This week finally wind stopped and were able to restart cuttings planting.

The cuttings are the feet of the vine, which after a while will carry the graft of the variety we choose. The rootstocks are planted and left for a year or two to adapt well to the soil. All the vines we have are grafted with American vine, a foot, therefore, which is not of local variety;)

However, all the vines are grafted and in fact it is the only way we have so that the phylloxera does not make the plant sick.

A few days ago we told you that one of the jobs we do during the winter is to uproot varieties that we have seen over time that did not adapt and did not give very good yields. In recent years, and thanks to the study of the library of varieties of the old vineyards, we have rediscovered varieties that lived among us, more or less forgotten, such as the white Carignan, the black Picapoll, the red Picapoll or the red Granache.

In a year or two, we will choose one of these local varieties and be able to start grafting plants. In the meantime, it’s time to wait and follow nature’s long cycles.

It has been a long time since we decided that we want to work with local varieties such as Grenache, Carignan, Muscat, Picapolla. There are several reasons, but surely the most important is because they are varieties very adapted to our soils and our climate and therefore this already makes the fruits better, because the plant can concentrate on making them the best it knows instead of fighting inclement weather, such as the north wind. These strains of local varieties need less water and have periods of sprouting and maturity fully adapted to our climate. They are definitely more sustainable!

We also do it because of the legacy, the tradition and everything that those who were there before us have taught us. The unique nature of these varieties will also give us the wines we want, deeply Empordà. The varieties are adapted to the north wind, need less water and have periods of sprouting and maturity adapted to our climate.

From time to time it is time to uproot vines, because more than thirty years ago we planted other varieties from outside. At the time, they were called “improvers” because they believed they could benefit the terroir. Now we know much more and in fact they have helped us to improve in our work, we have learned a lot from them and we thank them for all this learning. The ones we still have are uprooted little by little every year, some of which we replant with local varieties such as Grenache, Carignan of all colors, Picapoll, Muscat and Malvasias.

Winegrowers, like all farmers, live in permanent uncertainty. This year this tradition has allowed us to embrace this difficult vintage with love. We took the opportunity to connect with the earth like never before.

We already knew that we wanted the vineyards and the environment that surrounds them to be one: vineyards together in armony with the natural parks of Cap de Creus, Albera and a little further the Aiguamolls de l’Empordà. We knew that the vineyards and the wild life are synergistic and that they protect each other. It’s an idea that doesn’t come out of the blue, but it’s a resulta of 20 years of work. This year we achived the ecological certification of all the vineyards and, although it is only a milestone in the path we are taking, it is quite significant.

This vintage, that we just harvested a few days ago, began a year ago. It was autumn and we had torrential rains that scared us for its virulence. The decision was to prioritize erosion containment as the primary reason for any decision-making in viticulture. The earth, the soils, are the basis of all life, and they must be preserved.

In the winter, Gloria, although it did not affect us much, reaffirmed all the thoughts of autumn and reminded us again that the climate is changing and that we do not want to be party to that.

And when spring was starting to blow its nose, COVID arrived. Then it was time to put into practice all the learnings about the uncertainty we had learned and also those of the generations before us (thank you Grandma Quimeta!). The big challenge was that no one would lose their jobs. Despite not knowing what would happen, the harvest would go ahead. The team became stronger.

And then THE RAIN. Rain and more rain and more rain and more rain. Be careful with your dreams, they might come true. The vineyards had never been such green and full of life. We had time to look at them in a different way: with much more calm and with the feeling that stepping on them heals our souls and removes our fears. The vineyard is grateful and knows that we take care of it like never before and it gives us fruits despite the difficulties and the mildew. We were happy and grateful.

In May, fifteen days of drought changed the landscape. And when summer came, we thought drought was important. The vigor of the vineyards stopped abruptly and the viticultural landscape that had been green until then became earthy. Eventually the fungus stopped and we were able to breathe a little quietly.

