Last June I
had the opportunity of visiting, with some friends (a sommelier and a wine blogger
as mad for wine as I am) a viticulture of natural wines. Yes, natural wines,
wines those go far away from the organic and biodynamic wines. Natural wines show the pure essence of
the grape in its finest: the wines are natural, natural from the vineyard to
the glass in all the processes in between, at all the stages.
The starting
point for a good wine (natural or not) are the vineyards. When we visit the Ton Rimbau’s vineyards the first
surprise was the difference between surroundings vines and vineyards, the
difference between the crop that nowadays we call “conventional” and the called
“alternative growing” (conventional in the past).
The
farming is environmentally friendly in every way. Chemical treatments are
reduced to the minimum expression, we could say most of the times are
non-existent. Chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides… have no place in
these vineyards. The priority is a respectful agriculture: Ton practices the
permaculture.
The
purpose of all this is to get that wine reflects the territory, the area where
it comes from and the vintage if it’s
possible… the idea is that not alien elements distort the expression of the
wine, that freely will show their origin, their roots. Precisely for this
reason, to be the most faithful to the environment, these wines are not
filtered or clarified, so that does not alter its characteristics.
In
fact, the main idea is to reduce human intervention to minimum possible and
even more the intervention of machinery. The principal objective is to preserve
the characteristics of the grapes from the time they are harvested until they
turn into wine, so grapes are harvested on days with rising-moon-growing and
fruit because the grapes contains the highest expression of everything that
represents (the terroir, the vineyard, the environment…) and preserve most of
these characteristics means that substances will not be added at wine to not
alter the reflection of its expression, so the acidity is not correct, not
flavours added, not chips or chunks wood for flavouring… In fact, the wine is
not filtered so that eliminates the natural components of the wine that can
become beneficial for the wine evolution.
Maybe
the best known feature of natural wines is the absence of added sulphur.
Forgetting that the sulphur dioxide (SO2) is harmful to health and
some people are allergic, it is a toxic element that is the cause of headaches,
migraines and the terrible hangovers. This lack of sulphites added is supported
by an official certified that verifies that wine only contains its own
sulphites, generated in the course of its winemaking.
Apart
from this and continuing with the idea of preserving the wine from all that can
affect it, the wine is stored in ceramic bottles, opaque, thus protects it from
light. And to preserve the wine from temperature changes, it’s stored in old
dipping wine-presses with water, as it keeps in temperature better.

The
first thing that surprise us is to discover the cultivation system, based on
the permaculture. There grapes were hand harvested at their ripest. If it’s
necessary, going several times to harvest only those berries that are ready and
living those who have yet to finish maturing, leaving them for later, and only
harvesting on fruity days with rising-moon-growing.
This wine
fermented with the fine lees in French oak barrels during 9 months. After, this
wine was bottleled in ceramic bottles to preserve the wine from the effects of
the light and the aging process is done under water in concrete tanks.
In
appearance it’s a little hazy, with a lemon-gold colour. When we swirl the wine in the
glass we can see the legs going down slowly.
On
the nose it’s easy to appreciate the wood well integrated and it’s in perfect
harmony with the wine aromas. After 9 months aging in French oak barrels, the
aromas are citrusy, but as well we can smell the lees, it smells similar to
cider.
On
the palate the citrus fruit stands out, and slowly it appears the toasted
almond from the barrel. The wood from is well integrated, in perfect harmony
with other aromas and tastes. It has a long finish.
The
aromas and flavours are well balanced after these months in French oak barrel.
But
we must considerer that all those aromas and flavours change for moments, after
one hour the wine is different, the evolution is constant, it’s alive. That is
what makes natural wines different from other wines: they are in constant developing.
If you are interested in tasting or buying this
wine, please get in contact with me at info@winepassion.cat
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