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.

La entrada Extra scores in the Peñín 2025 Guide se publicó primero en Espelt Winegrowers.

The lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni) is a small colonial and migratory falcon that became extinct in Catalonia at the beginning of the 80s due to the loss of habitats and the indiscriminate use of insecticides in the countryside. In 1990, the Generalitat de Catalunya started a captive breeding and reintroduction project for lice that is currently continuing successfully in the Plana de Lleida where more than a hundred pairs are being raised. In 2018 Espelt Vinicultors and Paisatges Vius signed a collaboration agreement for the custody of the territory that promoted the conservation of the lesser kestrel in the vineyards of Mas Marès, in Cap de Creus. Today we see the results of this long recovery process.

The nesting tower at Mas Marès

The tower built from elements of sustainable and ecological architecture, thanks to the collaboration of Paisatges Vius, is located in an area of ​​great biodiversity that also favors the cultivation of vines. In addition, it is also an ideal place for the conservation of the lesser kestrel, a migratory bird of prey that feeds on large invertebrates and small mammals, birds and reptiles. The space represents the typical habitats of the Mediterranean mountains, a combination of dry pastures, steppe maquis and heather, cork and oak groves and vineyards and olive groves.

With this agreement, Espelt Viticultors demonstrates its commitment to the environment that surrounds it, beyond the organic viticulture it develops at Mas Marés. An estate where the vines mix with the cork, the pastures and the steppes in order to create an agrarian agrarian space of high natural value in which nature and viticulture coexist in harmony. This farm also produces Mediterranean wines, complex, intense and delicate, marked by the granite soil, the north wind and the sea wind, such as those from Anna Espelt’s project.

The lesser kestrel, a recovery project

Now, after many decades, this nesting species is being recovered in the Cap de Creus Natural Park, thanks to the hacking that has been done in recent years in nearby places such as Mas Marès together with volunteers from the Natural Park . The aim of the project has always been to consolidate the lesser kestrel population in the Alt Empordà, we achieved a milestone, but we will also need to be very attentive to:

• Protect the current breeding colonies, as well as continue hacking the nesting tower at Mas Marès
• Improve the habitat around the breeding colonies by continuing, among other actions, to improve the space near the nesting tower. The lesser kestrel hunts large insects in open spaces and therefore habitat improvement focuses on reducing shrub vegetation to create herbaceous habitats and to recover from dry stone walls.

Cheers to lesser kestrel!

La entrada The lesser kestrel is recovering its population in Empordà se publicó primero en Espelt Winegrowers.

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!

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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

La entrada The Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership delegation visits Mas Marès se publicó primero en Espelt Winegrowers.

About four years ago, in the middle of the pandemic, Cristina Jolonch and Samuel Aranda were filming the documentary series “Sin Reservas” and they asked us if they could come and record it in the vineyards of Mas Marès. On that occasion, they wanted to do a chapter with Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas, the chefs of the Compartir i Disfrutar restaurants. The proposal did not surprise us. In fact, we had been working together for a few years, Disfrutar and Espelt, in the production of an exclusive wine for their customers. The wine was a project born from the passion we share for viticulture and gastronomy. Thus, the documentary was an amazing oportunity to show the world our shared passion.

An unmissable documentary

The documentary ‘Sin Reservas’ of La Vanguardia’s Comer supplement pays tribute to a spirit of improvement of gastronomy professionals in times of pandemic through relevant figures of Catalan cuisine. Chefs such as Ferran Adrià, Martina Puigvert, Nandu Jubany, the Roca brothers, Carles Gaig, Paco Roca and Artur Martínez participate in there. Now, we get back to this episode starring the chefs of the Disfrutar restaurant Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas and directed by the journalist Cristina Jolonch and the photographer Samuel Aranda, together with the Story & Co Films team. In a few minutes, the camera accompanies the chefs through a journey from Cadaqués to some of the most emblematic landscapes of Cap de Creus. Among all the landscapes, the vineyard could not be missing, in this case those of Mas Marès where we make the Anna Espelt wines.

In the video, the chefs express their close professional and personal relationship. In addition, they recall with complicity and humor their beginnings in the kitchen of El Bulli, located a few km from the vineyards of Mas Marès. The way of working that characterizes them is reflected in their interventions: honesty, constant dedication and passion for their job. Some adjectives that all the journalists have agreed to point out these days.

