A blast from the past! Damian and Carolyn come to visit.

  My longtime friend and his wife, Damian and Carolyn, came to see me last week. Damian was one of the first people I met after moving to Napa. He was with Joseph Phelps Vineyards for almost forty years and made a huge contribution to the success of the winery. And, yes, this is the same Damian who used to call me "Jethro". It was funny then and it's still funny! Also, maybe a little more accurate than not in those days. Carolyn is a retired math teacher and has three daughters.
   Carolyn and Damian have been spending a few months a year in Rasteau since they retired. They're talking about buying a second home there. I hope they do so I can go over there and camp out for a few days. It's one of my favorite places!
   They spent a few days in Barcelona before coming to Falset. Carolyn and Damian came to El Masroig and we toured the village. By now, the people here are accustomed to see me leading groups through town. They just can't figure out why.
   I made reservations at a couple of wineries for tastings and tours on Wednesday. Our first stop was Mas Perinet. Mas Perinet is now owned by Americans. It's a really fabulous facility and they have around forty acres of really steep vineyards in Priorat and Montsant. I was there last year and our tour guide, Sara, remembered me.
   Sara asked us if we wanted to tour the vineyards and we agreed. We climbed into an open 4X4 and Sara took off up the mountainside. Sara told us the grade was 25% but it looked like straight up. We've had a lot of rain here lately and the ground is soft. We made our way through the vineyards with fish-tailing, rocks flying and bouncing up the mountain. Coming down was just as bad because there were ruts over a foot deep from erosion due to rain.
   I'm not a timid man but I was as frightened as I've been in a while. I'll have to admit the view from the top is spectacular. We got to check out the vineyards. They had been abandoned for a couple of years before the Americans took over. I was glad to see the work that's been done to bring them back into production.
   The wines at Mas Perinet are very good. I know the winemaker (Toni Sanchez) and he's a talented young man. Sara gives a great tour and we tasted out of multiple barrels. The winery is what I call "gold plated". Whoever built it spared no expense and the barrel room has a Gaudi inspired design.
   From there, it was on to Mas Doix. Mas Doix is the other side of Priorat winemaking as far as facilities are concerned. It's very small and homey. They have barrel storage downstairs that's cut into the rock. As mentioned in another post, they're working on a new winery and hope to be in next year.
   We had lunch in the plaza of Scala Dei. Carolyn and Damian had the conejo (rabbit) and said it was good. I drove them out to the Priory to look but we didn't go in. We stopped by my vineyards on the way home. Damian expressed his approval. Damian's son bought a vineyard in Colchuaga, Chile and Damian will go down to help him in November.
   On Thursday, we went for a short walking tour of Tarragona and saw the Roman amphitheater, Circus and part of the old town. It was threatening rain and we got rained on just before getting to the restaurant. We had lunch at L'Ancona. I like that place. We had Iberica, patatas bravas, mussels and shrimp. Damian ordered a bottle of Muga rosé which was tasty and went well with the food.
   I had to dash off to Penedés after lunch for business. Carolyn and Damian headed back to France the next morning and planned to stop at the Dali museum on the way. It was wonderful to see them and I hope they come back!

                Carolyn and Damian with what may be the world's tallest grapevine in El Masroig.

                                         Just before the harrowing ride through the vineyards.

                     Sara, Damian and Carolyn examining the shale that makes up the "soil" of Priorat.

                          Lot's of fruit on the ground. It was a tough year for Grenache in some places.

                                                   In the "gold plated" cellar at Mas Perinet.

                                  Damian with Valenti Llagostera underground at Mas Doix.

                                                            Lunch in Scala Dei.

                                             Finca Vieja and El Molar in the background.

                                                 Carolyn preparing to catch the pot of gold.
 
 
 

T.J. y Familia come to visit!

