Clear purple red colour with violet reflections. From the opening, the prominent nose offers notes of redcurrant and blackcurrant with a mix of cinnamon, cardamom, and gingerbread spices. Then, we find the crushed black olives and the ripe red fruits. The freshness is felt from the start in the mouth, with many small ripe red fruits such as redcurrant and a certain concentration while remaining light and elegant. The tannins are very supple, well melted and the finish is long, complex with iodine and floral notes reminiscent of peony and violet.

Best served at 15-17ºC. A perfect accompaniment for suckling pig, lamb marinated with mint and lime, carbonara and pecorino cheese.

We spent a day with owner and winemaker Marc Bournazeau (and a number of his cats and dogs!). He is stylish and design oriented - which is evident as soon as you see the winery that he constructed with his wife, with the help of leading Spanish architect and friend of the family Pepe Cortés.

Marc takes great pride in his work and his land. In terms of his wine-making philosophy, here's how he explains it:

"The vineyards are grouped around the winery, which houses the equipment for making the different wines. This means that the harvested grapes can be brought in very quickly. The main criteria governing the winery’s organisation can be resumed in three concepts: quality, respect for the raw materials and identity.

Obtaining wines of high quality is our primary objective. It is for this reason that the owners try to isolate grapes of quality as far as possible during the entire process, from the vine to the ageing of the wines.

Moreover, we believe that the greater the quality of the raw material, the lower the need for intervention at the level of the winemaking and ageing process. We try to reduce to a minimum any interventions that may harm the grapes, in order to respect the original quality of the fruit.

In short, our philosophy is to bring personalised service into the making of each of our wines. Given that the factors playing a role in the development of a wine are numerous (grape type, soil, climate, fermentation time, ageing, etc.), we conceive the winemaking for each wine as a unique process that cannot be systematically repeated. In short, in view of the complexity of the respective viticultural and oenological tasks, we work on “individualism” in each phase of wine production, taking into account the unique specifications of each one of our wines."

We would summarise Marc as an experimental perfectionist (with a very accommodating wife who keeps asking him to reduce not expand the line-up!). And Marc is charming too. We look forward to visiting him and his family again soon, and to their next visit to London.

The DO Terra Alta appellation was established in 1982 in the most southern wine region of Catalonia, located between the Ebro delta and the Aragon lands.

Its sublime landscapes have allowed it to be recognised by UNESCO as a biodiversity reserve. Inland, its spectacular landscapes influenced by the Mediterranean offer an extremely varied flora. The limestone mountain ranges, pre-coastal traversed by rivers are sprinkled with green oak woods and white pine woods but also agricultural land for the cultivation of almond trees, vines and olive trees, typical crops of Terra Alta.

These lands benefit from a dry Mediterranean climate with a strong continental influence during the winter as well as an important exposure to the sun and a low rainfall (between 300 and 500 mm per year). The two dominant winds are the “Cierzo” coming from the northwest and the “Garbinades”, sea winds from the south.

This magnificent terroir, kingdom of Garnatcha (Grenache), gives the white and red autochthonous vines sublime characteristics, expressions of the Mediterranean limestone terroir.

Moving on Up (2*).

Terra Remota (which is partnered with the Adalta vineyard) is a visionary winery project. Winemaker and owners Marc and Emma have created something special in the granitic soils of the Pyrannean foothills, with beautifully designed architecture of the winery, built sympathetically into the landscape. The vineyard has organic certification since 2012 and organic practice over its initial 15 hectares since inception, while the Adalta plots are undergoing organic conversion now. Marc uses gravity throughout the winery, and rainwater harvesting from the winery roof which covers the additional watering required in the hot summers of Girona.

Red | Still | 75cl | 14.5% ABV | SO2 17mg/L

Annual Production: 6,000 bottles

Cellaring: Ready to drink now, but will also lay down for 3+ years

Vinification: Grapes sorted and de-stemmed. Extraction
by light daily pumping over. Alcoholic fermentation at controlled temperature (21-22°C),
maceration of 5 weeks, aging of 8 months.
Collage, light filtration, bottling.

Vineyard last visited by Wine&Earth's co-founders Martin & Toby in Autumn 2021

• Organic - Undergoing Conversion & Certification