Catalan natural wines, blind tasting by Stefano Fraternali.
The Vella Terra independent wine fair was born in the city of Barcelona for the love and respect that we profess for wines with low intervention and natural wines; from the first edition we wanted to represent in our city the artisans who make Catalan natural wines, but soon we were joined by many friends from Spain and Europe, and we were (and still we are) sure that we’re part of a great movement
Today we are the largest national meeting point for natural wines: a spontaneous and independent fair that houses hundreds of sustainable projects and families that are committed to their firm ideals.
Celebrate that it is part of the forum of fires and mercats of cultural interest of the city of Barcelona and has the suport of the City Council of Barcelona.
We live in the city where the natural wine is best appreciated, and at the same time where more natural wine is consumed, this is the result of joint work. We as a fair have a great responsibility and for that reason we comunícate this during the year through different channels (and since last summer in our Garage -Bar dedicated to natural wines-) we try to bring to the citizens what nature, through the artisan gives us : organizing different tastings with producers, activities and events, being by proximity the producers of Catalan natural wines those who most often visit us.
This time we played outside our house, and how could it be otherwise, we offered a tasting in our friends space, All Those, one of the “coolest” artisanal food markets in our city. Stefano Fraternali, sommelier specialized in minimal intervention wines and co-founder and organizer of our fair, offered a blind tasting of Catalan natural wines, making a review of different regions.
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Stefano explained the true meaning of “natural wine”: at least that on which our artisans are based, those wines that are created with the minimum possible intervention, from the cultivation of the vineyard and the grapes, to the production process in the cellar. In this tasting Stefano explained the basic pillars to understand them, to taste them and know how to identify them, he thought it was necessary to explain the difference between “organic wine” and “natural wine”, so as not to be guided only by what is on the label or not: We learned to feel the true flavors of our land, also explained the main characteristics of the different geographical areas, climates and soils, divided them into a map and focused on the native varieties of each area and also on the most adapted ones.
Learn to value without prejudice
The tastings we organize are for all levels and do not want to generate confusion or controversy, Stefano explained with highlights all the factors that influence a farmer when creating this class of wines to assess without prejudice.
Some winemakers have always made these wines and some are starting to bet on them. For Stefano and me, listening to the artisan, visiting his winery, observing and tasting his wines is fundamental to transfer our curiosity to the final consumer, to our readers, to the people who come to our fair every year and to our Bar: this being the most comforting of all this communicative process. I think that curiosity in people’s lives should be a constant, I think that if we do not have it, we lack reflection and the stimulus to acquire knowledge, value and compare. As one of my favorite writers used to say, the Chilean Roberto Bolaño “Humor and curiosity are the purest form of intelligence”. Therefore, every time we organize tastings, we try to make them fun to transmit that curiosity to those who decide to visit us.
We were very happy to see the interest of all the attendees and the public that joined the tasting. It should be noted that all the Catalan natural wines that we presented and tasted came from a healthy agriculture, and were neither filtered, not clarified, not stabilized, didn’t contain sulfites or any other kind of additives.
It was an extraordinary evening for the dissemination and pedagogy of this way of doing agriculture and creating wine, for us so genuine, which we always emphasize that, although for some it is classified as “a trend”, for winemakers who make natural Catalan wines, those from all over the world and for ourselves is a lifestyle of demands, either those who refused to industrialize their fields from the beginning or those who chose to stop doing so gradually, a process that takes from 15 to 30 years according to the country and territory.
Catalan natural wines presented:
All of the variety Xarel.lo: Stefano wanted to mark the behavior of this variety in different geographical areas, in different ways to make wine and in different artisans.
XL (Partida Creus)
Pressed directly without destemming, in pneumatic press, clearing, calcareous clay soil, alcoholic fermentation at 15-18 ° C in stainless steel tanks with native yeast, without added sulfites. Three months in stainless steel tanks on its fine lees.
Perill Blanc (Clos Lentiscus)
Direct pressing, alcoholic fermentation in amphoras with autochthonous yeasts. Six months in ampoules of 300 liters. Calcareous sandy soil.
Xarel.lo 2016, Vinya del Noguer (Vins Naturals by Pepe Raventós)
Biodynamic agriculture, amphora.
Sassó (Rubén Parera)
Vineyards of 80 years. Biodynamic agriculture, aged for nine months in old acacia barrels, rests in steel before bottling. Clay-calcareous soil.
La Bufarella (La Salada)
Manual harvest in boxes of 12 kilos, cooled grapes for 24 hours in cold storage. Maceration of four and a half months. Alcoholic fermentation in DAI with autochthonous yeasts, bottled without adding sulphurous or filtering. Clay-calcareous soil.
Clot de les Soleres (Clot de les Soleres)
Direct pressing without destemming, in pneumatic press, in descending moon, alcoholic fermentation at 15-18 ° C in stainless steel tanks with native yeast, without added sulfites. Five months in stainless steel tanks on its fine lees. Clay-calcareous soil.
Five unique jewels: Catalan natural wines, all natural, which as usual, our winemakers friends gave us directly, who could’nt be present this evening but who will be in our next edition of Vella Terra, on February 11th in Barcelona, that will be our fourth edition and will be loaded with new features and surprises. There you can meet them if you have not done it yet!
Thank you all! To those who helped to organize this tasting and especially to all the attendees who were interested in coming, tasting and discovering.
