The Cellar

Well aware that a large part of success in winemaking depends on the quality of the raw material, the grapes are treated with the utmost care from the moment they are picked until they reach the cellar to ensure they maintain their characteristics: Grapes are picked by hand and transported to the cellar in 20kg boxes. At the reception area of the cellar they are sorted according to degree of ripeness and sanitary state and pass a strict selection table. The grapes with the ideal degree of ripeness undergo a pre-fermentation maceration to exploit their aromatic typicity.

The grapes are pressed in our pneumatic press and the first must undergoes a static clarification in small stainless steel tanks to separate the juice from the solids in suspension. These techniques help us achieve a clearer must without having to use oenological products, maintaining the primary characteristics of the grapes.

The wines ferment at a controlled low temperature in stainless steel tanks or in new Allier French oak barrels. The low temperatures make for slow fermentations that can take as long as three months, but the prolonged contact with the finer lees give greater aromatic and taste complexity. At the same time these long fermentations allow the wines to self-clarify, thus conserving their aromatic characteristics and intensity and reducing the number of rakings required.

In barrel-fermentation, once the alcoholic and malolactic fermentations are completed, the ageing period begins. During ageing, the lees are regularly stirred (battonage) to round the taste and aromas of the wine. The length of the ageing period varies year to year depending on the vintage and is determined by regularly tasting the barrels.

Finally the wines are stabilised and filtered prior to bottling.

The cellar in Santa Maria de MartorellesVinification hallLluis Font, winemakerSelection tableThe old farmhouseVeremaEmbotellat