La entrada The day that Disfrutar came to Mas Marès se publicó primero en Espelt Winegrowers.

A frec de pell i vi ofereix una mirada íntima a la tendresa. Les obres de Zina López posen l’accent en la trobada, en el refugi sota l’ombra refrescant de les vinyes. Pintures, calaixos, cartes i poesia convergeixen en aquest espai i es posen al servei de la celebració, dels rituals i de la sensibilitat. L’empordanès Albert Carol hi posa la paraula. Les poesia d’aquest filòleg i bibliotecari de la Bisbal ha servit d’inspiració a l’artista. L’erotisme, la sensibilitat i la seducció es donen la mà les seves obres.

Zina López, artista multidisciplinària, pintora, il·lustradora i art-terapeuta, és nascuda al Maresme, però la seva vida corre en paral·lel a Cadaqués des dels anys 90. Des de llavors, participa de la vida cultural del poble. Amb una formació en Història de l’Art i Art-teràpia, també ha il·lustrat títols com “El Drac Tombarella” i “De Dalt i de Mar”. La seva obra combina il·lustració i pintura, explorant el món de la creació artística des de la profunditat i la intimitat.

Amb anterioritat, Zina López ha exposat a la Galeria Marges U de Cadaqués, la Destil·leria de Mataró, Miim Spai D’Art a Barcelona i l’espai d’art d’Alta Alella. Aquesta nova exposició, A frec de pell i vi és un diàleg íntim i tendre entre la imatge i la paraula, entre la pintura i la poesia de l’Albert Carol. Us convidem a venir a la inauguració per brindar i explorar plegats els racons més tendres de la quotidianitat.

La entrada A frec de pell i vi: Zina López i Albert Carol se publicó primero en Espelt Winegrowers.

Des del primer viatge a l’Illa de Lesbos (Grècia) el 2016, Amb Les Teves Mans no ha parat de treballar en col·laboració amb altres entitats establertes al territori. El dia 19 d’abril serà una oportunitat per conèixer la tasca humanitària dels seus cooperants i les causes que empeny a marxar del seu país a milers de persones a través de fotografies fetes a Gàmbia, Grècia i el Marroc. Durant la presentació Espelt oferirà una copa de vi.

Amb Les Teves Mans és una associació sense ànim de lucre que treballa en zones d’especial desigualtat i vulnerabilitat per culpa de la manca de vies segures per a les persones migrants. Està centrada en l’àmbit sanitari i entre altres accions, el 2016 van crear Dentist4refugees per atendre la salut bucodental de 11.204 persones refugiades a Grècia.

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Since 2021 we have collaborated with LIFE MIDMACC project along with other territories in La Rioja, Aragon and Catalonia. The aim of this research is to analyze the benefits against climate change that land management with a mosaic landscape can have. Now, the Catalan Climate Change Office has released a guide, with the other partners of the project, which collects the main results and conclusions of the investigation.

In recent years, the increase in temperatures has been overwhelming, as we all know. In particular, the last year is the hottest on planet earth ever recorded. In addition, the mid-mountain areas of southern Europe, like our vineyards, are very sensitive to the impacts of climate change. The depopulation and abandonment of the traditional primary sector in recent years has led to reforestation and a homogenization of the landscape. At the same time, this has led to a decrease in environmental resilience and biodiversity.

Why did Mas Marès stop the fire?

With projects of recovery of the Mediterranean mosaic like the one we carry out at Mas Marès we try reverse this situation and achieve a more resilient landscape. During the February 2022 fires, mosaic agroforestry management was key to stopping the fire. MIDMACC LIFE studies corroborate that this management can also help prevent soil erosion, because it avoids overexploitation and the loss of biodiversity In addition it improves aspects that are so necessary today (and we believe also in the future) such as water resistance.

The guide Mesures d’adaptació al canvi climàtic a la muntanya mitjana mediterrània: una guia pràctica can be read online and is structured in three parts. The first deals with the analysis of the risks of the mid-Mediterranean mountains to the impacts of climate change. The second part reviews the results of the measures implemented (recovery of pastures, optimization/introduction of vines, forest management) in three areas of Aragon, Catalonia and La Rioja. Finally, in the last part, other adaptation measures are proposed for the mid-Mediterranean mountains.

