Looking up to Terra Alta
Year 15, No. 11
Highlights: Terra Alta 2025
Once upon a time, I was having lunch in the seaside town of Palamós on the Costa Brava—an activity I don't recommend for people who hate good food and a beautiful, wild Mediterranean coast.
It was a set lunch menu with local products and it included wine; a white wine as this is fish and seafood land (look up the gamba vermella de Palamós). However, when the bottle arrived, I was exceedingly dismayed to see that it was a Verdejo from DO Rueda…
I’ve nothing against Verdejo nor Rueda, but if one is in a wine-producing region that has plenty of whites (as is the case for Palamós being in DO Empordà) then there’s no reason to drag a light, young white wine across the entirety of Spain.
I took issue with it and the owner readily took issue with me as I could see he just wanted a cheap white wine given that the retail price for this Rueda wine was only 4€.
After grumbling about, he came back with another bottle of white. It wasn’t from Empordà nor even DO Penedès where 80% of the production is white, but, from DO Terra Alta. The retail price for that wine? 4.50€. I hope I didn’t destroy the restaurant in my bold request to drink local…
This was an interesting event however as I would have assumed the owner would have turned to Penedès or DO Catalunya, the latter a ‘DO’ that shouldn't exist as it allows massive cross-regional blending. The selection of Terra Alta was intriguing as it shows that the winemakers of this region are able to have reach these days given that Costa Brava is three hours northeast, at the opposite end of Catalunya from Terra Alta. But the issue of price is tricky as while it allows them to apparently compete with a dirt cheap wine from Rueda, is this the kind of Cava-ing they want to be doing?
It’s timely to mention this as I’ve just released the yearly DO Terra Alta report on the site. It and the nearly 100 wines tasted are fully accessible for subscribers right now.
The wines of this mostly-white and mostly-Garnatxa Blanca region continue to show very well. Additionally, the prices, as shown by this restaurant adventure, remain quite affordable as well. And, more to the point, despite recent hot vintages, the wines are showing much better than many regions in the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula.
In an unrelated recent trip to the Costa Brava region, I had the pleasure to attend the always-brilliant ‘Festival’ from the winery of Perelada which really rounds out the excellent Perelada Experience (*) as this, is an actual exeperience.
And of course, things just keep rolling for the top-tiered sparkling wine group of Corpinnat as they added their 16th member (*). This latest addition is the well-established cellar of Kripta, who were previously with Cava before realizing that that ship has a mighty and rather unseable hole to it.
But now it’s time to check out this “beach” thing that so many people talk about. Anyone up for an island rosé?
Drink well, be well.
-Miquel
(*) Free to read