Grapevine adopters’ newsletter (March, 2016)

02 Apr Grapevine adopters’ newsletter (March, 2016)

Març plujós dóna bones collites (Rainy March yields good crops. A Catalan saying)

Well, finally, nature has made up for the previous lack of grass and flowers, which was so obvious! Winds brought clouds, the clouds shed fresh rains, the rains entailed the grass boom! Did you know why it’s important to keep the grass growing at our vineyards? It works as a source of biological diversity and vineyard’s tonicity and vigour… The more grass, the more competition for the grapevine… Up to the moment of cutting the greensward, when it turns into a natural fertiliser for the vines and makes up for the lack of organic material in the slate soil…

Another near source of natural nutrition for grapevines are twigs obtained through winter-pruning and burnt in the vineyard. This month we’ve completed this task. In the meantime, Sergi has carried out a titanic job in the winery: checking and refilling the wine barrels. Apart from that, we’re quite close to rolling out some real gems: white Mas de les Valls 2015, el 2013 and Rocapoll 2013 – quite polished yet expressive wines… They are going to present them at Tast amb Llops on 30 April!

We pride ourselves on taking part in the new initiative called Combats de vins territorials proposed by the La Festival wine shop (Gràcia, Barcelona). In March there have been two. In the first one, we participated with our Cupatge 2014, which wasn’t guessed by anybody, owing to its plentiful fuity nose and light palate: everybody thought it was a quality Penedès wine. During the second contest, our red Mas de les Valls 2013 was successfully identified both by the winemaker team and the public. If you’d like to learn more details about the wine contest read this newsletter.

In terms of cellar door visits, March seemed to be a mid-to-low season month, at first. However, the Easter holiday (early this year) completely turned it round, with no end of bookings, so that we actually had very few spare hours for the Doors Open Days that we had scheduled.

Soon, when the vineyards show more foliage, we’re going to send you your adoptees’ photos.

Meanwhile, let’s update the agenda.

• 10.04 3rd Wine and cheese fair at Clos Figueras, Gratallops
• 30.04 10th Tast amb Llops at the Cal Llop hotel, Gratallops
• 30.04-01.01 21th DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant Wine Fair, Falset
• 21.05 Photography master class with VIU-LA. 15€ off for current grapevine adopters
• 22.05 Green-pruning master class. Free for current grapevine adopters