 2020, grapes chosen from the best grenache of each vintage, stands out for its aromatic intensity and an elegant structure that seduces the palate. Coma Bruna 2018, red Carignan from centuries-old vines on shale soils in Rabós, is a pure expression of the character of the winery, with a depth and richness that make it unique.

6 wines on the top

Lledoner Roig 2021 and Terres Negres 2020, both with 92 points each, are two of our emblematic vines, which describe the Empordan terroir. Lledoner Roig 2021 is a white wine made by gray grenache that surprises with its lively and Finnish nature, while Terres Negres 2020 is presented with a depth and intensity that reflects the richness of its origin.

Pardells 2019, with 91 points, is an excellent example of the diversity and quality of Espelt’s production. A more robust and complex wine, ideal for special moments, with a coupage of more than 9 varietals from a single plot of vinyes velles de Rabós: white and red carinyena, white and grey grenache, clairette blanche and four varietats more in minimum proportions.

Finally, the best score has been obtained by Airam, who has achieved an impressive score of 94 points. This vi represents our relationships and the knowledge that we have acquired thanks to a family dedicated to viticulture and wine, for many generations. Airam is a wine that has matured with elegance, offering exceptional complexity and depth, an authentic treasure for lovers of this Empordan sweet garnatxa.

In short, the scores of the Peñín Guide 2025 do not just recognize the quality of our wines in the DO Empordà, but they also celebrate the dedication and passion that we possess in each vial. We want to specially thank you our top staff in viticulture, oenology and cellar who made this possible.

Espelt Viticultors, has been one of the wineries chosen in the Empordà wine selection in Decanter, one of the most prestigious publications in the world of wine. The Coma Bruna and La Vella wines have been highlighted by the expert Fintan Kerr, and he has scored them in his expert selection of the Empordà.

Coma Bruna: a century-old jewel of Carignan

Coma Bruna 2018 is a wine that embodies the essence of the old vineyards of Carinyena. From century-old vines, planted in 1909, this wine offers a complexity and depth that can only be achieved with age and meticulous care. Fintan Kerr describes it as “brambly, floral and slatey”, Coma Bruna stands out for its freshness and firmness, showing a fruity depth that reflects its centuries-old heritage. Matured for 13 months in foudres, this wine has a robust and evocative structure, which makes us think it will also age very well in the bottle. The combination of its aromatic profile and its maturation process make it a special wine, which reflects without artifice the character of a local variety from the Emporda such as the Red Carignan.

La Vella: the elegance of the White Carignan

On the other hand, La Vella is an authentic expression of another local Empordà variety of which very few strains are preserved in a century-old vineyard: Carinyena blanca (White Carignan). Also tasted by wine expert Fintan Kerr, La Vella is distinguished by its notes of white flowers, hazelnuts, orange peel and ripe stone fruits. With ample acidity that sustains a long, smooth finish. All of this makes this wine a refined and balanced tasting experience. La Vella, 100% White Carignan, has been matured for eight months on fine lees in cement eggs, a technique that contributes to its texture and complexity, which also makes us think that it will have a good maturation in bottle and will allow us enjoy it for many more years. Both La Vella and Coma Bruna have organic certification, which once again points to Espelt Viticultors’ commitment to organic viticulture and the production of wines that respect and celebrate their terroir.

Our commitment to quality and sustainability

These tasting notes from Decanter  not only highlight the quality of Espelt Viticultors wines, but also the dedication to sustainable and organic winemaking practices. By preserving and paying tribute to centuries-old vines, we not only recover local varieties that have almost disappeared, but also protect a very valuable landscape and cultural heritage.

If you want to explore the treasures of the most authentic Empordà, Coma Bruna and La Vella represent a unique opportunity to savor history and local varieties in their maximum Empordà expression. These scores are a recognition of the constant work to preserve the territory and a winemaking tradition of more than 8 generations. We’re toasting to celebrate!

This Wednesday we received more than 50 representatives of the global partnership Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership (MCAP) which aims to coordinate between Mediterranean climate zones in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. At the meeting we explained our management of the lands of Mas Marès: a mosaic that combines pastures, olive trees, vineyards and cork oaks.

