The heights of the Terra Alta
Year 14, No. 18
Highlights: DO Terra Alta Report | La Cartoixa 50th Anniversary
Last week was the Big Cleanup from all the tastings over the summer.
It’s a large time investment, but one must collapse down the towers of accumulated cardboard boxes in the cellar and get it all out to recycling. In the process I often find myself cursing those few cellars who, for some reason still use god awful styrofoam packaging which I actively discourage as there are zero reasons to use it at this point…
When I got to a box which had had some wines from Bulgaria in it, I realized that I missed one somehow. The reason being that it wasn’t a bottle of wine, but a can. Yes, it was a can of Bulgarian Rosé made from the grape, Gamza, aka Kardarka, Kallmet, and many other names in the Balkans.
Curious as to what lay within, I put it in the fridge and opened it that evening. Upon tasting it, my immediate reaction was, “Why are we doing this?”
I’m very much aware that aluminum cans are potentially a less carbon-intensive manner to transport wine, (read more (*)) but the wine inside wasn’t anywhere near as good as the same wine I’d tasted in a glass bottle.
And this is something we’re seeing more and more in that people are trying to chase trends rather than accepting what something is. In this case, glass bottles are clearly better for this wine, but we need accept that they’re heavier and put into place adequate reuse and recycling facilities. After all, glass can be recycled infinitely and these days via electric furnaces run with solar electricity.
There’s a similar issue when it comes to non-alcoholic wine, which is that we need to accept, is utterly terrible. It tastes nothing like real wine and probably will never taste anything like real wine as you’re stripping away 11-15% of that wine.
Or then we have all the new statistics stating that the only segment of wine consumption that’s growing is white wine. Everything else is theoretically in decline. At some point we need to accept that perhaps there are just too many red grapes planted, there is a market contraction because of this, and people are in fact now drinking “less, but better”. Everyone had been preaching for some time, but are now terrified that it’s come to be.
The solution to a decline in red wine sales isn’t to simply switch red vines over to white as fast as possible and hope that in 3-5 years these will still be the trends (watch out for ‘hard kombucha’). Chasing trends is not accepting reality, but palliative triage.
I mention all of this not because of a canned Rosé from Bulgaria, but because the DO Terra Alta Report has been released this week. This is a unique region in Catalunya as the production is nearly 60% white grapes. Despite this, I’ve heard from some producers that they’re looking to change over to more white production. I understand that maybe the reds aren’t selling as fast as people would like, but perhaps everyone needs to accept the need to produce less in general? I realize this is a hard pill to swallow when we’ve been drowning in the ‘rot economy’ concept of infinite growth in wine.
I always need to remind everyone that back in 2013, they were predicting a wine shortage, not a glut, so be exceedingly careful when it comes to trends.
You ignore trends, remove constraints or ignore reality and you end up becoming a well-known director from the 1970s who releases a $120 million, unwatchable film in 2024.
Speaking of the 1970s, I also had the absolute pleasure of attending the 50th Anniversary of Scala Dei’s la Cartoixa wine. This was an amazing experience to taste over a half century of their existence starting with the 1974 la Cartoixa which is the wine that basically “launched a thousand ships” in Priorat.
Drink well, be well.
-Miquel
(*) Free to read
The Featured Report
Terra Alta 2024
It’s always exciting to taste from Catalunya’s “Deep South” and this report which has 125 wines tasted and reviewed was no exception and showed that their unique climate and variety composition make for some great wines.
And now this
Who ever knew that wine could be fun again? Hannah Crosbie’s book “Corker” (*) makes it just that and does it in fine style.
The breakaway sparkling wine group, Corpinnat held their third “Nit de la Verema” to give everyone an update on where they sit as well as taste a fine selection of wines from the (currently) 12 producers.
Is Assyrtiko a wine to have when you’re having a bad day? Damned right it is and this Dalamára – Kapnistos gives you a good option that’s not from Santorini but Greece’s mainland.
It was time to have another look at the wines of Can Sumoi in Penedès which is a unique, evolving project founded by Pepe Raventós.
There’s a long-aged sparkling rosé from DOC Rioja, made from Grenache? Yes indeed there is and it’s an interesting one.
And lastly, what would life be, without a couple of dummies?