It is often said that this is a country of wines, both because of the wealth and quality of the wine projects that are developed here. That is why it is not at all easy to answer the question of which are the most surprising wines, producers and initiatives in the territory, a question that the sommeliers and other specialists behind the La Vanguardia Wine Guide have resolved for yet another year.
With the support of INCAVI (Catalan Institute of Vine and Wine), the third edition of this publication's awards was held this Wednesday, which coincided with the last day of Barcelona Wine Week. The director of the guide, Lluís Tolosa together with the director general of INCAVI, Alba Balcells, have led a gala that has brought together multiple personalities from the sector.
Tolosa recalled that this is a different guide that includes the 100 wines that throughout the year have impressed those who write its pages. "We have not chosen the best, but those that have impressed us the most. It is a subjective selection, which brings together stories, experienced wines," she noted. The awards, however, have only gone to 13 producers, projects and wines, with which the sector's commitment to recovered grape varieties, or long aging, has been highlighted.
The general director of INCAVI has highlighted the efforts of the winners to innovate without forgetting history and heritage, "which are pillars of what we are and what we want to be." And she has referred to the extreme drought that has plagued many producers for years, but without ceasing to be optimistic and ensuring that "we will get out of this."
In addition to Tolosa himself, Ferran Centelles, Meritxell Falgueras, María José Huertas, Alicia Estrada and Zoltan Nagy are the rest of the authors who have chosen and rated the most outstanding wines of the year in this new guide, which is now on sale at newsstands. from Catalunya for 9.95 euros, or at La Vanguardia Shopping.
The La Vanguardia Wine Guide 2024 is divided into ten chapters, which are also ten reasons why the wines that appear in it have been selected, such as their greatness or their quality-price ratio. These have been the winners:
They say in The Wine Guide that in the 18th century, the Sitges malvasia occupied 25% of the agricultural land in Garraf, but it practically disappeared during the phylloxera. Luckily, Manuel Llopis i de Casadas preserved it by bequeathing a vineyard to the Sant Joan Baptista Hospital, which took charge of the vineyard, and produced and sold wines with this grape for years. Today, it is one of the varieties they work with the most at Avgvstvs, the winery run by the Roca family. With it they make this wine, which "is the maximum representation of the Malvasía from Sitges," Tolosa explained at the gala held this Wednesday.
Luis Tolosa says that the Marquis of Riscal has the virtue of being an eternally modern and innovative classic. More than a century and a half ago, its producers became pioneers of Rioja and, today, its wines continue to express this character. An example is the red wine "It is the perfect rosé," said the director of the guide.
This Rioja born from vines over 45 years old, has been made in truncated conical French oak inks and aged for 30 months in French and American oak barrels, bottled without any type of filtration. “It shows that Rioja is at the world level in historical vintages, not only its century-old wineries, but also the new wineries of the nineties,” says Tolosa, who describes the 200 Monges Gran Reserva 1994 as soft and velvety, with black fruit, compotes, sweet spices, joinery and balsamic. It is one of the few bottles that have achieved 100 points in the guide.
Challenging the known limits in sparkling wines, the Enoteca Turó d'en Mota 1999 is a corpinnat made with xarel·lo aged for more than 23 years. Tolosa says that it is fresher than other previous vintages and "a symbol of the origin, of the concept. A single-vineyard xarel·lo." During the gala he also recalled that Joan Roca described it as a historic wine. It has also achieved the maximum score in the guide.
"This cava has stolen my heart," explained Tolosa at the awards ceremony, who revealed that it is the sparkling wine he usually drinks at home with his family. This 100% Trepat from Conca de Barberà is one of the wines produced by the Cellers Domenys cooperative, behind which there are about 100 families and which was born in 1917 in Sant Jaume dels Domenys. It is a 100% indigenous cava, pale salmon in color, with well-integrated bubbles, which is soft, light and fresh, and easy to drink.
The Terra de Asorei winery was born from the union of six families of winegrowers with wineries, a merger promoted by journalist Xosé Ramón Durán (Roque for friends). "Identity exudes everywhere," explained Tolosa about this project that, among other feats, has recovered the espadeiro, a red variety that had been one of the most cultivated in the Rías Baixas. Its Brut Terra de Asorei is "the maximum expression of a 100% Albariño sparkling wine" from this area of Galicia.
For a long time, canned wines have been discredited. It has been said that they are a cheaper product for young people, but Castelo de Pedregosa has shown that this is not the case. After researching this format for years, they have managed to market two whites and a rosé in this format without affecting its quality. "What difference does it make if a wine is packaged in one way or another if it is good?" Tolosa stressed.
The Vivanco family project, which began its journey no less than 100 years ago with the help of Pedro Vivanco González, is the winner of the Best Wine Tourism Project Award. And in addition to a winery, they have the Vivanco Museum of Wine Culture, which has just received the Best Of Special Achievement Award, awarded by Great Wine Capitals (GWC). "This special award is only given to truly exceptional projects," Meritxell Falgueras points out in the guide.
Finca Viladellops has been awarded for its Wine Village, 18 farmhouses with different productive and wine tourism activities: visits to the winery, walks through the vineyards, tastings, wine shop, restaurant, holiday tourism... A project that shows 800 years of history family, and which aims to preserve the cultural and architectural heritage of the area.
Portell Glatim 2022 is the young wine that has surprised the guide's authors the most this year. It is a 100% Trepat single-varietal, since the Sarral Wine Cooperative is the largest producer of this variety in the world. They themselves explain that this wine is "the result of the perseverance of those who work the two selected vineyards and the work of the winery's oenology team." It has taken them several years to obtain it.
From this guide they consider that time is one of the factors that give the most prestige to a winery. For this reason, they present an Anniversary Award, which this time has fallen into the hands of Perelada. This historic winery is one of the flagships of the D.O. Empordà and is among the most prestigious in the country. Perelada turns 100 years old, surviving three generations.
Miguel A. Torres, from the Torres Family, is another of the winners of this edition. Regarding him, Tolosa has assured "that he has always given the impression that he is 30 years ahead." In the 90s he promoted a project to recover ancestral varieties that is today managed by Mireia Torres, the group's Director of Innovation and Knowledge. They have recovered 60 varieties, among which they have selected those resistant to climate change and with greater oenological power, such as forcada.
This award does not appear in the guide, but for that reason it has no less relevance. On this occasion it has fallen into the hands of Christopher Cannan, a fundamental character in the contemporary history of the world of wine, who in his new work covers the 50 years he has dedicated to selling wines through different anecdotes and experiences. "Without a doubt it is the book of the year," Tolosa concluded.