Finally, the harvest, one that we will remember: full of senseless scares. We looked compusively at the weather radars that signaled approaching hailstones or torrents but never reached us. Thanks Earth. The wild boar did not respect us so much and we had to harvest some vines earlier to get there before them. The feeling of helplessness is terrible. It has been too difficult to see how the grapes from whole vineyards disappear. We decided to close vineyards and concentrate again.

The vintage has been an endless obstacle course. However, the harvest has been quiet. The cellar has been slowly filling up, a little every day. Now the slowness of the vine is transmitted to the vats. We separate plots and parcels and we thank them for showing us the character of each. We have learned slowness in doing, in thinking. It helps us to be more aware and to better understand the profession and the land that sees us living on. And so we face autumn, looking forward the vintage that is already taking shape.

Anna Espelt Delclós

It’s August, we already feel the end of summer and, even so, there are still a few emotions to uncover. It has been a complicated year, we all know it, Covid-19 has turned the world upside down, and the climate emergency is becoming more present year after year: this 2020 with the Gloria, the high temperatures and the rain that seemed that would never end. From time to time, we receive good news, such as the excellent scores from the Peñín Guide 2021 and the recent eco certification of all Espelt wines since this vintage, milestons that help us to continue with strength.

It has been a complicated year, we all know it, Covid-19 has turned the world upside down, and the climate emergency is becoming more present year after year: this 2020 with the Gloria, the high temperatures and the rain that seemed that would never end. From time to time, we receive good news, such as the excellent scores from the Peñín Guide 2021 and the recent eco certification of all Espelt wines since this vintage, milestons that help us to continue with strength.

However, we have renewed strength every time we see that year after year the biodiversity indicators of the vineyards improve, and that the land, the soils, our most precious legacy, which we also take care of every day, they withstand storm surges, torrents and everything that the weather puts them ahead. Making wine respecting the territory has a very high reward for the planet, the Earth, and sometimes also a more mundane recognition —but of which we are very proud— such as the organic certification that all Espelt wines will wear from this harvest after many years of working in eco and improving processes.

It was the year 2000 when Didier Soto from Mas Estela told Anna Espelt: “in the Empordà we should all make local and eco varieties”. Saying it then was revolutionary, doing it seemed impossible. But Anna, then a recent graduate in Biology and with a strong connection to associations in defense of the natural heritage of the region, found that that phrase made all the sense and that this must be the path of Espelt wines. Years later, Anna decided to spend a part of the vineyards in organic viticulture, it was 2003 and the beginning of a carrer that after many learnings has led us to what is now Espelt. Our work focuses on a preventive cure of the vines: taking care of soils, and using compound and treatments, when there is no other option, with products allowed in eco viticulture, such as copper and horsetail. We have overcome a very difficult year with these tools and we must celebrate it.

Working organically is for us the only way to keep the soils alive and also to understand the terroir that is nourished by everything that surrounds it, seeking the synergy of the four elements: the soil, the plant, the climate and the viticulturist. This new stage that we are now beginning reaffirms and recognizes our desire to be part of the landscape and ecosystems. Because sometimes it is not enough to love the land, you also have to take courageous steps to change the way things have been done so far. We still live glued to the meteocat radar fearing hail, now we only think on how proud we fell of every little work we have done. So let’s enjoy and toast to this vintage that has just begun. Cheers!

If there’s one thing we learn from listening to and observing the earth, it’s that everything changes and nothing stays the same. Time changes everything and transforms us as well. Being tied to the cycles of nature is one of the most valuable learnings that viticulture has given us.

These days the grape has begun to turn brown. Verolar is when the grape begins to take on the color it has when it is ripe. It is one of the most beautiful changes of the vine. The word verolar in Catalan is in itself also an example of the change inherent in everything around us, it comes from ver a variant (precisely) in old popular Catalan of the adjective vari/vària. Ver soon disappeared from the current language to be confused with ver with the meaning of ‘truth’, but it remained in this word: verolar.

