Catalan Wine Tours

Sassó Parera 2009, Celler Minguet, organic Table Wine

Aug 302011

Visually, it is a white wine of an old gold colour, with orangish touches, clear and bright with abundant and fine legs of rapid descent.

On the nose it is pleasant, persistent and very intens. It has hints from the aging in oak, such as toasted bread and nuts, with undertones of peach in syrup and balsamic and mineral memories. Sweet vanilla finishing notes.

On the palate is fresh, robust and very present mid-palate. There is harmony between initial freshness, a sweet residual note and a marked final bitterness. Long on the palate and with a pleasant nuts and balsamic retro-olfaction.

Personal notes

It is an above the standard wine. A limited edition produced at Minguet Cellar, at El Papiol (20 km to north-east of Barcelona). After 12 years of work and growing organic grapes, the cellar is creating a place of its own in the market with complex products of interest to wine connoisseurs. An author’s wine, catalan, produced by this family cellar and which shows everything that a chardonnay can offer.

A wine with personality, with a marked terroir character. Table Wine with organic label certification, which respects the vine and the soil where it grows, a combination of clay, gravel and lime, allowing us to find its purest essence.

This is a perfect wine for those who do not like white wine, with the character of a red and the freshness of a white wine. It pairs well with fish in sauces, like a cod with a crust of alioli, or a turbot in papillote with herbs. It has character enough to pair well also with white meats.

Technical information

Wine Producer: Celler Minguet

Grapes: Chardonnay (fermented in oak)

Vintage: 2009

Region: Table Wine (Penedès)

Aging: 8 months in oak (on the lees)

Alcohol: 13%

Price: 12,5 €

Serving: It is not necessary to decant

Serving Temp.: From 14 to 16º

Development: 2 years minimum

Author: Xavier Arumí, sommelier

Oda 2007, Castell del Remei, DO Costers del Segre

Aug 022011

Medium depth red wine of an intense cherry colour, with purple tinges that tend to brownish. Fluid, clean and brilliant in the glass, with thin and quick legs, and no sediment.

Intens and persistent aromas of very ripe red fruit, with vanilla hints, wood and toasted from the aging in barrels, and some balsamic final hints.

On the palate the attack is wide and enveloping, with the characteristic full-body of the grapes, thick and ripe well integrated tanins. Citric sharp acidity to balance body and alcohol, with a long and intense aftertaste. Agreeable spicy and fruity retro-olfaction, which leave a fresh final taste.

Personal notes

Castell del Remei is a cellar with a long history. Its origins dating from the year 1780, they produce a wine with this name, 1780, which is worth to taste. It remains true to its origins when 4 families of wine producers from Bordeaux started making wine with the French producing and aging methods using oak barrels.

Nowadays, it still keeps this initial French character, adapted to the climate and soil of the area, Costers del Segre. With the technical innovations of the 80′s, the cellar became a reference in the Catalan and Spanish wine sector. A cellar, like the majority of the great Catalan wine regions, focused on Catalan and Spanish consumers, but also open to international exports, with great results due to the good quality-price-pleasure relation of each of the wines produced in this cellar.

Oda wine is the second of the familiy and is well above its younger brother, Gotim Bru, with a strong character from Merlot. Strong and complex, with an enveloping structure, which makes it perfect for slow cooked and powerful tasting dishes. It will suit those who enjoy powerfull wines, but it has the balance and sweet hints characteristic of Catalan wines.

Technical information

Wine Producer: Castell del Remei

Grapes: Merlot, Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage: 2007

Region: Costers del Segre

Aging: 12 months in American and French oak barrels

Alcohol: 14,5%

Price: 15,6 €

Serving: It is not necessary to decant

Serving Temp.: From 14 to 16º

Development: 2 years minimum

Costers del Segre is a Denomination of Origin which covers a vast area north-west of Barcelona. It has many subzones with important differences in the wines produced.

Author: Xavier Arumí, sommelier

Romesco sauce in the New York Times

Jul 202011

As it is said in this article about Romesco in The New York Times, the fact that Spanish modern cuisine has been in the spotlight for quite some time, has helped traditional cooking to be better known around the globe.

Sometimes, from a local point of view, looking at the reinterpretations of our traditional dishes done elsewhere is, to say the least, funny. In this case, as usual, the reinterpretation done by The New York Times is quite the real thing. We would only make a couple of changes: roast the tomatoes and peel them before adding them to the sauce and instead of choping the ñora chiles just get the meat out and discard everything else (once they are soaked use a knife to rasp the meat out of the skin).

It combines well with everything grilled (meat, fish and vegetables). You can also use it in soups (specially fish soups) and in salads with bitter greens. If worse comes to worse, and you don’t feel like cooking any more after getting the sauce ready, just spread it on some good bread.

MIG-MIG 2008, La Vinyeta, Table Wine (Empordà)

Jul 062011

This 2008 red wine is a fifty-fifty of grenache and marselan. It is a medium deep depth wine, with and intens cherry colour and some purple tints. Fluid in the glass, clean and brilliant. It has an intense and persistent bouquet of ripe fruit, reminiscent of plumb marmelade, with armonic milky touches. It complements with balsamic and spiced hints, due to aging in oak, from sweet vanilla to soft toast, to well integrated roast and minty hints. On the palate it is fresh, and enveloping, it has a long finish with sweet hints which compesate the natural bitterness of the body. Very ripe medium tanins, well integrated, sweet macerated fruit, spices and balsamic retro-olfaction.

