“This is a wine that serves to talk about forbidden things,” says the winemaker and biologist Ester Nin, referring to her white Cariñena Planetes, a grape that is not yet among the varieties authorized by the D.O.Q. Priorat, although it is expected to be so in the coming months. Nin, in charge of the Familia Nin Ortiz winery, and Sara Pérez, from Mas Martinet, lament that bureaucracy and slow administrative processes are a drag on creativity. Sometimes transgression is the only way out for innovation and to encourage change.
Nin and Pérez represent the vanguard of Priorat, of the magic of llicorella, the terroir that captivated them and which they consider one of the best in the world. They talked about the joys that llicorella gives, vindictive wines, the damage caused by roe deer to crops, the drought, the landscape and the suffocating bureaucracy on Monday, in the conversation they had with the sommelier Clara Antúnez, in Porrera, in one of the proposals of the Fira del Vi of the two denominations of origin of the region, the aforementioned DOQ Priorat and Montsant.
The path that led Nin to her white Planetes in the land of reds is worth telling. The story goes back to 2007. “That year we took wood from old Cariñena vines from the Mas d’en Caçador farm, in Porrera, and took it to a nursery to obtain new vines. It must be specified that this could be done in the 2007, but not now. When we planted it, white cariñena came out and we thought the nurseryman had made a mistake. He told us no, we went back to the vineyard and found a white vine, we took it to the DOQ Priorat regulatory council for analysis, where the technicians concluded that it was black, that’s why we know that our white carignan is the result of a mutation”, details Nin. “I am from Penedès and I said that I would never shoot a target in Priorat, a very hot area with high degrees, but…”, he adds. It should be noted that all his wines come from following the principles of biodynamic agriculture.
As stated by Salustià Ãlvarez, president of the DOQ Priorat, the white carignan is accepted in the register of varieties of the Catalan administration, after it was recovered in the Empordà , and of the Spanish, so the process to accept it in this designation of origin is in the final stretch. One of the requirements is to complete its vinification in an experimental field for five years. Nin specifies that they are “in the last step”.
“The white Carignan motivated me because its alcoholic degree is not very high and we are moving towards a time when climate change is pushing us to look for fresher wines,” adds Nin. Priorat sets a minimum of 13 degrees for whites and 13.5 for reds, levels that producers like her consider should be reviewed for some wines.
“But everything is so slow. I was about to abandon the project with the white carignan, I had to go to the limit, it is distressing and you have a hard time. Sometimes you come across situations that you did not expect: I found this variety, I I loved it, I vinified it and along the way I have encountered many difficulties, I fight to expand the margins of the regulations to be able to do things. I have decided that I will no longer plant new estates because of the bureaucracy, it is a brutal job”, comments the winemaker , whose Nit de Nin Mas d’en Caçador 2020 obtained 100 points from The Wine Advocate guide, last October. The Clos i Terrasses Clos Erasmus 2020 from the Daphne Glorian winery, also from Nin, also obtained the highest rating for the fourth time.
Nin and Pérez say that sometimes they have no choice but to follow paths parallel to the norm to progress. “If we have to wait for permission to be given, we can die, it’s better to go outside the herd, create a network and evolve. The important thing is to take care of the process, how we relate to nature and the community, open our minds, be freer, grow “, says Pérez, who also runs the Venus “la Universal” winery with his partner, René Barbier. On Monday he presented a rosé that has not been released on the market, Verge de Martinet, a wine that is the fruit of the first day of the harvest, from the treading of the grapes, as was done in the past, and that ferments without the skins. “Everything I can imagine and do is legal, let’s let go, without labeling,” Pérez added.
The impact of climate change and drought can be seen in Priorat. It is only necessary to take a walk through Porrera, the scene of this conversation, to see that not a drop of water flows down the Cortiella River. “We add 28 months of drought,” deplores Nin, predicting that this year the harvest could begin on unthinkable dates, around August 7. This forecast is subject to variations depending on the upcoming weather conditions. If it rains and the temperatures drop, the harvest would begin around the 17th of the same month, but if the heat and drought persist, Nin senses that it could even be brought forward further, at the end of July. “I get goosebumps just thinking about it, we have gone from starting to harvest in mid-September to August 24 of last year; another consequence of the drought is the drop in production,” Nin explains.
“In the Mediterranean, to protect ourselves from fires, it is necessary to cultivate, to maintain a mosaic landscape, but another danger is turning Priorat into a monoculture of vines, we must think about polyculture,” warns Pérez. On the Coma d’en Romeu estate, owned by the Nin Ortiz family, the vineyard is complemented by olive, hazelnut, almond, apple, pear, apricot, fig trees… “The more diversity, the better to fight against pests, against external agents”, remarks Nin.
Irreducible pests are those of wild boars and roe deer. “For three years I lost the harvest on the Selma farm, in Penedès, until last year I closed it, but some farmers prefer that the roe deer eat the shoots and collect compensation rather than sell the grapes for 17 cents per kilo “, deplores Nin, aware that the only solution is to control the population of these animals with an effective hunting policy. In Penedès, she first put an electrified cable, then two and three, but the wild boar kept coming in, so she opted for the fence, although she is convinced that sooner or later the wild boar will also look for exits to get around her. .
