Highlights: Costers del Segre & Conca de Barberà 2025
I once paid a visit to a winery in the hinterlands of Roussillon, France and, as I arrived, their picking team was coming in, wrapping up for the day. They started a cooking fire right in the front of winery with some retreating to the tents they’d pitched by the entrance. While the winery was more functional in look and didn’t have the grounds of some multi-million dollar estate in Napa, it still seemed like a scene of occupation by protestors. And then they started grilling meat on the fire.
“Well, that’s a curious assortment you have there?”
“Yeah, they claim to be from Spain, but only one seems to actually speak Spanish and good god they’re slow.”
“Too much weed or… not enough?”
“Not enough of something, that’s for sure.”
I was reminded of this as we come to that time of year when the, “irregulars” who have descended upon wine regions for the grape harvest, all take off for either another kind of harvest or, perhaps back to the carnival circuit, I guess.
People will often ask me where these workers come from as anyone can see that’s a very mixed bag. Where I am in Priorat, the force is largely local given that the mix of grape varieties allows for a long (albeit tiring) picking season and so you don’t need a massive force all at once. This year it was spread over 6-8 weeks.
There are a few migrants from sub-Saharan Africa that are usually employed year round. Same goes for the Romanians. And then you have this irregular group of oddballs making up the difference of which I was one when I worked my first full harvest back in 2014.
A winery needs people who know what they’re doing though and the more irregular a group you get, the more sorting you have once all the grapes come in. This was the case when visiting the winery where I did my first harvest the other week and while chatting with the owner we looked at the boxes of their small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon that had just come in. Many were raisined and some even had fungal damage—par for the course with a variety poorly adapted to the Iberian Peninsula. The owner wasn’t amused.
“Why did they pick some of this shit? The sorting group isn’t going to be happy…”
But, as of the week before last, it’s all wrapped up for everyone, just as the weather has started to become fall-ish and difficult for those random irregulars to crash in a tent at the front of a winery, grilling various dead animals over an open flame.
If however one is to wander about the Catalan countryside this time of year, one will find wonderful things, including grilled animals if so inclined. This change of season is why I use it as the time to visit the wineries of Costers del Segre & Conca de Barberà. This latest report took me out to the countryside in Central Catalunya which is always wonderful, especially for eating.
And while some may drink their sparkling wines with grand pleasure during the summer, as the fall rolls into gear, I too roll into sparkling wine. This has been no better shown than the release of the Corpinnat Harvest Report. They’ve had a great deal of movement lately, including many new cellars joining in 2025 as well as new wines such as l’Infinit from Recaredo.
Drink well, be well.
-Miquel
(*) Free to read
The Featured Report
Costers del Segre & Conca de Barberà 2025
Two very interesting DOs in the center of Catalunya which are both working to carve out their own identities in very similar and very different manners.
And now this
When is a wine more than the “little brother”? When it’s the Dido from Venus la Universal.
It’s never not the right time to take a look at the very fine gastronomic offer in Priorat, such as that of Restaurant Amics.
Do you want a little ‘follador’ in your life? If it’s a Prosecco quite possibly and maybe even if it isn’t ;)
And lastly if there was more DO Toro like this, then we’d be hearing even more about Toro.