For more than twenty years we have managed the Mas Marès vineyard, at Cap de Creus, where we produce the wine of Anna Espelt’s most personal project and where we have promoted an agroecological project with the advice of the technicians with the Cap de Creus Natural Park. The main objective of the project is for vineyards, pastures and cork trees to coexist in symbiosis and help increase biodiversity and fire prevention. It is a total of 172 hectares located in the heart of the Cap de Creus Natural Park which are distributed with different uses: pastures for extensive livestock, olive groves, vineyards and cork oaks. The latter are part of the most fragile ecosystem, located to the south of the territory, the furthest part from where fires can come. The project has a triple objective: increasing biodiversity, increasing the resilience of the land to climate change and fire prevention.

Winegrowers, firefighters, biologists and foresters: a joint work

Ponç Feliu, director of the Cap de Creus Natural Park, Marc Castellnou, head of GRAF, and Míriam Villar of the General Directorate of Forests and Biodiversity also took part at the meeting. All three have emphasized that this mosaic management strategy helps to increase biodiversity, stop forest fires and preserve the Mediterranean landscape. On the other hand, the secretary of the Natural Resources Agency of California (USA), Wade Crowfoot, also participated. The American secretary describes Catalonia as a “leader” region in relation to climate resilience. “In California we have a lot of strategies as well, many of which are similar to what’s here and we’re learning from them as well,” Crowfoot notes. The American agency emphasizes the usefulness of seeing different experiences: it serves to implement the most appropriate strategies in each context.

Read more about the meeting at local and national press:

• Setmanari Empordà: Prevenció d’incendis i lluita contra el canvi climàtic: Catalunya promou al món el model de cap de Creus i el Montgrí
• La Vanguardia: Catalunya promueve en el mundo el modelo de lucha contra los incendios de Cap de Creus i el Montgrí
• Diari de Girona: Prevenció d’incendis i lluita contra el canvi climàtic: Catalunya promou al món el model de cap de Creus i el Montgrí

Last Friday, Anna Espelt was on the special program of El Món a Rac1 from Llançà. With Anna Vallhonesta we talked about viticulture and traveling the world and returning to Born. Of what we have learned and of all the work we have left to do.

We are always glad to explain our work. Our land, the sea and the mountains, is what defines us and what marks the wines of the Empordà. Explaining ourselves and the territory means talking about our wines and understanding them a little more. We took a look at the why of the integral management between natural parks and vineyards and we talked about how we manage them to promote biodiversity in the lands we cultivate and about the sea, the tramuntana and the sun. Three key aspects that accompany us and that define our wines.

You can relive the interview and tell us about!

The first scores of the Peñín 2023 Guide have already been released. Coma Bruna, Quinze Roures, Pardells and Les Elies share the podium and we are very proud of it.

During the summer months and a few weeks before the start of the harvest, the Peñín Guide, the renowned guide in Spain, publishes the wine scores from all the DOs. On this occasion, Espelt has received excellent scores for Les Elies (more than 94 points and waiting for the second round of tasting), Pardells (91 points), Coma Bruna (92 points), Quinze Roures (91 points), Terres Negres (92 points) and Sauló (88 points). Our wines are a reflection of a small part of our territory. We try to transmit a landscape and a restless spirit: that of the Empordà. We are aware that the land where we live and the soils where our vines grow are the great value we have inherited from our ancestors. That is why we make wine respecting life, the soil, the earth. That’s why we work in ecological.

These scores are very good news. They give us strength to continue this project of organic viticulture and biodiversity regeneration. In our online shop you will find them all!

The end of the vineyard cycle is near. We already have well-populated berries and we are waiting for not last minute surprises. We have a look back on this intense year’s harvest.

We are facing this harvest with a desire to review the last few months. We worked hard and received the support of such spectacular visits as Jancis Robinson in September. There are eight generations of winemakers who endorse us, but there is always time for innovation. We now feel that we are facing a stage of maturity and consolidation. Our project based on respect for the land and the sustainable management of resources is more than twenty years old and that’s quite impressive even for us.

