Grapevine adopters’ newsletter (November, 2013)

10 Dec Grapevine adopters’ newsletter (November, 2013)

El novembre, vi per vendre. [In November, wine for sale. A Catalan saying]

This newsletter is intended to be a windup for the 2013 autumn… Bright colours in the vineyards, morning fogs, crisp blue afternoon sky, chill, smell of hearth and roast chestnuts… November showed us its character… Luckily, on those snowy days that engrossed a lot of places across Catalonia, Gratallops lived a narrow escape: all we had was just some sleet that ebbed away immediately.

This November, finished products definitely played the main part in our business: bottled wine with new labelling. What can we tell you about it? Let’s get to know three new players.

First off, a new version of Mas de les Valls, whose new image gives extra support to the brand and its quality:

• Mas de les Valls 2011, red, made from Grenache, Carignan and Cabernet Sauvignon… Fruity wine, with  toasty notes… This one is going to be a star after some evolution in bottle

Then, there’s the white version of the same:

• Mas de les Valls 2011, white, vi de la vila de Gratallops, made from Pedro Ximènez and white Grenache… Light, fresh, a bit honeyed, with some brief ageing  (2 months), and still you can tell its warm Priorat inflection

Finally, a very long-awaited wine, a joint project by Celler Devinssi, Celler Cedó Anguera (la Serra d’Almos) and the Bonviure wine shop, Gratallops:

• 1068 d’Il·lia, DO Montsant red, made from Grenache, Carignan and Syrah, no ageing. Very light, delectable, with fine aromas of berry yoghurt (black currant, raspberry, blackberry…)

And you are among the first lucky dogs to see the official picture of all three wines!

Our wine tourism and PR coordinator, Jordi Ustrell, has participated in several activities related with wines and our land. In the first place, he’s very happy with his admission to the training course for wine tour guides ‘Turisme del vi: eines per a una nova activitat professional‘.

This training course features some benchmarking wine tours, so Jordi was able to visit the Universitat Rovira i Virgili winery, the cooperative of Vila-rodona and Mas Vicenç (all three belonging to DO Tarragona), the latter is highly recommended. Within our Priorat region, Jordi enjoyed the visit to the cooperative of Falset-Marçà, where he took part in a dramatised wine tour, which was a smash!

And to top it off, Jordi was honoured to participate in two tasting dinners at the Hostal Sport hotel (Falset) set up for Russian visitors. How important is this? The first tasting was for a group of federal media representatives. The second one was offered to a party of tour operators, who showed their great interest for our county. Jordi gave them an insightful talk on Priorat, its history and heritage.

Christmas and New Year are round the bend, and we already have some bookings towards the holiday! Speak to you very soon!