Entre Vinyes, Brisat Vermell, Catalunya, Spain

Entre Vinyes is a project created by Maria Barrena, one of the partners at Azul y Garanza, and her husband, Josep, a third generation grower in the Penedès. They have vineyards in and around the Foex natural park, at around 300-350 metres asl, close to the Mediterranean sea in the Baix Penedes area. 

Birds often feature on Entre Vinyes' labels, a symbol of both the natural life that thrives in vineyards farmed in an environmentally sensitive way, and of the balance they aim to achieve in their vineyards and in their wines. 

‘Oniric’ is a word in Catalan to describe a ‘dreamer’ and a word which resonated with them as Entre Vinyes stemmed from a dream to take over and rescue some stunning parcels of old vines that had belonged to Josep's family. 

This wine is made from Xarel-Lo Vermell, a natural variant of Xarel-Lo that has pink rather than white or red skins, native to Northern Spain but virtually extinct.

The grapes are hand harvested from old bush vines on a vineyard near the town of l'Arboc in the heart of Penedes. They spend 15 days fermenting using just the natural yeasts, on the skins, in steel tanks. After pressing 2/3rds go back into steel, 1/3 into amphora, where they mature for six months before being bottled without fining or filtering and with minimal sulphites. This wine is the colour of dusky rose with a gorgeous, very delicate pink hue, a result of being infused on the skins. It has a herbaceous tone with notes of pink peppercorn and is pure elegance.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by IRON & ROSE [wine specialist] (@iron_and_rose)