Catalunya – sparkling to life

REGIONAL VINEYARD:

TOTAL VINEYARD SIZE

In excess of 54,600 ha – the total regional vineyard includes vineyards producing for Quality wines, Table wines & Table grapes

DEDICATED TO QUALITY

In addition to the existing 8 DO’s, a region wide Catalunya DO was created in 1999 putting a clear focus on Quality which has become key to their success.

NOTABLE CRU/ZONES:

Alella

North of Barcelona, at 300 hectares, Alella is a small DO but with excellent vintage reports. While there is no translation of the local lingo, it’s worth checking out their site here – http://www.doalella.org/

Conca de Barberà

Costers del Segre

Montsant

Penedès

South of Barcelona, this is classic CAVA country !!

Priorat

West of Penedes, at 96% of the varietal plantings, this is absolutely Red grape country. White grapes barely get a look in. Garnacha Tinta may not be native but it has made it’s home away from home on the slopes of Priorat. Only one of two regions in Spain that qualifies for the country’s highest quality designation DOCa.

Tarragona

Terra Alta

WINE STYLE/QUALITY:

% RED

30%

% WHITE

70%

% DOP / IGP

Top quality is a feature of this region, in particulare where Priorat DOCa is one of only 2 such top designated areas in Spain. The other being RIOJA.

Catalunya – Native Grapes

As always, we like to list those grapes which we understand are available as mono-varietals or which are locally important blenders. Naturally, as we make further discovery, we’ll update this info.

NATIVE REDS

Belat

Trepat

NATIVE WHITES

Macabeo

Or should that be Viura ?

Xarel.lo

The essence of Catalunya and in particular Penedès

OUR STATSOURCES

Wine Grapes – Robinson, Harding & Vouillamoz
The World Atlas of Wine – Johnson & Robinson
Il Mondo del Vino – Associazione Italiana Sommelier, Edizione 2012
The Brothers Candrian, Aron & Martin @ Espavino – www.espavino.com

VINTAGE INFORMATION

All our data references are intended to be for indicative purposes only, due to the variability of available data from source to source and vintage to vintage. But we do try to keep ourselves ‘reasonably’ updated :)