Fine White Wines by Vila Viniteca

FINE WHITE WINES

Introduction

Belondrade

Castell del Remei

Sierra Cantabria

Finca Allende

Bufadors

Eulogio Pomares

Dominio del Águila

Raúl Pérez

Alemany i Corrio

Prices

Conditions

FINE WHITE WINES

Over the last three decades, Spanish wines have enjoyed a burgeoning success in the markets. Multiple new projects have been consolidated and positioned in parallel with established historical Spanish wineries, and some of them have become undisputable benchmarks for the top sommeliers and fine wine collectors in the world. However, the global success of these top Spanish wines, which have surely deserved to be where they are today for many years now, has been confined exclusively to the great red wines. In Spain, and very much in spite of the excitement sparked by some white wines, there is still an idea that great wines can only be red. For years now at Vila Viniteca, we’ve been wholly committed to promoting the great white wines. We are delighted to be able to make a world exclusive offer, for the second year running, of a unique pre-sale of 9 fine Spanish white wines. Six of these are practically first editions which are being presented in their second vintage. Two have had a very limited distribution, and the last one is a first launch. They are exciting, painstakingly-made wines that possess that something special that makes them different from the rest of the wines of each of the wineries that have made them. We would like to express our thanks to Didier Belondrade, Tomás Cusiné, Marcos and Miguel Eguren, Miguel Ángel de Gregorio, Ton Mata and Encarna Castillo, Eulogio Pomares and Rebeca Montero, Jorge Monzón, Raúl Pérez, and Irene Alemany and Laurent Corrio, as well as to you all for continuing to elevate the fine white wines of Spain.

FINE WHITE WINES I Les Parcelles 2019

Belondrade Les Parcelles 2019

It was in 1992 that Didier Belondrade first tasted a young wine made with the Verdejo grape. The impression that it made on him, allied to his passion for Spanish culture, led to him settling in Rueda two years later. His interpretation of Verdejo and his way of ageing it in the style of the greatest Burgundies, brought about a revolution. At his Quinta San Diego estate, close to the village of La Seca, Didier succeeded in enhancing the renown of the area’s wines, transcending the appellation and becoming a leading figure in fine white winemaking in Spain. Didier alongside Marta Baquerizo (the winery’s technical manager for over 20 years now) and his son Jean form an inseparable team.

Les Parcelles was born from two Verdejo plots, La Cruz and Alameda, purchased in 2016. Two years later, the team were hugely impressed by the musts produced by these plots, which were tasted separately, as are all the plots of the estate, during the vinification. The quality of these musts encouraged them to age the resulting wine first in second-fill barrels and then in bottle for almost 5 years before releasing it onto the market. Only by that time, they judged, would the wine start to become ready to drink.

Municipality La Seca (Valladolid)

Wine region Rueda

Grape variety Verdejo

Number of bottles 1,600

In the words of Didier Belondrade, “this is a wine with an expression of its own. We brought it into the world without any obligation beyond the pleasure of making it. This is the wine I dreamt of making when I started at Quinta San Diego”.

FINE WHITE WINES I Gran Reserva Blanc 2018

Castell del Remei Gran Reserva Blanc 2018

Castell del Remei’s historical records date back to 1780, the first year in which there is documentary evidence of vineyards planted at the estate. The winery was built in the 19th century and was designed for the production of high quality, long-ageing wines. Castell del Remei, today a leading wine estate in the Costers del Segre wine appellation, is also one of Spain’s most traditional and authentic château-type wine properties. Tomàs Cusiné, the estate’s current owner, is a driven winemaker, who joined the wine world at a very young age, when his father acquired the estate in 1982. In acquiring the property, the Cusiné family had the opportunity to restore and modernise an historic winery while changing the traditional winemaking processes and the style of the wines. Over time, a number of the estate’s distinguishing features had been lost, and so a few years ago Tomàs Cusiné sought to recover some of the property’s history “through a sense of duty towards the history of

Castell del Remei”. It was therefore decided to pay homage to the white wines that were made at the estate in the late 19th century. The result was a white wine made mainly with the Macabeo grape, aged for a long period in barrel. Castell del Remei Gran Reserva 2018 was made with Macabeo and Chardonnay grapes, picked by hand and stringently selected on a sorting table. Having been harvested one month apart, the two varieties fermented separately in barrel. The ageing process continued in barrel for one year, and after the blending (almost three-quarters Macabeo and the rest Chardonnay), the wine continued ageing in barrel for another year, followed by two years more in bottle, making a total ageing time of 4 years.

Municipality Penelles (Lleida)

Wine region D.O. Costers del Segre

Grape variety 71% Macabeo, 29% Chardonnay

Number of bottles 1,957

In the words of Tomàs Cusiné, “this is a unique, different wine that encapsulates the pride of having recovered something important in our history. It’s the realisation of a dream that I very much wanted to share”.

