Over the last three decades, the quality of Spanish wines has enjoyed an unprecedented boom. 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 –exclusively worldwide and for the third consecutive year – a unique pre-sale of 8 great Spanish whites. Six of these are practically new editions which are being presented in their second or third vintage, and two have had a very limited distribution. 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 Ton Mata and Encarna Castillo, Tomás Cusiné, Marcos and Miguel Eguren, Miguel Ángel de Gregorio, 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.
Bufadors
Vinya del Rascarà Brut Nature 2019
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 their shared life project. They have built a micro-winery that is also their home.
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.
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”.
Municipality
Torrelavit (Barcelona)
Wine region
Penedès. Corpinnat
Grape variety
Xarel·lo
Number of bottles 5.214
Castell del Remei
Gran Reserva 2019
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 2019 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 lasts 22 months in French oak barrels, followed by three more years in the bottle, making a total ageing time of 5 years.
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”.
Municipality
Penelles (Lleida)
Wine region
D.O. Costers del Segre
Grape variety
85% Macabeo, 15% Chardonnay
Number of bottles 1.787
S ierra Cantabria
Gran Vino 2011
A wine like Sierra Cantabria Gran Vino 2011 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.
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.
The greatest care and attention were taken during the vinification to prepare the wine for an extremely long ageing of over ten years in barrel. The production is tiny –only 2 or 3 barrels per vintage.
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 2011, and are simply wonderful.
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”.
Municipality
San Vicente de la Sonsierra (La Rioja)
Wine region
D.O.Ca. Rioja
Grape variety
50% Viura, 30% Malvasía, and 20% White Grenache
Number of bottles
840 (75 cl) and 20 Magnum
F inca Allende
Marure 2021
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.
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.
Marure is an incredibly rare wine –only one barrel per year is made. The grapes are picked 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. The ageing process then continues –now without the lees– for more than two years in new French oak barrels.
“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
Eulogio Pomares
Parcela en Aios 2023
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 ecofriendly vine- growing 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.
Since his teens, Eulogio has regularly frequented a beautiful beach in Aios, located within the Sanxenxo municipality. In 2019, a unique plot of
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 1.300
Dominio del Águila
Vino
Fino de Paraje Calizo 2022
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. They began making wine in a stunning 17th-century grape-treading cellar –where they still make part of the wine– and the ageing continues to take place in six underground galleries back to the 15th century, although they have begun construction of a new winery, with the first phase already completed.
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 soughtafter in Ribera del Duero.
Vino Fino de Paraje Calizo 2022 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.
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”.
Municipality
La Aguilera (Burgos)
Wine region
Ribera del Duero
Grape variety
Albillo Mayor
Number of bottles 1.111
Raúl Pérez Areas de Montalvo 2019
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.
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 2019 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.
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”.
Municipality
Arra (Pontevedra)
Wine region
D.O. Rías Baixas
Grape variety Albariño
Number of bottles 522
Alemany i Corrio
Sot Lefriec
Blanc 2022
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 2022 comes from a plot planted 68 years ago on shallow limestone soils containing marine fossils.
The grapes were harvested on September 19th and fermented in two French oak barrels of 500 and 300 liters, respectively, where the wine is currently aging, without bâtonnage
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”.
Municipality
Olesa de Bonesvalls (Barcelona)
Wine region
Penedès
Grape variety
Xarel·lo
Number of bottles
750
PRE-SALE OF FINE WHITE WINES
BUFADORS
Vinya del Rascarà Brut Nature 2019
Anticipated delivery: May 2025
CASTELL DEL REMEI
Gran Reserva 2019
Anticipated delivery: February 2025
SIERRA CANTABRIA
Gran Vino 2011 352,00
Gran Vino 2011 (Magnum)
Anticipated delivery: March 2025
FINCA ALLENDE
815,00
Marure 2021 210,00
Anticipated delivery: February 2025
VAT not included. October 2024
EULOGIO POMARES
Parcela en Aios 2023
Anticipated delivery: February 2025
DOMINIO DEL ÁGUILA
Vino Fino de Paraje Calizo 2022 53,60
Anticipated delivery: July 2025
RAÚL PÉREZ
Areas de Montalvo 2019 83,50
Anticipated delivery: February 2025
ALEMANY I CORRIO
Sot Lefriec Blanc 2022 39,90
Anticipated delivery: February 2025
VAT not included. October 2024
PRE-SALE CONDITIONS
AVAILABILITY:
Offer without obligation and valid until 15th November 2024. 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 February and August 2025.
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.
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.
