Winemaking

My wine making philosophy is to keep it simple, for me good wine starts in the vineyard. It is worked by hand, hoeing to keep the vines clear of vegetation, the terraces are not ploughed, allowing the natural vegetation to flourish, they are strimmed when the vegetation starts to die back. Home-made composts are used to support areas of low production. Green pruning throughout the summer ensures air flow around the grapes and controls vigour.

In addition to the garnacha from the vineyard, I continue to pick old-vine carinenya and syrah from the vines of Celler Joan Simo. Grapes are harvested into small boxes of 16kg, each variety is fermented separately. Meticulous sorting is crucial, usually in the vineyard, but also in the winery if needed. Fermentation is spontaneous, carinenya and syrah are usually pressed after about 30 days, garnacha is usually pressed before it is dry and fermentation continued in the absence of skins. A significant proportion is fermented whole-bunch. Each year is different there is no fixed recipe, it is all in the taste.

With the arrival of the new vineyard production has increased to almost 1000 litres in 2016. Since 2014 I only buy new barrels and use them for two vintages. For the moment these comprise 500 and 225 litre barrels from the Austrian maker Stockinger, with little or no toast. This results in fruit driven wine where you can taste the vineyard, not a tree from central Europe. Wines are bottled with no fining or filtration