Ariadna called last Saturday morning to invite me to watch her family make some "house wine". Many grape growers in Montsant make wine for personal use. Marc Tost has been studying winemaking and has had some success. This year he's making garnatxa blanca, syrah and garnatxa negre. His grandfather, Miquel, has a cellar under the house and has been making wine for over sixty years. You might say it's a family tradition!
Most families who make wine also make mistela and vi ranci. Both styles are made using the solera method (look it up in Wikipedia). Mistela is sweet and vi ranci is dry. When well made, they resemble the finest sherries. A few wineries around here offer these styles of wine for sale but, in my usually correct opinion, none of them compare to what the families make for themselves.
Miquel's mistela is one of the greatest dessert wines I've ever tasted and, certainly, the best mistela. It has depth, balance, richness and complexity. He's been carefully tending that fifteen liter barrel for sixty years. I hope to taste it at least one more time before I'm beamed up.
It was good to see Marc working with his fruit. The grapes looked really good and Marc and his family were careful with the processing. Xavi is Ariadna's novio and is new to the wine business. His family makes olive oil so this is a good match for him in more ways than one!
Thanks again for inviting me!
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Tanks? You're welcome!
The first winery I worked for was Joseph Phelps. The cellar crew included some of the funniest people I've ever known. One of them was Gary Young. Whenever someone would say the word "tanks", G.Y. would often exclaim "Tanks? You're welcome!". Anyone who has ever worked in a winery can imagine how many times we heard this. For some reason, it always made me laugh and that should tell you something.
Anyway, I bought my first tank last week. She's a 5000 liter Italian beauty with variable capacity. Right now, she's cradling my 2013 estate wine that I'm getting ready to bottle. We had a little trouble getting her off the truck. The hydraulic lift on the truck wouldn't work so we had to wrestle her off by hand. Fortunately, the chicos in La Figeura (Joan, Josep and Albert) were up to the task and we got her into the winery without mishap.
¡Gracias!
Anyway, I bought my first tank last week. She's a 5000 liter Italian beauty with variable capacity. Right now, she's cradling my 2013 estate wine that I'm getting ready to bottle. We had a little trouble getting her off the truck. The hydraulic lift on the truck wouldn't work so we had to wrestle her off by hand. Fortunately, the chicos in La Figeura (Joan, Josep and Albert) were up to the task and we got her into the winery without mishap.
¡Gracias!
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Celler D. Russell Smith-Harvest 2014
Celler D. Russell Smith-Harvest 2014
We harvested our estate grapes on September 6 and everything went as planned. I think we were the first to pick carinyena in Montsant. Because of the old vines and the orientation of the vineyard, we are a couple of weeks ahead of everyone else. I didn't irrigate this year since the vines never appeared to be water stressed. Carinyena tends to ripen a little unevenly so it's always a challenge to determine ripeness, especially when dealing with an old vineyard where there is a lot of variability from vine to vine.
In addition to looking at the numbers, I watch for the ripeness of the seeds. This year I noticed the seeds were generally brown and we were getting some dehydration in about 10% of the berries. The last sample I took on Sept. 4 showed 25 Brix. We ended up with 24 Brix in the tank and good pH.
The yield this year was 4750 kilos or 5.22 American tons off the five acres. This is the best we've done so far and I'm very pleased with the quality. We took the fruit to La Figuera and it's now fermenting in two 3000 liter tanks. I'm pumping over once a day and the color is fabulous!
Friday, September 5, 2014
La Familia Tost
We've met so many wonderful people here it would take fifty posts to describe them all. The Tost family is a good example. Their daughter, Ariadna, was introduced to us by Francesc Masdeu. She helped us find our present home and we are very happy to be here. Ariadna has just finished with her engineering studies in Barcelona and is headed for great things. Her boyfriend, Xavier, is also an engineer who works on international projects. They both speak good English.
Ariadna's parents, Rosa Maria and Josep, live around the corner from our first home on Carrer Major. They have a beautiful large house that has great views to the east of El Masroig. Josep and his son, Marc, farm over 28 hectares of wine grapes and olives. Marc completed his associates degree in agriculture last spring. Marc and Josep are excellent farmers. Their vineyards are well maintained and everything is ship shape. It's great to see farmers who obviously love what they do.
