Indigenous grapes of Catalunya and the quest for individuality

In the continuing quest of winemakers to make wines that are distinctive from all the rest, bodegas here in Catalunya have been making greater efforts to restore indigenous grape varieties to commercial use. The thinking is that if the raw material is unique, the greater chance that the wine produced will have a distinctive originality, too.

Two of the leading local grapes are white grapes and are mainstays of Cava: Parellada and Xarel·lo, with over 8,000 hectares of vines in the region.

The next most plentiful grape is the red grape Trepat, which has been the tradition source for rosado cavas, but is used for red wine production, most notably in the Conca de Barbera D.O.

Also gaining attention is Picapoll, a white grape grown in the Pla de Bages D.O.

Other local varieties include Garnacha peluda (hairy Garnacha, so named for the texture on the underside of its leaves), Garnacha Roja, Samsó, Mandó.

For more than a decade, Bodega Torres has been gathering some 62 varities of local grapes. They have so far been unable to identify eighteen of these varieties, not even using DNA testing. According to Mireia Torres, Technical Director of the winery, four of these unidentified grapes show promise for commercial use, however more testing will be needed before they can be used. However, Torres has been able to recover the Garró variety, which now makes up 5% of the blend for one of their leading wines, the Gran Muralles from Conca de Barbera.

The Catalan Institute for Wine and Vine (INCAVI) is currently working with wineries to further develop clonal stocks of Picapoll, Trapat, Garnacha Roja and Xarel·lo.

Torres: from wines to clothing

The Catalan powerhouse wine company Torres has launched their own line of clothing, Torres Nature Collection.

According to an article in today’s La Vanguadia newspaper, the winery group, which saw total sales rise by 9% in 2007 to 200 million euros, will sell the clothing line exclusively at the shops at their wineries and winebars. The items on sale will include shirts, jackets, windbreakers, hats and other items made from natural materials. 25% of the profits will be donated to help save the Bonelli’s Eagle, the largest bird of prey in the Penedes region, which also the home of the Torres winery. So, on the face of it, Torres Nature Collection appears to be something more than the typical winery polo shirt.

Other Torres news includes the recent opening of their new winery Bodega Waltraud, a 12 million euro investment for which work was begun four years. The winery, named for the wife of company President Miquel Torres is located on the Pacs de Penedes estate and has been designed to be as ecologically friendly as possible with a strong emphasis on wine tourism. But, according to Miquel Torres Maczassek, Director of Marketing for the group and son of the current present, the new winery will be a working winery for the best Torres wines from the Penedes and Conca de Barberà regions and not just a “grand wine cathedral.”

Next year will see the release of the first Torres wine from the Rioja D.O.C. with some 600,000 bottles now in the aging cellars. This will be followed by the launch of Perpetual 2005, a new, high end wine from the Priorat D.O.C.

Torres to create a line of luxury winebars

One of the persistent challenges for any winery is to gain more shelfspace or more listings in restaurants, which depends on a number of factors: performance by the distributor, acceptance by the point of sale outlet, brand promotion, prices, strength of the competition, to name a few.

Recently, in a move to go more directly to the luxury consumer, Bodega Miguel Torres annouced plans to open in Barcelona their own winebar and shop that will feature the more than 50 various presentations of wines and brandies that they make in Spain, Chile and the US. The Barcelona winebar will open in July on the upscale retailing street of Passeig de Gracia and is to be created by noted designer Antoni Arola (check the great layout on the project in his site!) and will be their fourth such venue. The first was opened in shopping village of La Roca del Vallès north of Barcelona, followed by a vinoteca in Santiago de Chile and a third location in the Catalan village of Poblet. Following Barcelona, London and Berlin are being considered for expansion.

Miquel Torres gets into tequila

In Sunday's La Vanguardia newspaper was the news that Miquel A. Torres, president of Torres, one of Spain's leading wineries, announced in Guadalajara that Torres is entering the world of tequila via a joint venture project with Destiladora González González, the fifth largest producer of tequila. The brand will be Estirpe, which roughly means lineage and will be destined for export markets. The product was jointly created by specialists from Torres and González González.

Because the international acceptance of tequila is far greater than that of wines from Mexico, the profits from the venture will be used to promote Mexican wines abroad. In checking the Torres website, the was no mention of either the tequila project or for Mexican wines. Outside of Spain, Torres is presently producing wines in California and Chile. Perhaps Torres is about to unveil a new winery in Mexico?

