Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Sorry about the radio silence Em sap greu per el silenci!

But, what an incredible long weekend.

Però quin pont increïble!

I barely even know where to start.  Maybe the beginning would be good.  I thought I would be away overnight for an excursion with the grup de muntanya, but then we got an invite to stay with a couple from the group and in the end I was gone four fantastic days.  This is going to take a couple of posts to cover.  It was, singularly fabulous.

Quasi no sé a on haig de començar.  Potser al punt de començament, no?  Pensava que seria fora per un sol nit per fer una excursió amb el grup de muntanya, però una parella del grup ens va invitar de quedar amb ells i al final estava una quatre dies excepcional.  Em trigarà alguns dies per penjar tot.  Estava singularment fabulós.

OK.  First stop?  A winery!  Never been to one before, and I think I have now officially been spoiled.  Indeed we hit three wineries, cellers in Catalan...pronounced sayeys.  This has been a weekend that was a little winey!

Bé, Primera parada?  Una celler.  No he anat mai per visitar un abans i em sembla que desprès d'aquesta experiència, tot anirà pitjor.  Ara, pensant, en total hem visitat tres cellers aquest pont.  Deu n'hi do!

This is a winery that specialises in very fine wines.  They produce three red wines (working on a white) and some olive oil.  Their wines are divided into three types, Crestes, from vines between 15 and 50 years old, Salanques, from vines between 70 an 90 years old and Doix, from vines between 80 and 105 years old, all grapes picked by hand.  For all the wines, every single grape is sorted by hand!  

Aquest celler fa només vins d'alta qualitat.  Fan tres vins negres, (estan treballant en un vi blanc) i una mica d'oli d'oliva.  Tenen tres tipus de vins, Crestes, que va de ceps entre 15 i 50 anys, Salanques, de ceps entre 70 i 90 anys, i Doix de ceps entre 80 i 105 anys.  Tots els reïms estan recollit a mà i per tots els vins ells seleccionen els reïms, cadascú individualment!

Now, that's about all the advertising I can give you, cause I don't drink!  The crowd seemed to think it was pretty darned good, and the chance to walk around the vine yard and the celler and hear about the process.  When the vines are pruned - not until the very last leaf has fallen, as there is still photosynthesis if it has even one leaf, and when the branches are pruned, after the last chance of frost - alongside information about how they go about producing the wines. Their philosophy is to let the wines from each year be a distillation of that year, how hot it was, how cool....how much rain....they are not aiming at uniformity of product the way that a large vintner, like Freixenet, does....they want to let the grapes dictate the flavour of that years wine.  Pretty cool.

Mira, això està més o menys tot que et puc explicar perquè no bec alcohol.  Em sembla que els gens del grup pensàven que era forá bo i l'oportunitat de passejar per els vins i el celler amb el propietat, que ens explicava tot el procés, era fantàstic.  Ens va explicar quan tallant els ceps - no fins que cada full ha caigut perquè encara que sigui un sol full, hi ha fotosíntesis i quan els tallen les branques, quan tots els possibilitats (normals) d'un gebre ha passat - i al mateix temps ens explicava el seu filosofia de fer vi.  Volen que cada any els vins reflecteixen l'any, el quantitat de sol, o fred, o aigua.  No estan buscant una producte uniform com els cellers grans com Freixenet, volen que els raïms mana els sabors del vi d'aquest any.  A mi trobo això molt interessant.

Now, some photos:  Ara, fotos:










3 comments:

Beth said...

I'm not a wine drinker either but I loved the experience of touring wineries - fascinating - all aspects of the process.

elpadawan said...

Nice! I do enjoy visiting wineries (and sampling wine, too :p). This winery has got it right. Uniformity sucks, for a wine. The greatest wines are never uniform in taste, they have good years, bad years, and that's what's so special about them :)

oreneta said...

Beth, it was fascinating, truly....

ElP, that's what I thought too, though what I know about wine is very limited......