The history of the vineyard and wine from the Empordà dates back at least 2,500 years. Archaeology confirms the existence of wild vineyards and the wine trade. The cultivation of the vineyard and the elaboration of wine in the Roman villas of the first centuries of our era are already known. Later, the Benedictines – the builders of Europe- and other religious orders continued, extended cultivation, and became the first great socialisers of wine.
They planted vines on the plains and slopes. The plains surrounding Sant Pere de Rodes were full of vines, sustained by the balance of tens of kilometres of dry stone wall, which prevented erosion caused by torrential rains. Today these elements of the landscape have been recovered to maintain history, to recover crops and protect the mountains.
Throughout history, different authors have referred to the wines of the Empordà. One of the most famous is Hans Christian Andersen, in I Spanien, published in 1866, about his journey through the peninsula in the months of September to December 1862, just one year before the first appearance in Europe of Phylloxera, the insect that changed our history. The Danish writer arrived at the peninsula through the Empordà, in a stagecoach from Perpignan, the last train stop before the border. On the way to Gerona, the stagecoach stopped at Figueres:
«In Figueres a set lunch table was waiting for us […]. The table was full of cured meats, meat dishes of all kinds, boiled fish and fried fish. An excellent table for a lunch in a Spain, where it was said there was no food that could not be tased! Incomparable fruit, gleaming wines…».
Before Andersen, one of the great medieval wise men, Francesc Eiximenis (1330-1409), already praised the Empordà wines among the best in the world at the time, as we read in a chapter of the Terç del Crestià: «Dels vermells de la terra no puix beure, per tal bec d’estiu calabresc de Santo Noixet, túrpia o trilla, picapoll de Mallorca, rosset o dels clarets d’Avinyó. D’hivern he del de Madrid de Castella, e d’aquells fins espanyols, o del de Gascunya, o del monastrell d’Empordà. […] A sopar bec de Beuna o de sent Porçà e faç-me refrescar les cames amb aigües precioses». The monastrell was supposed to be a sweet wine, as it has qualities for sweet dishes as proved by other denominations of the Crown of Aragón.
In 1975, the Empordà Denomination of Origin was created and characterised mainly by the wines produced with the different varieties of Grenache, which here is called lledoner, with Cinsaut or Carignan, the Macabeo and the Muscatel from Alexandria.
Today, however, growing vineyards is no longer limited to the Empordà region, and production covers all the territories in the Gerona area, from the sea to the high mountains, wine making in many ways and styles, with different results, some close to tradition and others closer to natural wines, completely free, personal and with unique results.
The wines with the 2020 – 2021 Girona Excel·lent seal
Vall de Molinàs white 2018
Celler Hugas de Batlle started in 2002 in Colera, with the clear idea of perpetuating the environment, without losing the thread of history. So they planted the vines in straight lines on dry stone terraces, with magnificent views of the Mediterranean, which gives character to its wines. The Vall de Molinàs white is a wine made only with hand-harvested white Grenache, aged for three months in French oak barrels.
Company: Celler Hugas de Batlle, SA
Gerisena white 2019
The Gerisena winery has made this wine with hand-harvested grapes from white hackberry vineyards over 50 years old. Prior to the fermentation of the grape juice, the grapes are macerated to extract the primary aromas of the ripe fruit. The grape juice is then macerated with lees for a week to extract it aromatic potential. The fermentation of the grape juice is done at a controlled temperature. The aging is done in new French oak barrels for five months with the wine sediments.
Company: Agrícola de Garriguella i Rabós SCCL
Oriol rosé 2019
Rosés were in the past the most characteristic wines of the Empordà. Now Vinyes dels Aspres presents this 2019 Oriol rosé, made exclusively with red Grenache, one of the most characteristic varieties of the Empordà. Of a bright red colour, between a strawberry and a fig, it is a rosé with considerable body. From an aromatic point of view, it has fresh grass with hinted notes of citrus, and in the mouth, there are notes of fresh figs and tree cherries.
Company: Joaquim Albertí, SA
Babalà, a vivacious red wine 2020
The Espolla cooperative, founded in 1931, makes this wine with a blend of 85% black hackberry and 15% red hackberry. Babalà is a red wine of a medium maceration fermented in cement deposits and aged for four months in contact with the sediments and pieces of oak. Cherry red in colour, it has a fresh fruit aroma with aniseed notes and, on the palate, it is sweet and with tannins.