Wine and global warming

In March of this year the first-ever conference on Global Warming and Wine was held in Barcelona.

The findings presented make for eye-opening reading:

• · In the next 50 to 100 years, temperatures will rise by 2 to 6 degrees C;
• · Some regions may become too hot and arid for grape cultivation;
• · Grape growing regions will expand in mountainous regions of the Southern hemisphere;
• · Speaking on the effect on local production in Catalunya (NE Spain), Dr. Xavier Sort of Bodegas Torres stated that "viticulture will be unviable in most of the traditional Catalonian wine regions within the next 40 to 70 years";
• · Grapes may become susceptible to new pests and diseases;
• · Red wines in general may decrease in color intensity and increase in alcohol content;
• · Increased used of grape varieties better suited to extreme weather could be seen, such as the red varieties of Petit Verdot, Graciano and Durif, and the white wine grapes of Vermentino, Viognier and Verdejo.

Mr. Pancho Campo, president of the conference host, The Wine Academy of Spain, pronounced the event a success, with attendance by 148 wine sector professionals and 40 journalists. The Wine Academy plans to repeat the event again in 2008.

Top 10 Spanish wine sites

I recently saw an article listing the world's highest traffic wine web sites. The data was based on the Alexa traffic management site and was a snapshot of traffic on Sept. 9, 2005 (I have no idea why this date was picked). I was surprized to see one of my favorite Spanish sites, Verema, in third position, ahead of such heavyweights as Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator.

I got curious to learn more and on Feb. 23rd I went to Alexa to investigate. Sadly, in their rankings based on a broader time range, Verema was not third, after all. In the Alexa wine site traffic ranking, the leader was the Wine Spectator, followed by Robert Parker. There were no Spanish sites in the top 30.

I also looked at the Spanish category, which had a few surprises.

The top site by popularity was Torres; no surprise as this winery has probably made the strongest efforts in international marketing of any Spanish winery.

The number 2 site was the surprise: Celler Cal Costas , winery that I confess to never have heard of. I went to look for it in my trusty Peñín Guide and could not find any listing for this winery or their wines which are sold under the name of J. Miquel Jané. Looking for them in Google, I was able to see that this winery has been participating in promotions in Madrid as well as the London Wine Trade Fair, so they really do exist - and their web site has the traffic (according to Alexa) to back it up.

Third was Codorniu, again no surprise as they are one of the handfull of major winery groups in Spain. The site, which won wine trade awards when launched 2 years ago is being totally re-done and looks fantastic - the only draw back is that the English (and German) versions of the site are not yet available.

The rest of the top 10 list was surprising for an omission: no sign of Freixenet, the other Cava (and still wine) powerhouse, and the rather unusual list of wineries, a D.O. and 1 on-line wine shop:

Bodegas Robles

Bodegas Muga

Macià Batle

Can Nadal de la Boadella

Consell Regulador Denominació d'Origen Binissalem

Bodega Pirineos

VinosSelectos.com

The Vatican chooses Sangre de Toro

Appearing in the La Vanguardia newspaper on May 22 was the news that for the first time ever, the Vatican has selected Torres' Sangre de Toro as the wine for their receptions. Given the quality and historical dominance of their home markets by Italian wines, this is a rather remarkable coup for a Spanish winery.

The article notes that the selection coincided with Torres receiving an award from the Vinitaly event as the year's best Spanish winery. Torres also received a gold medal at these awards for their Chilean Santa Digna 2004 Sauvignon Blanc.

Penedès Quality: Qalidès

Recently, nine wineries from the Penedès region have joined forces in the name of quality.

Led by Miguel Torres one of Spain's leading wine producers and exporters, this association is dedicated to protecting the environment and the promoting the fine wines of the Penedès. The region produces not only very enjoyable young and fruity white wines as well as cava, Spain's traditional method sparkling wine, but also some top notch reds. To quote the association's president, Joan Huguet of the Huguet de Can Feixes winery "a great countryside must be able to produce a great wine". The founding member wineries are, in addition to Torres and Huguet de Can Feixes: Jean Leon , Can Ràfols dels Caos, Mas Comtal, Albet i Noya, Gramona, Jané Ventura and Cellers Puig & Roca.
Hopefully the Qalidès association can help bring more awareness to these excellent wines.