Continue reading »

Castell del Remei - the tradition of DO Costers del Segre

Jun 242011

Castell del Remei is with Raimat one of the wineries that makes the core of the young and small DO of Costers del Segre. Located in el Pla d’Urgell, a plain between the Monsant Mountains and the Pirinees.

The Castle is surrounded by vines and it has a restaurant and a shop as well as the winery that can be visited. Castell del Remei produces affordable yet good quality wine and cava which are widely distributed. On the more expensive side and targeting a more selected public there is the winery of Cèrvoles which is family-related to Castell del Remei.

The contrast of temperature between hot sunny summers and cold winters in Pla d’Urgell defines red wines with lots of character and interesting whites.

The wines of DO Costers del Segre are difficult to identify because of the extension of the DO, the number of different grapes used and the different climatology and terroir of its sub-zones. Yet, this is only another incentive to discover this area rarely visited by tourists. From plains, to mountains and rivers the DO Costers del Segre offers the possibility to combine wine-tourism with many different historical, nature and artistic activities. Worth a try!

Visiting el Vilosell

Jun 212011

Vilosell stands for “vila ocell” the “village of the birds”. A small, quiet, historical lovely place in les Garrigues where Tomas Cusiné has been producing wine since 10 years.

The winery belongs to the DO Costers del Segre and except from an excellent Macabeu made with grapes of one century-old vines, the other wines Vilosell (young red), Auzells (white) and Geol (criança) are the result of an heterodox blend of merlot, grenache, cabernet sauvignon, marselan, syrah and others. Most of the production (80%) is exported all over the world with a notable success.

The visit to this modern cellar is a perfect excuse to discover the region of Garrigues, located between the medieval monastery of Poblet, Monsant mountains and the Lleida Plane. Next to the amazing and unexploited nature we find reminiscences of the medieval times, when the christians were conquering the land to the moors. Tomas Cusiné’s wine look into the future in the calming atmosphere of Vilosell, a place that allows for time contemplation and enjoyment.

Cuisine in Spain after Adrià, according to New York Times

Jun 152011

There is an interesting article on New York Times about life after the closing of El Bulli by the end of July. In the text, the author talks about some of the things Adrià and his restaurant have accomplished for what is known as Spanish cuisine, focusing on high end restaurants, those awarded with stars.

And though what has happened in the past decade on that end is amazing, what has happened in everyday cooking is also important and affects a greater number of people. What Adrià and the great chefs in Spain have accomplished is to help Spaniards be proud of the way we have always cooked and eaten. But also, it has given us the inspiration to experiment and evolve, not only to professional cooks but also to the private cooks that feed families.

For a long time the concept of good food in Spain was associated with quantity. That is no-longer the case. Rural restaurants, neighborhood restaurants, bars and even families know now that is not about how much, it is about how well, it is about quality. And all this talk about quality has spread through the food chain and it has gone back to the start point, the land and the farmers. We are now more conscious of the need to produce better vegetables, fruits and meats.

So what Adrià and the rest of “star” chefs have done for the majority of people, who cannot afford to dine in their restaurants, is to allow us to have better food everywhere, from the city center of Barcelona to a remote village in the mountains, to our own homes.

We will be thankful forever to all of them for that.

Abadal celebrates its 25th anniversary

Jun 092011

One of the wine regions you can visit with Catalan Wine Tours is Pla de Bages. A couple of days ago one of its best known cellars, Abadal, celebrated its 25th anniversary.

To mark the date, they held a party at their premises where the guests could taste some of their new wines and also some experimental wines they are working on at the moment which won’t be on sale for some time.

Abadal is owned by the Roqueta family who has been producing wine for more than 800 years. They played an important role on the creation of Pla de Bages wine appellation and through the Abadal cellar they have worked very hard to recover the use of local grapes such as picapoll, sumoll and mandó to produce wine.

The visit to this cellar is quite convenient if you are in Barcelona and only want to have a one day trip. It is only an hour away but you can still feel the peacefulness of a rural environment. It is also close to some very interesting architectural sites from the early medieval and has some interesting traditional catalan cuisine restaurants.

Priorat yearly Wine fair - Fira del Vi in Falset

May 052011

Every year we look forward to the wine fair in Falset. The two wine apellations of the county of Priorat, DOC Priorat and DO Montsant, organise one of the largest wine fairs in Catalonia where more than 70 cellars show their newest and best wines.

We love the fair not only for the wines but also because we love Priorat, its landscapes and natural parc, its peacefulness, its ancient architecture…

Vista Priorat

Last weekend we headed off to Falset and we started on Friday with a white wine tasting in the XIIth century castle that, perched atop a hill, presides over the village. 30 cellars were showing a wide range of whites most of them using white grenache either on its own or with other grapes. There was a pretty big and enthusiastic crowd attending the tasting but it was still possible to talk to the winemakers.We devoted Saturday to the rosées and reds. We talked to some of the wineries we know and we met some new wineries. In the afternoon we went to a very interesting olive oil tasting and to buy some artisan cheeses from the region.

Sunday we changed the wine for the landscapes and we took some time to visit our special spot in La Figuera from which there is a breath-taking view of the whole region.

100% White grenache, the trademark of Terra Alta

Apr 122011

On the 9th and 10th April we visited Batea, in Terra Alta, for the local yearly Wine Fair. The DO Terra Alta is a small wine region compared to the neighbouring Priorat and Montsant and it is working hard to improve its wines.

This year the emphasis was put in the 100% white grenache wines. A quality brand has been stablished for the wines produced only with this local grape, which are floral and fresh and intense. We had the chance to talk to some of the cellars and were happy to share their enthusiasm.

Older Entries