{"product_id":"carmen-2023-celler-escoda-sanahuja","title":"Carmen 2023 - Celler Escoda-Sanahuja","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis cuvée is from a selection of the finst Cabernet Franc picked eached year, from 28 year old vines growing at 450 masl on limestone. The bunches were destemmed before an 18 day maceration, the longest of the wines we have from Joan Ramon right now. Ageing was in 500L french oak casks.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe top red of the estate, named for Joan-Ramon's wife Mari-Carmen, whose family they inherited the estate from. Bold, succulent fruits on the nose, with juniper, star anise, and lime leaf. Big volume on the palate, with bold tannins cushioned by sultry fruit volume. A racy acidity keeps this flowing, with the characteristic lucidity and structural complexity of Joan Ramon's treatment of his beloved Cabernet Franc.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJust 12 bottles made it to Ireland.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe producer\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eI was first introduced to Joan Ramon Escoda at his impressive cellar and adjoining restaurant Tossal Gros by Jordi Llorens. After spending the day with Jordi at his cellar in nearby Blancafort, I tagged along while he dropped wine to his old friend for a groupage shipment. What followed was a baptism of fire in Catalan wine that lasted late into the evening, and a candid introduction to the characters that sowed the seeds of the region's current rude health.\u003cbr\u003eJoan Ramon grew up in Reus, a petrochemical capital, where he excelled at motocross, winning a regional championship. At the behest of his wife Carmen, he shifted his focus to wine, and began his schooling at Carmen's family estate. After a stint working at a large commercial winery in Catalunya, he travelled across France, striking up an enduring friendship with Thierry Puzelat while in the Loire, which would deeply influence his philosophy going forward.\u003cbr\u003eIn 1997, Joan Ramon and Carmen took the reins at her family estate in Prenafeta, a tiny hamlet close to Montblanc. They set about converting to organics, before establishing the estate under the name Escoda-Sanahuja, as it's known today, in 1999. From this time the influence of biodynamics became more present in their work, in both the vineyard and the cellar, and the estate grew into a thriving system of polyculture, with olive groves and fruit trees merging between the vineyards. By 2005 the pair had ceased adding sulphur to the wines entirely, fining and filtration being things they had never practised. At the time this was unheard of in Catalunya, though they were convinced by the results.\u003cbr\u003eTheir estate sits on the clay and limestone slopes below Tossal Gros, a regional landmark whose pointed peak, just under 870 metres, is known locally as the Nas del Gegant, the giant's nose. A few kilometres away, the Cistercian monastery of Poblet, founded in 1151 and inhabited by monks to this day, cultivated vines through the Middle Ages, as the Romans had done before them.\u003cbr\u003eIn 2012 the cellar was built three storeys down into the mountain it sits on, reached by steep stairs or a rickety cage lift. Here Joan Ramon uses a mix of vessels, barrels, amphora of various sizes and steel, with the vintage determining how each is used. One thing is for certain: all the wines, whites and reds alike, are macerated on their skins, the length varying by cuvée, with Joan Ramon prizing fluidity above all.\u003cbr\u003eSurrounding the cellar, the vines remain splendidly isolated, ringed by forest and woods with no immediate neighbours. Flowers and grasses grow freely between the rows, and the vines are treated with herbal preparations through the growing season. Left to dig deep into the limestone for the water they need, they draw up the intense, almost cavernous minerality that illuminates each of his cuvées, year after year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe place\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eNot the first grape that comes to mind when we think of top Catalan wine, but this is the variety at it's very best. Cabernet Franc was established in the region by the time Joan Ramon and Mari-Carmen took over the family estate, but Joan Ramon's love of the Loire, where he spent a formative stint as an apprentice, made the variety's presence an especially happy coincidence. He has also planted Chenin since taking over. French varieties had been brought to Prenafeta by the Cistercian monks in Poblet in the middle ages, but it was the push by the Torres family who planted French varieties throughout the region that lead to the varieties inclusion in the Conca de Barberà DO. Here, on the elevated hillsides with nights that are relatively cool, the grape thrives, yielding wines that remain true to both variety and place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrapes:\u003c\/strong\u003e Cabernet Franc\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRegion:\u003c\/strong\u003e Prenafeta, Conca de Barberà, Catalunya, Spain\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eABV:\u003c\/strong\u003e 13.5%\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Celler Escoda-Sanahuja","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54988707463506,"sku":"1700487","price":58.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1116\/0246\/7154\/files\/carmen-2023-celler-escoda-sanahuja.webp?v=1791452515","url":"https:\/\/www.brianswines.ie\/products\/carmen-2023-celler-escoda-sanahuja","provider":"Brian's Wines","version":"1.0","type":"link"}