Our comprehensive management of the vineyards tries to take care of the biodiversity of the area. Encouraging the preservation and improvement of biodiversity is right now the cornerstone of our project. After the fire in Mas Marès, in February, we had a test (which we had never wanted) of the good work done in Cap de Creus. This Mediterranean mosaic project, an agricultural management system that combines different types of agricultural areas (pastures, vineyards and high protection areas) has been shown to be the best fire prevention.

Awards and pending work

After all, we try to make our wines as an expression of small pieces of Empordà landscape. This is the territory we consciously care for. We couldn’t do it any other way. The reward for this work over the years has been recognized recently by the awards received. In first place, Pla de Tudela – Anna Espelt (Best Picapoll Blanc segons La Guia de Vins de Catalunya 2022). Then it was the turn of Les Elies (Gold Medal Grenaches du Monde 2022). Finally, the silver medals of the WWA Decanter 2022 for Coma Bruna (100% Carignan) and Lledoner Roig (100% Grey Grenache).

Finally, the visit this spring of Dylan Grigg, an expert in viticulture, has helped us to make a panoramic reflection of everything we have advanced. We have done a lot of work on local varieties, on resilience, on bearded vines, on potted vines. It has also helped us to make a stop and see everything we have left to do. Little by little we are making our way!

Coma Bruna (91 points) and Lledoner Roig (92 points) received the Decanter Silver Medal, one of the most important recognitions in Europe. These are two Decanter Silver medals in addition to the Bronze Medals for Terres Negres (89 points) and Quinze Roures (88 points).

We are very pleased with this new recognition we receive from one of the most prestigious competitions in Europe: Decanter World Wine Awards. On this occasion, the Decanter Silver Medal goes for two wines that are an homage to the most essential Empordà terroir, Coma Bruna, 100% Carignan, and Lledoner Roig, 100% Gray Grenache.

These are two wines that were the beginning of a long reflection for the recovery of local varieties, such as Carignan (red, white) and also Gray Greanche (also called lledoner roig). Both are also wines that come from our oldest vineyards, from Rabós, and that express in a particular way a terroir of shales, from vineyards in vas, very adapted to our microclimate.

In this edition of Decanter World Wine Awards we also received the Bronze Medal for Terres Negres and Quinze Roures. These two Espelt flagship wines represent our desire to make Empordà wines, ecological, that express the territory. Since the 2020 vintage, they have both been ecologically certified, a further step in our commitment with our landcape and its ecosystem. You can find them in our store!

Les Elies, our tribute to the red Grenache, has received the Grenaches du Monde Gold Medal.

This week we received an award from one of the great competitions in northern Catalonia: Grenaches du Monde. On this occasion, our wine Les Elies has been awarded the Gold Medal, given by the Interprofessional Council of Roussillon Wines. We are very excited to receive this award, as it is a recognition of our effort to recover local varieties and make authentic wines, without intervention.

Les Elies is our homage to the red Grenache, which in the Empordà we call black hawthorn. This wine is named after the plot that Anna’s grandfather, Lluís, received as a dowry from Grandma Quimeta’s family. Les Elies is a wine made from selected grapes harvested by hand. Every year we reserve the best red hawthorn grapes to make this wine that is complex and soft.

This Grenaches du Monde Gold Medal is also a prize in the Empordà terroir. Les Elies is a wine that reflects our terroir without masks or artifices and shows us who we are. A wine that you will enjoy from the first to the last glass of wine. You can accompany with both lean meats and long-cooked roasts.

You will find it in our store!

Our wines have received very good scores in La Guia de Vins de Catalunya and highlights Pla de Tudela, award for Best White Picapoll.

A new edition of La Guia de Vins de Catalunya, a reference guide to the Catalan Countries that includes a large part of the wines made in our territory. We are very happy with the good scores obtained and especially with the prize in Pla de Tudela, a 100% picapolla monovarietal wine from Anna Espelt’s most personal project, on the Mas Marés estates.

