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This is us, Ann & Peter, practising our newly-acquired skills and testing the alcohol content with a refractometer.

Need to learn…

We have realised that we need to learn more about how wine is made and yesterday we completed the second session out of five of our theoretical and practical training course in wine production, from vine to bottle.

We need to put together a team that can drive this project and make it a success (produce some 25,000 bottles of wine a year). And in order to assemble and lead a team, you need basic knowledge of wine production. We are therefore delighted that Miguel Figini, principal at “Espai del Vi Català” (http://www.espaidelvicatala.cat/), has personally taken it upon himself to teach us.

The “Espai del Vi Català” school runs courses for new winemakers in Catalonia. Now, after seven long and intensive days of theory in the classroom interspersed with visits to vineyards, we have learned that a wine is not something that a winemaker simply mixes together, but starts to create out in the field, i.e. how the soil is worked, how the grapevines are pruned, etc.

Angel Teixidor, Cooperativa de Guiamets, lets us sample 100% Garnatxa straight from a barrel.
The must is very sweet and has a strong grape taste!
Alfredo Arribas, Portal del Priorat, although extremely busy during harvest, shows us enthusiastically how he makes his fantastic wines.
Joan Asens (left), d’Orto Vins, and Miguel (right) in deep discussion.
Carles Escolar (right), Celler Masroig, shows us the Cooperative’s enormous storage space for barrels.

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