The change in color actually occurs throughout the landscape that now turns brown because the water stress we have in the Mediterranean is becoming apparent, despite being a very green year. We have already removed the vegetation cover in most places so that there is no competition and this water stress is fair. Now is the time to realize that all the efforts, fears and dreams of winter are beginning to take shape and color. The real harvest is approaching. The tips of the thoriums have stopped growing, the plant ceases to be expansive to concentrate on itself and give the best possible grape. The grape changes color, yes, but inside the plant there is a total change in its operation: it begins to accumulate sugars, aromas, colors, tannins. The berries begin to soften, go from hardness to texture change and become more fleshy.

This is the end of July, there is nothing left to do, it’s just time to wait. Let the summer pass, be patient and watch the blackberries ripen near the vineyards, smell the crickets, the summer insects and the smells that have completely changed their aroma compared to those in the spring. Nothing more, just the sweet wait for the vintage.

We love to live here, in the Empordà, and take care of the landscape, take care of the land and be able to make a wine that is a genuine expression of it. Our work makes sense when we act with the utmost awareness of the fragility of what we have on hand. Taking care of each of the steps in winemaking, without ever losing sight of the legacy of nature, is a sine qua non condition for feeling that we are doing our job well. Therefore, we are very happy to announce an agreement on agricultural stewardship with the IAEDEN, an organisation that works to preserve the most valuable things we have, face to face with roots, shrubs, animals, plants and all biodiversity. which reigns in and around the vineyards.

We’ve always thought that making organic wine was just the tip of the iceberg (which is melting with each passing day). Nothing makes sense if we look at what we do in watertight compartments. Nature is not, and neither are the places where we live and work. Having the vineyards between three places of natural interest, two of them natural parks, makes us more aware and demanding with everything we do. Many times we feel that it is not enough, but today this announce makes us happy, because it names the practices we already do: having a herd of cows that graze in winter, eat too much forest left over and fertilize the ground at the same time; beehives that pollinate in Mas Marés; dry stone walls that we recover year after year because it is culture, landscape, but also because they are a beautiful place for animals of all kinds to live; plant cover to minimize the risk of soil erosion and root out nutrients and happy vines. Because if we listen to the Earth and we take care by doing so, She always answers us with the best fruits. She is biodiverse, we collect her happiness. Making a land stewardship agreement with the IAEDEN was another step in our commitment to practices that we had been carrying out for longtime ago.

From this June we are partners in this project that ensures that all our agricultural activity is as respectful as possible with the biodiversity of the territory where it is developed. We know that the conservation of agricultural, environmentally sustainable and local activities are the best guarantee to preserve our Empordà landscape and its biodiversity. Making it possible every day is our essence. This agreement is a further step in the commitment of mutual aid between producers and conservatives. We will continue to preserve the Mediterranean mosaic in Cap de Creus and the Serra de l’Albera, using the most environmentally friendly methods we have. We have good travel companions, IAEDEN entity dedicated to the conservation and protection of the territory of the Alt Empordà for over forty years, will continue to advise us and collaborate to make known this magnificent land that gives us wonderful fruits.

These days we are working in a young vineyard, recently replanted. Making wine is constant learning and replanting is part of the journey.

A few years ago we decided that our objective, apart from making the best wine possible, was also to make wine taking care of the earth, being very aware of the soils and the climate we have in Empordà. Replanting is a good way to give the vineyard a new opportunity to reinvent itself and also to us to rectify errors. The vineyard is replanted when it does not give the fruits that we wanted, neither in quantity nor in quality.

In this plot we had a foreign variety planted that had not done its cycle: it had taken a lot of adaptation and had not given very good results. Two years ago, bearing in mind climate change and how we could cope, we planted lledoner blanc (white grenache). It is a local variety that we know that bears good fruit with little water, that is, it can withstand some climatic conditions that we have here: strong wind, heavy rain and hot summers. Replanting in this case has also been a measure of saving natural resources, especially water, and therefore a reinforcement of sustainability and the biological balance of our vineyards. Having happy and adapted vineyards is the best way to make wine with less human intervention in the vineyard and with less intervention in the winery. Seeing this young vineyard encourages us to keep going.