The variety of white picapoll, which in the Empordà we call picapolla, is one of the many varieties that have been found in our region for a long time. The library of varieties that we made has allowed us to identify in old vineyards and then move to other places, such as the Mas Marés estate. It is in these vineyards where we decided to replant the white picapoll as a local variety. It is very well adapted to the climate of the area and therefore more resistant to changes that may come due to the climate emergency.

We were already in love with our white picapoll plants, some of the most beautiful we had ever seen. Now we have one more reason to be proud of this award for a wine from the personal project of Anna Espelt Pla de Tudela. This is a recognition for a long time work to recover local varieties and make them a place in our winery. Here are the other excellent scores:

• La Vella 2019 9.79
• Pardells 2018 9.76
• Les Elies 2018 9.78
• Pla de Tudela 2019 9.74 and Best Picapoll Blanc Award
• Cala Rostella 2018 9.71
• Lledoner Roig 2018 9.70
• Comabruna 2017 9.65

‘Empordà is definitely on the move. It is well past its flirtation with international vine varieties’

The Catalans seem to take conservation seriously. To the extent of removing an entire Club Med holiday village in order to restore the geologically unique north-eastern tip of the region to its natural state. Knocking down more than 400 buildings, which admittedly looked as integrated within the landscape as a caravan site, is surely taking rewilding to a new level.

This dramatic decision was inspired by the 1998 designation of Cap de Creus — the rocky outcrop in the hinterland of the seaside town of Cadaqués and the famous El Bulli restaurant — as a protected natural park. By 2010 the resort had been excised from the landscape and today the extraordinary rock formations of Tudela, where the Club once was, are again as nature intended.

On the August Saturday morning that I visited, the carefully landscaped trails were dotted with shiny Lycra as runners and cyclists made their determined way up them. My host was the energetic Anna Espelt, who runs her family’s Espelt wine operation, which has the most vineyards, 172ha, in the local appellation of Empordà (although the vast Perelada operation sells more wine).

Espelt’s tourist-friendly modern winery in Vilajuïga is based quite far inland and draws from vineyards in several different locations, but I feel Anna’s heart is most moved by those she was encouraged to plant in Cap de Creus, within sight of the sea. “I feel very good in this place,” she smiles as she takes in the view of the deep blue Mediterranean, the resort town of Roses in the distance and a bronze-age menhir that was unearthed by her father at the foot of her vineyards.

Before the phylloxera louse, which is fatal to vine roots, arrived back in 1879, Catalonia was wine country. By the turn of that century, a wine region with about 10,000ha of vines had been almost wiped out. Today, evidence of the 30,000km of painstakingly built stone terraces for vines can be seen on many a hillside. There are currently only 1,821ha of vines in production in this recently revived denomination.

It was partly to honour Cap de Creus’s viticultural legacy that Espelt planted vineyards there. The vine trunks were so spindly I thought they were only a handful of years old but they bear witness to how tough conditions here are for vines. The chilly tramuntana whistles through the mountains from the north, and the vines are buffeted by winds off the sea too. The park’s guardians are keen to encourage biodiversity. They see vines as more fire-resilient than many other plants in a landscape that is tinder-dry in a “normal” summer, let alone 2021 which, Espelt tells me, has so far seen just 153mm of rain.

The precision of that number is testament to the pain imposed by the drought but also Espelt’s scientific training. She was meant to be a biologist but in 2000 the opportunity to carry on her grandfather’s wine-producing legacy lured her back from California where she had been a cellarhand. She was very much thrown in at the deep end. Nineteen years ago, they planted 25ha of vines on Cap de Creus, partly to encourage others. Her first mistake, she says, was the decision to trellis the vines on wires rather than plant them as standalone bush vines, which would possibly have been more resilient and less thirsty. Nevertheless, the single-vineyard varietal wines they have yielded since 2017 are pretty impressive.

She has named them after places on Cap de Creus that have a special meaning for her. The white, made from Picapolla, as they call tangy Clairette grapes here, is called Pla de Tudela, after the beach where she particularly likes to swim. The red is made from Garnacha, a grape that is called Lledoner Negre here, and seems to be slimmed down and freshened up with each successive vintage. It’s called Cala Rostella after a pine-covered outcrop overlooking El Bulli.

