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Back in Spain at last after seven months. We began by moving into our new apartment in Tarragona.

It’s great fun to have a vineyard!

It’s been ages since my last blog post. Hopefully that will change now. The Covid-19 pandemic is ebbing and there’s a general feeling that people are starting to look and plan ahead again. That’s definitely the case for Bell Cros.

We’re full of hope and expectation. We finally returned to Montsant a couple of weeks ago, after being away since harvest time in September 2020. Imagine how good it feels! On our return, we welcomed the first visitors to our vineyard. The team from Muxinach, our distributor for the region of Barcelona, came and spent the day with us. It was perfect weather for a great day outdoors. The visit began with a tour of the vineyard, guided by our winemaker Joan Asens. Our vineyard has received a lot of attention this winter. New vines have been planted, a new vine support system has been set up, new irrigation has been installed, sexual confusion (female pheromones) has been introduced as an organic pest control method, etc. All done by our new team member, Andreu Toldra, who is now in charge of the day-to-day work in the vineyard. Wonderful Baltasar Vendrell has left Bell Cros to return to work on his family vineyard.

The tour concluded at our small stone house in the middle of the vineyard, where Ramon Roset was waiting for us with cheese and wine tasting. We sampled various cheeses both on their own and in combination with wine. It’s fascinating how the combination of cheese and wine brings out the flavours of both the cheese and the wine. Personally, I was very excited to sample four completely different white wines from Bell Cros together with the cheeses. It makes us so proud and happy to see what we, “Team Bell Cros”, have managed to achieve! I have to tell you about the white/orange Brisat wine ONE OFF #3, made entirely from the Garnacha Blanca grape, which has been macerated for one month and then left to age in an egg-shaped granite vessel. The wine has a complex and lingering taste that simply develops in the mouth.

The day would have ended at this point if not Miguel Figini had fired up the barbecue and started to grill different meats in true Argentinian style for our guests. And there was another treat in store! Joan Asens picked out a selection of red wines, some already available on the market and others yet to be launched, to accompany the meal.

Anne and Ann then served everyone with a slice of Daim almond cake, purchased from IKEA, to perfectly round off the enjoyable six-hour visit. It goes without saying that this called for yet another new wine, a sparkling Ancestral wine (Pet Nat), which some of our guests were allowed to disgorge themselves.

Six hours simply flew by and afterwards we realized something that we had almost forgotten… how much fun it is to have a vineyard.

Joan guides visitors around the vineyard and explains the different soil structures.
We’re growing and now have 17 hectares of vines.
New vine supports are installed.
What a beautiful sight they make. 😊
Ramon explains how cheese and wine work together.
Daniel in good company.
Miguel fires up the barbecue. It’s bound to be delicious with an Argentinian doing the grilling.
Enjoying life!
Miguel explains to Toni how to disgorge a bottle of wine. And the results…………..
Our new Team members are organically cleaning the water reservoirs by eating the algae. Might be serving fish with our wine later on. 😉

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