On our most recent trip to research wineries for the upcoming Empordà guide we stopped in at the beautiful Mas Anglada. A project of Luis Conde, this large estate is not only incredibly luxurious, but meticulously preserved. This is not an easy feat given that the older parts of the original farmhouse are 500 years old.

But, there is a newer section to the property where their winery and vinyeards are. It’s here, alongside the vines that there is a soccer field of all things (as well as a tennis and paddle courts). I’ve seen a lot of things in 15 years of winery visits, but never a soccer field plunked down next to one. Apparently, it’s for a yearly Christmas tournament between Luis’s rather large family and the local village of Fonteta that’s just up the road.

There’s much, much more to the winery than just a wine-aligned soccer-pitch though and we’re looking forward to sharing everything about it soon in our guide.

In Catalonia, they call it “vi de pagès”. Literally, this means “peasants’ wine” and honestly that doesn’t sound terribly appetizing. But, a better translation to understand the whole process in English is “natural wine”. That’s a bit of a loaded term as well, especially given how the debate is ongoing as to whether its good, bad, or even needed.

The big difference with the wineries that we recently visited in Calonge (a small town in Baix Empordà, Catalonia, Spain) is that there is nothing new in how they are making their wines. They’re not “rediscovering” natural wines. It’s been going on for literally centuries and while their contemporaries have slowly been converting over to modern production methods (stainless steel tanks, controlled fermentation, etc.) they’ve stuck by the old methods.

Take Mas Molla. In their family house they’ve been making wine pretty much the same way for the last 700 years or so. Naturally, they update the oak barrels as needed and use automated de-stemming machines, but that’s about where the modernization stops.

Monste Molla, the current winemaker and first woman in the family to do so, uses natural fermentation to make the wines. This means that she doesn’t add additional yeasts to start fermentation. The disadvantages in this is that she never really knows when it will start and when it will end. While there is no such thing as a hand’s off approach to winemaking, this method means not only do they have to watch the wines very closely, but to know when to blend the wines as the different barrels will ferment at different rates from one to another.

Another winery that’s similar to Mas Molla is Mas Ponsjoan. Their properties border one another and Manel Comas makes wines in much the same ways as Montse. The big difference is that while she has the background of studying commercial enology, Manel makes wine the same way his family has been making it for the last five generations in the farmhouse, having passed the skills down from generation to generation. They also let their wines ferment and age naturally. They don’t even irrigate the vineyards.

Of course, the proof is in the bottle. Do these methods produce a superior wine? Both Mas Molla and Ponsjoan produce very good wines. Tossed in to this is the fact that because they are outside the Denominació d’Origen (DO) their wines are unlabeled and not certified like others are and thus are at very, very good prices. As referenced in the first part of this article, the debate rages as to whether natural wine production is a better form of production. There are several elements that you notice in these wines though.

As they are less adulterated, you do taste the locale more and the depth of the grapes are more present. This isn’t to say that you can’t achieve this with modern production methods, it’s just that it’s often not the case as modern production is used to makes wines more consistent. And that is one of the downsides/great joys of this style of winemaking in that every vintage has a distinct character. Even bottles can differ from one another to some degree. That’s an enjoyable way to drink wine and if the winemaker knows what they’re doing like Montse, Manel, and the 19 other “vi de pagès” wineries in Calonge do, you’ll get a good bottle of wine. Of course, it’s easy to have a skunky year as well that then won’t have all the modern mechanisms needed to correct it.

It is the case that this process probably won’t live on forever as it’s difficult, unpredictable, and not nearly as lucrative as being in the DO given that if you are making an unlabeled, non-certified wine, charging more than 3€ a bottle or 1€ a liter for bulk in Spain’s wine market is difficult. But, as it sits, it’s one of those few old methods that hopefully won’t be lost for some time and should be visited if one is in the area.

Learn more about the wines, wineries, and history of Empordà in our Empordà, Catalonia wine travel guide

As if there weren’t enough gimmicks in the world of potable liquids, word has come out recently of a British fellow named Ian Hutcheon making wines in Chile that are infused with meteorite. Read about the whole process here.

Naturally, it’s ironic given that wine growers are trying to imbue their wines with flavors from the soils in which the grapes grow not elements that fall from the sky. Someday maybe I’ll taste this and see if it makes a difference, but whatever the case, it’s definitely given Ian a great deal of press including a bit with video on BBC Mundo.

Miličić is an easy winery to find in Potomje, as it’s quite big and continues to get bigger. The amazing thing about this is that Pavo Miličić isn’t starting with the foundations of a former collective. He isn’t even starting with that much family history in winemaking as they stopped making wine once the collectivization of the Communist government took over. In fact, he used to be a ship captain for luxury cruises and the winemaking was just a hobby for the off season. This hobby has continued to grow and expand over the years to the point where Pavo quit the captain gig about 10 years ago to focus solely on making wine.

He is making a great number of different wines but the core is Plavac Mali. His basic Plavac is a nice, simple wine with a good strong tobacco nose that also has a lot of oak. The Postup takes all the elements of the simple Plavac and bumps them up a notch, making it a more complex Plavac.

His Dingač gets a solid burst of berry elements in the nose and body as is usually the case for Dingač. Its dryness really only comes out in the finish. Currently he is using a mix of French and Hungarian oak of which the Hungarian is being phased out in favor of the French.

Following is a video that we came across by Percy von Lipinski. It’s more just to show Pavo’s winery as Percy emphatically states a couple of times that he “isn’t a wine guy”. Why someone not in to wine would go to a Croatian winery is more than a curious thing, but hey, for those who haven’t made it, you get a chance to see the Miličić digs.

We talk a great deal more about other Croatian wine regions in our Dalmatian wine guide.

For the past week, we’ve been hopping around Alt Empordà, researching wines for our forthcoming Empordà wine travel guide. Naturally, this being February, it’s been cold, really cold. To add to that, there has been something of an unnatural northern wind blowing which is called the Tramontana. We’ll write up more about this soon as it’s a definitive aspect to winemaking here in Northeastern Catalonia, Spain.

But, while out on the terraced vineyards of Mas Estela, the wind died down just enough at sunset to take this photo. Then naturally, it started gusting again once we went up to the top of the terraces. While not the 175kph gusts that have been happening lately, it was enough to have a great deal of respect for these vines and respect the family at Mas Estela who works to make their wines from them.