  T.J. Garcia and his family came to visit last week. They are members of the Wine Club at Barons Creek. The group included his wife, Denise, and their daughter, Allison. Allison's husband, Jeremy, and his parents, Dorinda and Jim, were also with the group. They toured Montsant and Priorat for two and a half days before heading out on a nine day cruise from Barcelona.
   The group hired my friends Ania and Gerard with Travel Priorat to take them around. Travel Priorat does a great job and I highly recommend them for anyone who wants to really get to know this area. Ania and Gerard know everybody and can get you into places it would be difficult to see on your own.
   They arrived on Thursday and, after they checked into Hotel Lotus, we took a taxi ride out to look at my vineyards. We went back to El Masroig and took a tour of the village. We ended up at the Casal for a beer. They returned to Falset for dinner.
   The next day, they toured several wineries including Clos Mogador and Merum Priorat. These are two stunning properties and are hard to visit on your own. I met them for lunch in Gratallops at the Clos Figuera restaurant where we tried some lovely wine from Clos Figuera. The meal was excellent!
   On Saturday, the group went to more wineries including Mas Doix and Capafons. Mas Doix is a new discovery for me. Their wines are really good and the people are nice. They are building a new facility just outside Poboleda. We had lunch at the Cooperativa Restaurant in Porrera. The food was also very good and the owner is a friendly and lively character.
   I regret I wasn't able to spend more time with T.J. and his family. Unfortunately, their visit coincided with a busier than usual time for me. They are all wonderful and interesting people. It's great to see an extended family adventuring together and everyone getting along. T.J. and Denise talked about coming back to the area for a longer stay. I hope they will!
                                        ¡Gracias de nuevo T.J. y familia!

                                                       Next to Fincca Alta.
                                       Jim, Dorinda, Jeremy, Allison, Denise and T.J.

                                                             A cold one at the Casal.

                                                  Relaxing after lunch at Clos Figuera.

                                        Ania, tour guide for Travel Priorat, in the pink shirt.

                                  I had breast of Guinea fowl at the Cooperativa Restaurant. Excellent!

                                                                    At the Castle in Falset.

                                   For more info on Travel Priorat, please check out this link:
                                          https://www.travelpriorat.com/priorat-wine-region/

The grapes are in!

    It's been a busy few weeks since Bill and Kathy left. We harvested my vineyards on September 28th. As you can see, it was a beautiful day. Harvest has been a little later this year but we had 10 days or so of Indian summer that brought things right along. My friends in La Figuera are already finished and this is the earliest finish for them I can remember.

   The chemistry looked good. The fruit came in at 24.7 Brix or, as they say here, 14.2% potential alcohol. I'm not sure why these folks continue to use potential alcohol because it's basically meaningless. It doesn't take into account the various conversion rates of different fermentations or the possibility the fermentation doesn't take the sugar to zero grams per liter. Oh, well. 

   We had some uneven ripening and a little dehydration. as usual, but the numbers looked good overall. Marc brought a stellar crew once again and they picked a metric ton apiece. This year it was mostly Romanians. I'm VERY happy to be finished!

   Last Sunday there was a Festa at the Ajuntament (City Hall). It was organized by some of the younger chicos in town to commemorate last year's vote for independence. Francesc invited me to come with his mom and sister. The chicos were grilling sausage and pork chops for lunch.

   When we arrived, there was a cloud of greasy, delicious, savory smoke drifting over the crowd. The chicos were playing loud Catalan hip-hop over the PA system. I don't listen to much hip-hop but it frequently has random background noise behind the "music". This music had a background that sounded like a car alarm (or so I thought).

   It turned out to be the smoke alarm inside the Ajuntament. The place had filled up with smoke from the grill and there was more on the way. I went over and closed the doors in order to muffle the racket. The smoke eventually dissipated as we sat down to lunch and the alarm stopped.

   The food was excellent! These folks make really good sausage. In addition to longanissa, there was butifarra. Butifarra is blood and onion sausage. I usually don't care for it but this type was really good. Please see the photos below.

   There was a good crowd and all the usual suspects were there. Shortly after lunch, some of us went into a meat coma. I had to go home and lie down. Thanks for tuning in!

   

   

                                                     Marc Tost supervising the harvest

         This is what professional grape picking looks like. Notice that they left all the second crop.

                                                                Beauty!

                                   If this photo looks hazy, it's because of all the smoke!

                                       Francesc with the Astros t-shirt I gave him. He wears it well!

The man you see on the left is Jaume. He's a black belt grape grower for Alvaro Palacios and has vineyards in Priorat. According to Francesc, Jaume can grow anything. I ran into Jaume in front of the Cooperativa a couple of weeks ago. He had a box of homegrown onions some of which were almost the size of an American football. He has a wonderful family and is always very pleasant.

Let's face it. I'm not very good at food porn. The food was so good and I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture until this point. What's left of the butifarra is in the upper right corner.

                                                   The beginning of a meat coma.

Francesc' sister, Pinyeres, at far right in the yellow blouse. She organized the logistics of the meal. Pinyeres is a professor of language and a wonderful person all around. She and Francesc take turns caring for their mom, Maria.

                              Crystal blue sky over Carrer Major. A blessed day in paradise!