portfolio ➜ origin

Spain

Categories: Garnatxa d’Empordà, Rancio Sec/Vi Ranci

While France and Italy are often recognized for their diversity in all matters culinary and vinous, Spain is too often overlooked in these regards, viewed as a monolith, despite the distinct regional and cultural differences within that are reflected in its gastronomic and winemaking traditions. Occupying most of the Iberian peninsula, it extends from the Pyrénées in the northeast to Gibraltar in the southwest, just nine miles from Africa. The country’s regional diversity is reflected in its wines, which range from light, dry whites in the cool Atlantic regions of the north; traditional and modern expressions of Tempranillo extending west from Rioja; and the robust, Monastrell-dominated wines of the Levante. While Catalunya led successive Spanish winemaking revolutions in the late eighties and early nineties, it continues to honor its heritage and traditions, including Vermut de Reus as well as its taste for the gentle, oxidative rancio wines that reflect some of the world’s oldest forms of winemaking. That revolutionary spirit has likewise finally arrived in Andalusía and the Marco de Jerez, where a new generation of winemakers engage traditional bodegas to both question and renew the spirit of one of the world’s most complex wines, Sherry.

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  Celler Cooperatiu d’Espolla