La entrada Mas Marès, agroforestry management against climate change se publicó primero en Espelt Winegrowers.

We have been suffering from an unprecedented drought for three years and the forecasts are not promising at all. Today we took part in the technical conference “The climate reality in the DO Empordà: how to deal with it?” took place in our house. organized by the Department of Climate Action of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and the collaboration of IRTA and DO Empordà.

Durant la jornada s’ha fet especial atenció a la necessitat de fer una poda respectuosa, especialment amb la conferència “La Poda. Canviar per continuar” a càrrec de Vicenç Canals, director de l’Acadèmia de Poda d’INNOVI, i també sobre l’adaptació de la vinya en el canvi climàtic, a la conferència de Robert Savé, investigador emèrit de l’IRTA, amb la conferència: “Cal saber què passa i passarà per poder adaptar la nostra vinya a la realitat ambiental del segle XXI”. Tot seguit ha tingut lloc una taula rodona a la qual hi ha participat els mateixos Robert Savé i Vicenç Canals, juntament amb la participació d’altres cellers de la DO Empordà: M. Àngels Casanovas (ADV Empordàlia), Roger Hurtós (Cavas Castillo Perelada) i l’Anna Espelt (Espelt Viticultors).

Special attention was paid to the need for respectful pruning, especially with the conference “Pruning. Change to continue” by Vicenç Canals, director of INNOVI’s Pruning Academy, and also on the adaptation of the vineyard to climate change, at the conference of Robert Savé, IRTA researcher emeritus, with the conference: “We need to know what is happening and will happen in order to adapt our vineyard to the environmental reality of the 21st century” . This was followed by a round table in which Robert Savé and Vicenç Canals themselves took part, along with the participation of other DO Empordà wineries: M. Àngels Casanovas (ADV Empordàlia), Roger Hurtós (Cavas Castillo Perelada ) and Anna Espelt (Espelt Viticultors). The need to rethink where it is best to plant new vines, was a second point mentioned, as drought and flood zones might change. Recently we have seen that the wider planting frames and the return to the pot that we are applying in most vineyards are giving very good results. Finally, we believe that it will be necessary for the collaboration of administrations since climate change is going faster than was planned. This is especially necessary in viticulture, a long term crop, since our adaptation is already taking place at full speed.

We believe that the Conferences organized by Acció Climàtica are a step forward to continue working together on adaptation and viticulture. Thank you for coming home!

La entrada “La realitat climàtica a la DO Empordà: com afrontar-la” al Celler Espelt se publicó primero en Espelt Winegrowers.

It has been three years since we accumulated an extreme drought in the territory. In the last three years, rainfall has dropped to values that are well below average. The lack of water is testing the endurance of plants to limits we have never experienced before. Now we can see the accumulated fatigue, the vines are in a state of extreme exhaustion.

Plants follow a cycle we all know of leaves, fruit, reserves. In other words, the plant goes through a cycle in which it concentrates its energy in the different phases that will then allow it to continue living. The leaves will help it produce sugar, photosynthesize and bear fruit. Once the fruits have been collected (or fallen if we don’t collect them) the plant will concentrate on reserving energy for the next spring, when it has to take out leaves again. In these three years the plants have been accumulating unprecedented water stress. Less energy to make leaves translates into fewer leaves, the bunches are getting smaller and smaller, their energy reserves are getting smaller every day and the plants are a little weaker and less vigorous every year.

This year it rained in the middle of the harvest, a scant 20 l. This would have ruined us in any other year, because it can destroy the health of the grapes. This year, however, the health of the grapes is unbeatable, our suffering (and that of the plant!) goes the other way. In the spring we were surprised that there were many flowers, especially in local varieties such as red dogwood and black dogwood, which are more adapted to the climate of the territory. The berries that have resulted have been small and with thick skins, we sense that there will be little production and a lot of concentration.

This vintage is the result of the last three years. Today we know that ripening has been advanced due to heat and drought. We continue to harvest, day by day. We’ll see how it ends.

La entrada Harvest the drought se publicó primero en Espelt Winegrowers.