This year's vist to Grau

The temple of wine 'Grau' is situated in the town of Palafrugell, near Begur in the province of Girona in Catalunya, Spain.

Generous friends have invited us in past years to stay with them at their house nearby so we always make the pilgrimage to the cavernous Grau and never return empty handed or disappointed. It really is a destination in itself. You would not be totally mad to take a Ryanair flight to Girona, stock up at Grau and return the same day all for the price of shipping and tax on a 12 bottle case. UK customs allow 12 bottles of wine duty free. If you ship the same 12 bottles costs can amount to up to £90 plus the shipping costs.

Apart from anything else, which other wine shop has their own row of vines outside?

Surprising Dynamic Vines sticker on back.

Grau has only a relatively small selection of natural wines but among them we found Oriol Artigas's 'La Rumbera.' Oriol Artigas is a famous producer in the Alella region. His story of great successes from a standing start is fascinating. However, a couple of years ago he found a strange new mildew in his vineyard which he had never seen before. It destroyed his entire production. Such are the esteem and affection in which his colleagues, agents and importers hold him that they paid for his missed vintage anyway so he could recover and repay them in the future.

'La Rumbera' ('The Rumble' in Catalan) was his staple white made from Xarel-lo. It is really delicious although unmistakenly a natural wine. This may put off anyone still unable to accept the taste of wine as it was through history until relatively recently.

 

The other Xarel-lo we bought was by one of our other favourite Catalan producers Vinyes Singulars. This was actually Xarel-lo Vermell and was quite marvellous at only 11.8%. It is remarkable wow Xarel-lo and Xarel-lo Vermell have been recognised only recently as the great varieties they are. We especially like the Vermell (= red in Catalan). Perhaps the grapes used in Cava have been unjustly overlooked given the fact that Cava has lagged behind other sparkling wines in recent times viz. Prosecco. We see Trepat also emerging from the fog as well. We're not so sure about Macabeu and Parellada although some good examples of these varieties in purezza are coming through.

 

Other purchases from Grau included a Callet from Mallorca and a €.2 white from a bin of remainedered wines.

In terms of rare grape varieties, on this trip we didn't find anything over and above the wines we had bought on previous occasions (see this Blog). there were two wines we had heard about which we were hoping to find; the first was Jaen Tinto or Tinta (synonyms Calagraño Negro, Jaén Negro, Jaén Negro de Granada, Jaén Negro de Sevilla, Jaén Negro de Seville, Jaén Noir, Jaén Prieto, Jaén Prieto de Grenade, Jaén Prieto de Seville, Jaén Prieto Tinto, Morisca Negra, Negro und Tinto Jaén - not to be confused with Mencia which has the synonym Jaen Tinto).

The second more surprisingly was a Nebbiolo made in Spain. The knowledgeable staff at Grau had never heard of these and may have not believed they existed although our information was copper-bottomed. 

 

In fact both these wines are made by an interesting producer called Pedro Olivares in Andalucia. Olivares devoted himself to rare grape varieties and original vinifications such as a red sparkling version of Jaen Tinta.

100% Nebbiolo - 'unico in Espana'

 and the Jaen Tinta;

The Jaen of Portugal (mainly Dao) is Mencia, not this one.