They farm in several different places and were kind enough to show me around a few of their fincas last week. Please look at the photos on the post below. They grow carinyena, garnatxa de pais, garnatxa blanca and a few other varieties. I was particularly impressed with the garnatxa de pais. As you know, there are multiple clones of most varieties of vinifera. Garnatxa de pais is distinctive by having loose clusters and smaller berries. I'm thinking about planting some.
The Tosts are able to irrigate one of their fincas with water from an abandoned mine. The mine was closed in 1912 when it filled up with water. The head of the mine is a four by four meter shaft which is 260 meters deep. There are galleries in the mine that extend for many kilometers. In fact, much of this area is tunneled with mine galleries. You can imagine how much water they hold. With the help of a mirror, Josep shined some light down the shaft and we could see the water level about twenty meters down. These old mines are what makes farming possible in our little corner of Montsant. Josep and Marc have a massive 60 hp electric pump attached to their well.
We spent a couple of hours driving around in their truck. They are proud that they've kept it running for 23 years and it's in remarkably good condition. It gave me encouragement to keep my 17 year old car on the road!
Ariadna, Marc and Josep showed me their family garden. Please take a look at the photo of the tomatoes below. It's customary around here to put up tomatoes for the winter. They pick them green and hang them on racks in a cool, well ventilated place. The tomatoes ripen slowly and will keep for months. In Catalunya, you must have tomato with your bread. It's the law!
Speaking of food (you knew I'd get around to this), the Tosts invited us to dinner during the Festa Major. Rosa Maria prepared, among other delicacies, a tuna dish that was absolutely delicious. It was fresh, cool and light (almost like a mousse) and the perfect end to a warmer than usual day. Marc served his old vine garnatxa blanca with it and you can't imagine a better pairing.
I hope you enjoy the photos and thanks again for keeping in touch!
Ariadna's parents, Rosa Maria and Josep, live around the corner from our first home on Carrer Major. They have a beautiful large house that has great views to the east of El Masroig. Josep and his son, Marc, farm over 28 hectares of wine grapes and olives. Marc completed his associates degree in agriculture last spring. Marc and Josep are excellent farmers. Their vineyards are well maintained and everything is ship shape. It's great to see farmers who obviously love what they do.
They farm in several different places and were kind enough to show me around a few of their fincas last week. Please look at the photos on the post below. They grow carinyena, garnatxa de pais, garnatxa blanca and a few other varieties. I was particularly impressed with the garnatxa de pais. As you know, there are multiple clones of most varieties of vinifera. Garnatxa de pais is distinctive by having loose clusters and smaller berries. I'm thinking about planting some.
The Tosts are able to irrigate one of their fincas with water from an abandoned mine. The mine was closed in 1912 when it filled up with water. The head of the mine is a four by four meter shaft which is 260 meters deep. There are galleries in the mine that extend for many kilometers. In fact, much of this area is tunneled with mine galleries. You can imagine how much water they hold. With the help of a mirror, Josep shined some light down the shaft and we could see the water level about twenty meters down. These old mines are what makes farming possible in our little corner of Montsant. Josep and Marc have a massive 60 hp electric pump attached to their well.
We spent a couple of hours driving around in their truck. They are proud that they've kept it running for 23 years and it's in remarkably good condition. It gave me encouragement to keep my 17 year old car on the road!
Ariadna, Marc and Josep showed me their family garden. Please take a look at the photo of the tomatoes below. It's customary around here to put up tomatoes for the winter. They pick them green and hang them on racks in a cool, well ventilated place. The tomatoes ripen slowly and will keep for months. In Catalunya, you must have tomato with your bread. It's the law!
Speaking of food (you knew I'd get around to this), the Tosts invited us to dinner during the Festa Major. Rosa Maria prepared, among other delicacies, a tuna dish that was absolutely delicious. It was fresh, cool and light (almost like a mousse) and the perfect end to a warmer than usual day. Marc served his old vine garnatxa blanca with it and you can't imagine a better pairing.
I hope you enjoy the photos and thanks again for keeping in touch!
Monday, September 1, 2014
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