Our neighbor, Philip, invited me to dinner last Saturday night. Philip has a beautiful finca out past the Ermita and his neighbor, Jesus del Rio Mateu, was also there for dinner. Jesus speaks excellent English along with six other languages. Jesus has a vineyard and winery named Mas de l'Abundancia. He invited me for breakfast on Sunday.
Jesus keeps a few chickens. It was the first time I had ever eaten a two hour old egg. The flavor was amazing. We had a leisurely breakfast while he talked about his wines and vines. He has garnatxa, carinyena and cabernet planted on his estate. The Siurana River runs a hundred meters from his house so his valley is cooler than much of Montsant. That's one reason he planted cabernet there. His garnatxa was grafted from some old vines nearby and Jesus believes he has a unique clone due to its superior resistance to mildew.
The whole place is a little paradise. The house is well thought out and filled with books. The winery is very workable, clean and organized. I really like his wines, too. For more info on his wines go to: www.masdelabundancia.com
I was only able to spend about two hours there on Sunday but I learned a tremendous amount from Jesus about Catalunya and Catalan culture. We discovered we have a mutual acquaintance in Gina Della Vedova who works for Folio Wines in Texas. ¡El mundo es un panuelo!
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