Company: Celler Cooperatiu d’Espolla, SCCL
Camí de Cormes 2017
The Roig Parals winery is a family winery with 18 hectares of vineyards that in 2004 was incorporated into the Empordà denomination of origin. However, its activity of cultivating the vineyard was documented in 1850 in Mollet de Peralada, so they have some century-old vines. In particular, the Camí de Cormes is a red wine made with Carignan grapes vines over a hundred years old, which give it a great personality.
Company: Roig Parals, SL
Generous wines
A pleading document from the monks of Sant Andreu de Sureda, in Rosselló, addressed to the French king Pepin the Short (714-768), father of Emperor Charlemagne, called for protection for the vineyards of the Albera coastal slopes – that separate the Empordà, to the south, from Rosselló in the north – in view of the vineyard plantations on the plains, and expressly requested that the name Grenache from Empordà was reserved. Although it is not known what kind of wine it was, in all regions the sweet wine is the most characteristic. In fact, Grenache, a natural sweet wine made with hackberry, is the most unique and characteristic product of the whole Empordà denomination of origin.
Grenache or Garnacha is a generous wine with hints of ancestral rancidity, as it is oxidized in old wood barrels, which concentrate flavours and aromas and are soaked in the memory of the old sediments. People are often delighted by the dozens of irregular carafes lined up in the sun with serene, aging, and oxidising Empordà Grenaches. Located on windows sills, landings, staircases or corners of courtyards, these carafes are a fascinating object.
Generous wines with the Girona Excel·lent 2020 – 2021 seal
Torre de Capmany, Grenache Gran Reserva
Although the Pairó family has a long history related to the wine that has been documented since 1871, the Pere Guardiola winery was not opened until the end of the eighties. Using the Grenache barrels in “soleras” they began to make the Torre de Capmany exclusively with the white hackberry variety. It is matured following traditional Empordà method with old family “soleras”, a minimum of two years.
Company: Pere Guardiola, SL
Sweet muscatel wine L’Eròtic
The Roig Parals winery makes this natural sweet wine with small-grained muscatel grapes from old vineyards and overripened on the plant. Muscatel is one of the most classic sweet wines of the Empordà, usually sweeter and more floral. Roig Parals adds elegance and subtlety.
Company: Roig Parals, SL
Dolç de Gerisena 2019
The agricultural cooperative of Garriguella i Rabós dedicates 30 hectares of its best old vineyards, with an average of 70 years old, to the wines of its Celler Gerisena. Although Garriguella is famous for Grenache, Celler Gerisena has a sweet wine made with black Cinsaut (Carignan) from over 50-year-old mountain vineyards, which has been aged for 12 months in oak barrels and 12 months in unfired terracotta earthenware amphoras.
Company: Agrícola de Garriguella i Rabós SCCL
Bac de les Ginesteres
Cherry root colour. Aromas of vine peach jam, orange and almond blossom, fresh butter, coconut shell, aniseed and walnuts. Roasted sweet potato flavour and nuts. All of this makes up the Bac de les Ginesteres, one of the most unique wines of the Empordà. Vinyes dels Aspres is made with red Grenache grapes, which are left to germinate for 59 days, before being pressed as if fresh. Once fermented for months in stainless steel deposits, they mature for 50 months in the sun and serene in 20-litre glass carafes.
Company: Joaquim Albertí, SA
El jurat del
tast de vins.
Josep Roca
Sommelier del restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, de Girona
Anna Vicens
Presidenta de l’Associació Catalana de Sommeliers
Ignasi Martín
Professor de l’Escola d’Hostaleria i Turisme de Girona
Josep Lluís Vilarasau
Professor de l’Escola d’Hostaleria i Turisme de Girona
Àlex Peiró
Sommelier del restaurant Casamar, de Llafranc
Lluís Coll
Professor de l’Escola d’Hostaleria i Turisme de Girona
Glòria Ensesa
Sommelier del Giroví, concurs de vins i caves de Catalunya
Audrey Doré
Sommelier del restaurant El Celler de Can Roca, de Girona
Antonio Gata
Sommelier del restaurant Miramar, de Llançà
Natàlia Roig
Sommelier i professora del CETT (Campus de Turisme, Hoteleria i Gastronomia) de Barcelona