FINE WHITE WINES I Gran Vino Blanco 2010

Sierra Cantabria Gran Vino Blanco 2010

A wine like Sierra Cantabria Gran Vino Blanco 2010 cannot be made without the accumulated time and experience that characterise the journey of Marcos and Miguel Eguren. The two brothers, with deep roots in the Rioja Sonsierra, are the custodians of the knowledge and tradition built up by a family that have been vignerons since 1870. Their father, Guillermo Eguren, who described himself as a “collector of vineyards”, passed on to them a love and respect for the land, and this remains at the heart of everything they do.

extremely long ageing of over ten years in barrel. The production is tiny –only 2 or 3 barrels per vintage.

The grapes for this wine were sourced from some of the oldest plots belonging to the family. The wine is a blend of Viura, Malvasía and White Grenache, together with a tiny amount of Calagraño.

As Marcos Eguren says, “With this wine, we have tried to convey the purity of a white wine from the Sonsierra which has undergone a long ageing and which has a long life ahead of it –one which will outlive us”.

Observing the evolution of the first vintage (the 2008, which we presented last year), they were satisfied that the wine at last conveyed the emotion that they sought. Some vintages don’t attain a high enough level of excellence and so are not released on the market. Others do, like this 2010, and are simply magical.

Municipality San Vicente de la Sonsierra (La Rioja)

Wine region D.O.Ca. Rioja

Grape variety 50% Viura, 31% Malvasía and 19% White Grenache

Number of bottles 890 bottles (75 cl) and 20 Magnums

The greatest care and attention were taken during the vinification to prepare the wine for an

FINE WHITE WINES I Marure 2020

Finca Allende Marure 2020

Miguel Ángel de Gregorio is a passionate vigneron and one of the most innovative winemakers in our country. Since he founded Finca Allende in 1995, his journey has been an impressive one, which has included the production of such great Rioja reds as Aurus and Calvario. Over the years he has finetuned his winemaking expertise, while his white wines have made huge strides.

painstakingly by hand, since each bunch must be carefully kept intact. The grapes then undergo a gentle pressing in a “timeless” manual basket press. The must is fermented in just one barrel and a few demi-johns where it remains on its lees for 4 months. Once the lees have been racked off, the wine continues its ageing for over two years in a new French oak barrel.

A few years ago he purchased a vineyard planted in 1947 which contained mainly Tempranillo and a small proportion of a white variety. What he initially thought was Viura (the usual white variety among the region’s old vines) turned out to be White Grenache –a rarity in Rioja Alta. After deciding to vinify these white grapes separately, the results proved amazing.

“This is a unique wine, which I discovered by chance; and like all things unique, it has something magical about it. Marure is many things, but above all it has been a toy that has enabled me to explore the unexplored, and that is what the DNA of Allende is all about. Allende means “what is beyond, beyond time”, points out Miguel Ángel de Gregorio.

Municipality Briones (La Rioja)

Wine region D.O.Ca. Rioja

Grape variety White Grenache

Number of bottles 320

Marure is an incredibly rare wine –only one barrel per year is made. The grapes are picked

FINE WHITE WINES I Vinya del Rascarà Brut Nature 2018

Bufadors Vinya del Rascarà Brut Nature 2018

Bufadors is the most intimate, family project of Ton Mata (the third generation of the Recaredo family) and his wife Encarna Castillo. For them, it is about much more than wine, it is also a project for the future, which they are consolidating with the building of a micro-winery, which is also their house. Both are passionate about bringing out terroir expression in sparkling wines and conveying the landscape in which their wines are grown. La Vinya del Rascarà is sourced from a single vineyard dating from 1999 and planted with Xarel·lo on a soil with extremely high limestone content at Can Rossell de la Serra (located between the municipalities of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia and Torrelavit). The vineyard is farmed both organically and bio-dynamically. The vinification is very precise, and only the native yeasts present in the grapes are used. Everything that goes into the bottle originates from this same vineyard. The sugar used to trigger off the second

fermentation is taken from juices obtained from the vineyard’s later-harvested over-ripe grapes. The wine contains no winemaking additives, no sulphites and no type of fining agent, and undergoes no filtering or cold-stabilisation. The first fermentation is carried out in large 600-litre casks. The wine’s ageing in bottle, which is done on its lees using a natural cork closure, lasts over 5 years. In this way, the Xarel·lo grape is able to express all its complexity. The disgorgement process is carried out by hand without freezing the neck of the bottle.

Municipality Torrelavit (Barcelona)

Wine region Penedès. Corpinnat

Grape variety Xarel·lo

Number of bottles 4,481

Ton Mata and Encarna Castillo describe their La Vinya del Rascarà as “a wine made without concessions, and this is what makes it unique. Displaying a raw kind of power and transparency, it is a wine stripped of all pretence”.

