2012 is coming along, and the chilling breath of the winter makes its presence noticeable in Gratallops. It’s the right moment to draw a bottom line of what we have done this year and what experiences we have lived.
In January we opened our winery’s outlet at 52 Piró, at the entrance to Gratallops, close to the road from Falset through La Vilella Baixa to Escaladei. Here is an access map. In this store we have all the range of our wines: Mas de les Valls (holding a silver medal from Mundus Vini 2011), Cupatge ("the old-style" wine), Rocapoll, wine from the village of Gratallops (our "grand cru") and, of course, Il·lia, of which we already have enough vintages to make a good vertical tasting, which we will discuss shortly.
In addition, at the Devinssi wine shop, you can find Cava Renardes, an artisanal sparkling to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve and Diviño (Albariño monovarietal of the DO Rias Baixas, Galicia) from a sister winery in Pontevedra. Do not forget the DO Siurana olive oil produced by Vinícola del Priorat, Gratallops, it is also at your disposal in our shop, along with some designer cruets.
In January we opened our winery’s outlet at 52 Piró, at the entrance to Gratallops, close to the road from Falset through La Vilella Baixa to Escaladei. Here is an access map. In this store we have all the range of our wines: Mas de les Valls (holding a silver medal from Mundus Vini 2011), Cupatge ("the old-style" wine), Rocapoll, wine from the village of Gratallops (our "grand cru") and, of course, Il·lia, of which we already have enough vintages to make a good vertical tasting, which we will discuss shortly.
In addition, at the Devinssi wine shop, you can find Cava Renardes, an artisanal sparkling to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve and Diviño (Albariño monovarietal of the DO Rias Baixas, Galicia) from a sister winery in Pontevedra. Do not forget the DO Siurana olive oil produced by Vinícola del Priorat, Gratallops, it is also at your disposal in our shop, along with some designer cruets.
Since October we have also provided for the original Priorat Souvenir merchandise (by DeoStudio, Falset). They are different wine accessories (corkscrews, vacuvin-style air pumps, wine-glass coasters, mugs, decanters, etc.). There are some nifty magnets made of slate stone featuring "Priorat" and "Montsant" inscriptions, original wine-glass coasters to identify the colour of the wine and especially the colouring book called "Pinta el Priorat" with a set colour pencils for young tourists, so that kids can amuse themselves learning about some very typical things of the area while grown-ups enjoy discovering others.
In February-March we lived a period of calçots “rush”. We took the most of some good days to host some calçotada visits. In late April - early May we participated in the Wine Fair at the Castle of Falset.
In June, Devinssi wines, together with other gourmet foods from “Taula Selecció” wine shop were part of the youth handball tournament Salou Cup 2011 by former team handball player of FC Barcelona Andrey Xepkin.
The same month of June we started to introduce our special gift offer: grapevine adoption in Gratallops, DOQ Priorat. We began with our Rocapoll estate planted with old Carignan vines, many of which were date back as far as 80 years ago.
Last summer’s high season brought us quite plenty of winery-and-vineyard tours, with people from across the world, with huge desire to learn about our so special winemaking region. In the second half of July the vines began to ripen, which is a very stunning moment, and by the end of August, after an impressive heat wave we harvested the first crops of the year.
Undoubtedly, the core grape harvest season was in September. Those were very hectic weeks of winery chores and multiple wine tourists: intense harvest with the participation of some new guardians of our grapevines and the subsequent first stage of wine-making. Concerning the grapevine guardians, on 14 September the ARA.CAT newspaper issued an article about the practice of adoption of crop plants and farm animals where our new experience of grapevine adoption in Gratallops (DOQ Priorat) was used as an example of the increasing trend of people looking for local products to fetch them to their dining table, and thus reviving their ties with the countryside, its people, and perennial values.
And it was also right at that moment that TV3 came over to film the “DOQ Priorat” report for the “Ton un món” programme about our member Jordi Ustrell (popularly known as Yura or Jordi) that explains in brief the lives of small artisan wineries and shows footages of Gratallops vineyards (including the Rocapoll estate) with the Montsant mountain at the backdrop. The video features Josep Roca, the creator, designer and producer of our artisan wines, and Sergi Romero, the person in charge of the winery and vineyards.
Also in September, we met many people working in tourism: Siniša and Sara of Sweeteasy, both deeply passionate about the world of DOQ Priorat and Penedès wines. Veronika of Happy in Spain, a Russian lady in love with Barcelona and eager to explore new areas of Catalonia. And many more ...
October revealed the first traces of early autumn, which allowed us to make these extraordinary pictures.
In early October, a wine walking tour for wine lovers called “On dormen els llops?” ("Where wolves sleep") took place, which was the initiative of the “Bonviure” (Gratallops) and “Celler de Can Mata” (Sant Just Desvern) wine shops and which was a great success. During the hike, each wine was tasted at its respective estate of origin: 2007Clos Mogador, 2007 Finca Dofí, 2006 La vinya del Vuit, 2005 Clos Erasmus, and 2008 Rocapoll, which was a great honour for our vi de la vila from the recently recovered estate.In the same month, DOQ Priorat wines were exhibited in a special display at El Corte Inglés of Tarragona. Among them, we found our Il·lia and Mas de les Valls.
In October news arrved about the silver medal in the international competition Mundus Vini (Germany) for our 2006 Mas de les Valls. Soon after came the scores of our wines in the Guía Peñín wine book (2008 Mas de les Valls 88, 2007 Il·lia 89) and the Guide to Wines of Catalonia (2008 Mas de les Valls 9.08). What would be the next step? Sending a couple of cases to Robert Parker’s address?
On 11-13 November, our wines were exhibited at the Forum Vini 2011 international wine fair in Munich, Germany, thanks to the initiative of a local client, Rainer Froch of Der Weinzwerg. Finally, in December, during the Christmas campaign moving full speed ahead, our wines were exhibited at the Wine Festival in El Papiol organized by the “Taula Selecció” wine and gourmet shop (Barcelona-Sants).
We wish you a Happy 2012 and we encourage you to visit our wine region during the Christmas break.
Have a great holiday!
Devinssi Winery, Gratallops, Priorat
