ESCODA-SANAHUJA “ELS BASSOTETS”

2024 GRAPES: 70% GARNATXA BLANCA, 20% PARELLADA, 10% GARNATXA GRIS SKIN CONTACT: 5 DAYS REGION: CONCA DE BARBERÀ, CATALONIA, SPAIN Producer: Celler Escoda-Sanahuja is the life’s work of Joan Ramón Escoda and Mari Carme Sanahuja, who founded it in 1999 in the hills of Prenafeta, in Conca de Barberà, Catalonia. After years in a large Catalan cellar and travels through the vineyards of France — shaped by friendships with Marcel Lapierre in Beaujolais and Thierry Puzelat in the Loire — Joan Ramón became one of Spain’s great natural-wine pioneers and a founder of the country’s Natural Wine Producers’ Association (PVN). Since 2005 he has worked entirely without added sulfites, farming biodynamically and vinifying with native yeasts in concrete, steel, and (since 2013) amphorae, with no fining, filtration, or stabilisation. He trusts intuition over numbers — and the wines are all the more alive for it. Vinification: A skin-macerated white led by Garnatxa Blanca with Parellada and a little Garnatxa Gris. After about five days on the skins, it ferments with native yeasts and ages six months in cement tanks. Unfined, unfiltered, with no added sulfur. Tasting notes: medium-bodied, dried apricot, orange peel, fennel and almond, with a saline, gently grippy finish Pairings: grilled lamb chops, grilled artichokes, aged Manchego DRINK: NOW TO 2029 BIODYNAMIC