FINE WHITE WINES I Parcela en Aios 2022

Eulogio Pomares Parcela en Aios 2022

A leading figure in the Galician wine region, Eulogio Pomares is also a well-loved and respected personality recognised for his wide knowledge of the Albariño grape variety and his commitment to terroir expression. At his family-run Zárate winery, he represents the 7th generation of his Salnés Valley vigneron family and has helped save the region’s rich viticultural heritage, practising eco-friendly vinegrowing and playing a decisive role in developing the international renown of Galician wines. Tirelessly supported by his wife, Rebeca Montero, he has set up micro-projects in other wine regions, such as Ribeira Sacra, and collaborated on projects in the Dão region in Portugal, as well as carrying out his own trials on different vinification techniques.

vines close to this beach caught his eye. Planted 40 years ago on geologically very ancient and highly weathered schist soils, the vineyard is situated not far from the coastal cliffs. Rising to the challenges of practising sustainable vinegrowing close to the sea, he grew a permanent cover crop in the vineyard, while seeking to bring out in the wine the expression of the soil, which was reflected by greater structure on the palate. The wine is aged for 8 months in 500-litre French oak casks. As Eulogio Pomares concludes, “many years ago, a more muscular style of Albariño was made with greater structure and complexity on the palate, and this came from the soils. In producing this wine, we have sought to recover a Salnés style of wine that was made 50 years ago”.

Municipality Sanxenxo (Pontevedra)

Wine region Rías Baixas

Grape variety Albariño

Number of bottles 650

Since his teens, Eulogio has regularly frequented a beautiful beach in Aios, located within the Sanxenxo municipality. In 2019, a unique plot of

FINE WHITE WINES I Vino Fino de Paraje Calizo 2020

Dominio del Águila Vino Fino de Paraje Calizo 2020

Dominio del Águila is the exciting project launched by Jorge Monzón and Isabel Rodero in 2010 at La Aguilera in Burgos province. The property includes a large collection of very old vines, many of them pre-phyloxera ungrafted vines, which they have recovered and grown organically. Tempranillo, which is the majority variety, is grown alongside other traditional red and white varieties in the same vineyards. The winery comprises a stunning 17th century grape-treading cellar and six underground galleries dating back to the 15th century. The couple’s sensitivity and attention to detail and the knowledge acquired by Jorge at legendary wineries such as Domaine de La Romanée-Conti and Vega Sicilia have led to the wines of Dominio del Águila becoming amongst the most sought-after in Ribera del Duero. Vino Fino de Paraje Calizo 2020 comes from a very old plot, most of which dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, planted on marl

and calcareous sandstone soils. In the vineyard, the leaves and lateral shoots are not thinned-out. Everything is designed to avoid the vines suffering. The wine is made in the simplest of ways, while the aim is that the wine should reflect what the grapes have experienced during their growing season. The Albillo Mayor variety is very austere in character but amazingly subtle and fine. It was noticed that there was something unusual about this unique, original plot of vines, something that was very special and which they wanted to bring out in the wine. Besides representing their commitment to something really indigenous, the wine was also a return to rather wild, even rustic flavours that can be found in Albillo Mayor.

Municipality La Aguilera (Burgos)

Wine region Ribera del Duero

Grape variety Albillo Mayor

Number of bottles 2,980

In the words of Jorge Monzón, “in our search for flavour and identity we simply accompany the juices on their journey, so that they reveal everything they hold within them. We are simply their travelling companions”.

FINE WHITE WINES I Areas de Montalvo 2018

Raúl Pérez Areas de Montalvo 2018

Raúl Pérez, originally from Valtuille de Abajo in León province, is one of Spain’s most internationally renowned winemakers, who has won multiple awards and accolades. In 1993, when he was only 19 years old, he joined the small family-run winery, Castro Ventosa. A decade later, he set up his own project, Bodegas y Viñedos Raúl Pérez. Among his qualities as a person and a professional, two aspects stand out: his visionary character and his generosity in sharing his knowledge with vignerons in other wine regions. He has taken an active part in projects in his native Bierzo and in different wine regions in Galicia, Asturias, Castilla y León, Rioja, Sierra de Gredos, Alicante and Almansa. Outside Spain, he has also worked alongside such prominent figures as Dirk Niepoort in Portugal and Eben Sadie in South Africa. He has also taken part in harvests in Bordeaux, Chile and Argentina. His interests have always been centred on the vineyard and indigenous grape varieties, the first one being Mencía, which he unquestionably helped to put on a pedestal, giving it a more Burgundian accent by dividing up his family’s vineyards according to altitude, exposure and soil-type. 20

The Areas de Montalvo idea emerged in 1997 when he was seeking a different white wine profile from those that existed in Rías Baixas at that time. His inspiration came from the great wines of Bierzo grown on sandy soils, which are scarce in Rías Baixas. On making the first vintage (2017), he decided to wait 5 years “to see if the wine really had consistency and personality and if it was actually different”, before releasing it on the market. The 2018 wine is made “in a very simple way”, says Raúl. “It’s given complete centre stage: fermentation and one year’s ageing in barrel, without bâtonnage and without rackings”. Wines that come from sandy soils always have much more glycerine, and this acts as a foil to the acidity and makes the wine more pleasant on the palate. As for aromatics, it’s the character of the wine that is sought rather than fruit aromas.