These special bottlings are offered at the same price and I wondered if the Spanish market was ready to pay so much for a white wine. I was assured that the white sells out faster than the red, although admittedly it is made in smaller quantities. According to Espelt, “For many years we thought Empordà was a red wine area but now we learn we should focus on whites too — especially from the local varieties Lledoner Blanc [Grenache Blanc], Lledoner Roig [Grenache Gris] and Carinyena Blanc [Carignan Blanc].”

Espelt also covertly converted the family’s vineyards to organic viticulture and says she waited to break the news to her father, an agrochemical merchant, until after a bibulous Sunday lunch.

She pioneered the local renaissance of Grenache Gris, which can make arguably more interesting and perfumed wines than the pale-skinned Grenache Blanc. I had previously been rather unimpressed by the Carignan Blancs I had tasted in the Pyrenees in France, and one or two of the Empordà versions confirmed this. But La Vinyeta’s Microvins 2019, aged for 14 months in old French oak barrels and tasted at its stylish winery, won me over. It was dense, vibrant and had rather impressive grip. That said, both Josep Serra, co-founder of La Vinyeta, and Anna Espelt admitted that the grape doesn’t have that much actual flavour. Perhaps it will end up as a useful blending ingredient rather than as a varietal wine.

La Vinyeta, set up by Josep and Marta Serra in 2002, is another particularly interesting operation, very much informed by the fact that Josep’s brother is a designer in Barcelona. Microvins’ labels are a lesson in providing useful, geeky information in a clever, attractive way. And the team at La Vinyeta have really shown the locals how to entice visitors, with their outdoor café, sheep, cheeses and olive oil. La Vinyeta looks as though it belongs in California.

Empordà is very definitely on the move. It is well past its flirtation with international vine varieties and is now concentrating on the two most-planted varieties, both local: Lledoner Negre and Carinyena Negra, or Grenache and Carignan. These are the same varieties that dominate Priorat, the wine region that fetches Catalonia’s highest prices. Empordà is perhaps too small to be similarly appreciated, even though the average age of these Empordà vines, and their pale-skinned mutations, is impressively high. In a tasting of 73 Empordà wines recently, I was also delighted to see that some of the best wines included single-vineyard bottlings by one of the handful of co-ops — a welcome change from throwing everything into the same vat.

Some of the best wines of all are the strong, sweet ones, made in a wide range of ways and a number of them are completely stunning (after all, in terms of geology and climate, Empordà is a mirror image of Roussillon, home of Banyuls, on the other side of the Pyrenees). But I won’t waste space saying any more about them since I know how unfashionable such wonders are at the moment. I do hope their day will come. Together with their dry counterparts.

Exciting Empordà wines

I gave all these wines at least 17 points out of 20 and am very sad to see how few of them make it to the UK.

WHITES

• Clos d’Agon, Clos d’Agon 2018 13.5%
• Espelt, Pla de Tudela 2018 12.5%
  • €36.90 espeltviticultors.com, $75 European Cellars in the US

REDS

• Castillo de Perelada, Aires de Garbet 2017 14.5%
• Castillo de Perelada, Finca La Garriga 2016 14%
• Espelt, Cala Rostella 2018 and 2017 14.8%
  • €36.90 from espeltviticultors.com
• Masia Serra, Aroa 2018 14.5%
• Mas Vida, Vida Nua 2017 14%
• Roig Parals, Camí de Cormes Carinyena Vinyes Centenàries 14.5%
  • £60 Seckford, £70 Fine + Rare plus duty and VAT (2007)
• Sota els Àngles, Sota els Àngels 2019 13%
• La Vinyeta, Microvins Carinyena Negra Bota 2018 15%

SWEET

• Masia Serra, Ino NV 16%
• Vinyes dels Aspres, Bac de les Ginesteres NV 14.5%
  • £36.50 Albion Wine Shippers (2004)

Jancis Robinson. Published on Financial Times and on Jancis Robinson website in September 2021.