8/8/25 - 

Today we celebrate all things Catalan, and while we can't offer any of the tantalizing culinary specialties, we can provide a list of deliciously appropriate wines to pair with Catalan fare! From the Côtes Catalanes in the southern-most part of the greater Languedoc-Roussillon wine region in France to the rolling hills of Catalunya surrounding Barcelona in Spain, the cultural heritage in this part of the world is strong. Locals are proudly Catalan first and French or Spanish by happenstance. It's a truly special little corner of the universe that understandably has attracted many wanderers and a handful of winemakers searching for a place to settle down, some of whom were simply drawn there by the good weather but became entranced by the culture and the beauty of the terrain. Some of the wines on offer today are made by folks who came to the area and now call it home, others are made by locals whose families have been there for countless generations. All of the wines express the unique rusticity in flavors provided by local grape varieties and influenced by Mediterranean flora and fauna, brightness and lifted acidity from high-altitude, aerated vineyards, and incredible minerality from a wide range of soil types. Some are hazy and fresh, others dark and savory, but they all speak of the place. 

There are many producers highlighted today, so we'll focus on two in particular, Bruno Duchene in France, and Celler 9+ in Spain. Short bios are below, and the entire collection is at the bottom of the email - other estates include Domaine Laguerre, Domaine du Traginer, Petite Baigneuse, Matassa, Oriol Artigas, and Mas d'en Gil!

Bruno Duchene
 
An ex-mushroom salesman from the Loire retires early to the South of France. He gets bored and decides to purchase a few hectares of low density vines on steep land impossible to work mechanically. While this doesn’t sound like a particularly relaxing retirement, what was born in 2002 turned out to be some of my favorite wines ever by Bruno Duchene.
 
Here in Banyuls, right on the coast of the Mediterranean and against the border with Spain, the Pyrenees run into the sea causing steep terraced vineyard sites, many abandoned due to their difficulty to farm. Bruno’s wines express the sea, the mountains and the sunshine of this beautiful part of France. All of his vines are on poor schist soils, farmed organically, and face the Mediterranean. Bruno names wines after his dog, his boat, friends & family- I love this playful approach to some seriously great wines!
 
Today on offer are five wines from Bruno Duchene- La Luna Blanc, La Luna Rose, La Luna Rouge, and La Pascoldine (first time release blend of two vineyard sites, La Pascole and L’Anodine!) Also a special magnum only release of Maximus De La Pascole, a collaboration with Nicolas Carmarans. 
 
-Marisa Licandro

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Celler 9 +
 
Moisès Virgili grew up in La Nou de Gaià, a small town near Tarragona, Spain. After studying enology and gaining experience in vineyards abroad and across Catalunya, he came back home to start Celler 9+ in 2010; always with the intention of working organically and using low to no sulfites.
 
What began as a garage project is now a 35-hectare farm, half of which consists of vines, the other half of carob, olives and grains. Though he makes use of bio-dynamic methods in the vineyard, he doesn’t market his wines as such, and is ongoing in his search for ways in which to, in his own words, “restore the organic matter and biodiversity of the degraded soil.” On the menu today are bottles of Sumoll, a red-blend, and a skin-contact wine of Cartoixa Vermell a pinkish-skinned mutation* of Xarel-lo (calling all fans of Moschofilero), none of which see oak aging, and all three of which would make a lovely pairing with everyone's favorite tapa, croquetas de jamon!
 
-Nicolas Douglas
 
*Some winemakers in the region contend that Cartoixa Vermell is completely distinct from Xarel-lo, but it is most commonly accepted as a mutation/clone of Xarel-lo

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