Municipality Arra (Pontevedra)

Wine region D.O. Rías Baixas

Grape variety Albariño

Number of bottles 420

For Raúl Pérez, “Areas de Montalvo is another step forward in my journey; it’s a wine to be matured. It’s built to age and be cellared. At a time when people tend to live for the day, this wine represents a completely different notion”. 21

FINE WHITE WINES I Sot Lefriec Blanc 2021

Alemany i Corrio Sot Lefriec Blanc 2021

Penedès-born Irene Alemany and Breton Laurent Corrio, met while studying and working in Burgundy. In 1999, they made their first wine, Sot Lefriec red, from tiny plots of vines belonging to Irene’s family. From the very first vintage, it won plaudits from wine critics and soon became a cult wine, making it one of the first garage wines to come out of Penedès. Not thinking that the experience was of any great importance, their lives were to change nevertheless. Having, as they said, “put the cart before the horse”, they came and settled definitively in Penedès. While making that first wine, they enjoyed total freedom and offered a new version of Penedès red, getting their inspiration from Burgundy rather than their neighbours. Gradually they began to introduce white varieties to their range, one of them a Xarel·lo, whose expression made a big impression on them. They kept on the same path, maintaining a purist approach, never following the latest fads and

always determined that their wines should reflect the terroir from which they came. Building on the experience they had gained over the years, their close connection to the land and their special introspective approach (“internal work” according to Irene), they took another stride forward with the Xarel·lo variety, a grape which they felt conveyed sensations of purity and resilience. Sot Lefriec Blanc 2021 comes from a plot planted 67 years ago on shallow limestone soils containing marine fossils. The 2021 vintage was very cool. The fermentation was carried out in 500-litre French oak casks and, after a racking in December 2022, the wine was bottled during a waning moon in January 2023.

Municipality Olesa de Bonesvalls (Barcelona)

Wine region Penedès

Grape variety Xarel·lo

Number of bottles 480

For Irene and Laurent, “this wine embodies the efforts, the struggle and the emotions involved in making it, along with the hope that those who drink it will not be left indifferent”.

FINE WHITE WINES

PRE-SALE OF FINE WHITE WINES

€

BELONDRADE Les Parcelles 2019

129,00

€

BUFADORS Vinya del Rascarà Brut Nature 2018

Anticipated delivery: January 2024

Anticipated delivery: April 2024

CASTELL DEL REMEI Gran Reserva Blanc 2018

EULOGIO POMARES Parcela en Aios 2022

36,95

Anticipated delivery: January 2024

Anticipated delivery: March 2024

SIERRA CANTABRIA Gran Vino Blanco 2010 Gran Vino Blanco 2010 (Magnum)

DOMINIO DEL ÁGUILA Vino Fino de Paraje Calizo 2020

352,00 815,00

40,50

45,50

53,60

Anticipated delivery: May 2024

Anticipated delivery: February 2024

RAÚL PÉREZ Areas de Montalvo 2018

FINCA ALLENDE Marure 2020

210,00

83,50

Anticipated delivery: January 2024

ALEMANY I CORRIO Sot Lefriec Blanc 2021

39,90

Anticipated delivery: January 2024

VAT not included. October 2023

FINE WHITE WINES

PRE-SALE CONDITIONS AVAILABILITY: Offer without obligation and valid until 15th November 2023. We reserve the possibility of allocating a maximum number of bottles of each wine per client and dividing them up proportionally. The delivery of these wines will be made between the months of January and May 2024. Your reservation can be made via www.vilaviniteca.es or by sending an e-mail indicating the quantities you wish to order. The confirmation of the bottles allocated will be made during the month of November. Trade: comercial@vilaviniteca.es Private clients: eshop@vilaviniteca.es International: export@vilaviniteca.es

PRICES: Price per bottle in euros. The prices do not include VAT and are valid except in the case of error or variation and subject to stock. Delivery is free to any part of the Spanish peninsular as from a purchase of 1,000€.

PAYMENT: In the case of private clients, payment must be made on the confirmation of the order.

Vila Viniteca | Agullers 7 | 08003 Barcelona | T 937 777 017 |

@vilaviniteca