A vineyard is young until it is between 5 and 10 years old. Three years, as this one has, is very little time in the cycles of nature, and we will still need a few more years for these vines to make grapes. Knowing how to wait is something we have learned from making wine: nature, fruits and desire sometimes do not happen at the same time and we must trust that everything will go well. This is Grenache and, as we said, this year we will not be able to harvest grapes yet, but the care we have to take is just as important as in the other vineyards. During all these years that we will not remove grapes to make wine, it is very important that the vine take root well. Rooting, training and the ability to make water reserves is key for the plant to bear good quality fruit in the future.

The first year we want to make good roots, pruning with two eyes and down completely. It may seem to us that this is bad for the plant, but deep in the ground the roots are already forming, and therefore we help them to be even stronger. In the second year, in the case of vineyards on trellises like these, an outbreak is left that goes up to the wire and the grapes are removed, because the vine concentrates all the energy to make roots and reserves for the future. In this vineyard, which is already three years old, we have formed arms, that is, we have separated the shoots into two arms and linked them side to side. It is the way we have to make the vine gain strength and at the same time be comfortable, calm and bear fruit.

We will have to wait next year to start collecting the fruits and surely another year to be able to produce wine that we will taste the following year. Surely it will have been worth the wait.

Lledoner roig, red grenache, grey grenache. Different words to name the same type of grape. A local Empordà variety that we want to recover to make wines that reflect our terroir.

Let’s talk about the red hawthorn: the grapes. This is an exotic variety because they are neither white nor black but pink. Grapes from the Grenache family that complete the trilogy: Black Grenache, White Grenache and Red Grenache. Lledoner negre, lledoner blanc, lledoner roig, we call it the Empordà. The residents of Banyuls call it Grey Grenache. Rare grapes, because it is difficult to find a whole vine, and they are often mixed with other varieties.

A more vigorous variety than the Carignan, which often accompanies it. Very resistant to the north wind and drought, it gives us the best fruits – more pink than gray – when ripe well. This usually happens when you are in poor terrain. They must also be typical Empordà vines, less vigorous than those that came from France in the 1960s.

We have set out to recover this unique variety to make exceptional wines. Have you already tasted our Lledoner Roig, a single variety made from 100% of this exceptional grape?

Let’s talk about Lledoner Roig: wine. Because lledoner roig (aka Grey Grenache), the grape, has always been in the Empordà. Lledoner Roig is the first 100% Espelt lledoner roig.

Lledoner Roig (aka Grenache Gris) is a grape that’s always been here. Since we started to work with the old vines in Rabós we found that there were pink grapes mixed in with the Carignan. Initially we were a bit at a loss about how to make use of them but in the end, we did what was done traditionally done which is to make a sweet Grenache wine with them. Although we love these sweet wines as they’re part of the Empordà tradition, we thought we could get a bit more from these grapes.

We saw in these grapes a jubilant personality with full aroma and body, versatile yet delicate. We thought ourselves fortunate as in our hands there was this little jewel with each more valuable than the last, only requiring that we carefully pass through every vineyard to find these small, treasured vines. We knew that this Lledoner Roig was fully Empordàn: unpredictable, delicate yet very strong, full of unconventional flavors and with good phenols.

With each harvest we experimented with this grape. The wines that emerged were full of character, a touch rustic and wild. When we started to know this grape better, we added it to the blend of Quinze Roures. Now, finally, we’ve dared to make a wine solely of Lledoner Roig as the singular protagonist.

What has ultimately come about is a white wine from grapes that you would never had known were pink. It has aromas of chamomile, orange blossom, and stoniness. The wood aspects are only sensed due to using large oak barrels for three years to accompany the wine but not disguise a single aspect. In the mouth, it is reminiscent of its good sibling, Llendoner Blanc, but it maintains an acidity like you would find in colder wine regions.

Want to know more about this unique local variety we’ve recovered? We tell you all about lledoner roig (the variety).