Espelt de Garnatxa Red Wine Vinegar
375 ml - Catalonia, Spain
Espelt de Garnatxa
Red Wine Vinegar
This red-in-color wine vinegar is delicious. Thin in viscosity, when it first reaches your lips, it feels luscious, rich, and thick. The tip of the tongue experiences the vinegar, but the flavor comes to the senses via the lips, along with a bit of a sting (acid of the vinegar) at the back of the throat.
Unlike some vinegars, this gentle twinge at the back of the throat dissipates quickly and is more akin to a nicely-aged Balsamic. The round flavor of its red wine origins lives in the “nose” and in the “taste”. There is a complete roundness to the flavor of this red wine vinegar, which draws you in, and one spoonful is not enough!
Perhaps, even though it is a gourmet wine vinegar, it makes you feel like it is a sweet wine or an aged balsamic, and yet its notes are different than you expect.
After much tasting, I still cannot describe the flavor as I would like. Like many, if not all red wines, if you suck in a sip, your nose will pucker at the tip, and hints of red wine vinegar will be present. But if you are willing to savor the flavors and the gourmet wine vinegar slowly, you will feel the hints of red strawberry (creaminess) laced with vanilla and hints of little tiny violets!
I can tell you that it is a wonderful, joyous surprise, and one can imagine that it makes everything taste better. What a wonderful treat this is. Agrodolce!
About:
Three generations of grape and olive growers, Lluís and Quimeta, were already renowned growers when they decided to build their own cellar in the year 2000. Espelt is their family name, and their son, Damià Espelt, an agricultural engineer, grew the business and took on many of the decisions that now shape Espelt’s wine and vinegar enterprises. Anna, Damià's daughter, is now a biologist and winemaker, and she had a clear calling for viticulture and winemaking. Today, she is in charge of Espelt, focusing on the native varieties and heritage of vine-growing in Empordá – and she is doing an award-winning job at that.
Located in Catalonia, north of Barcelona, near where the famous restaurant El Bulli used to be, the terrain dictates much of what they grow, how they grow it, and how their grapes and wines ultimately taste. The land, shaped like a large amphitheater, overlooks the Mediterranean and is sheltered by the Pyrenees Mountains. This unique terrain impacts the seasonal weather, making snow in the winter rare, bringing a mild spring, a shaded summer, and a perfect fall harvest most years.
The soil is made up of slate patched with granite. The grape vines grow in both types of soil, which impacts the flavor of the grapes and wine. The sandy soil that results from the breakdown of the slate is called saulo. Saulo-grown wines are fresh, elegant, and easy drinking, whereas the slate-grown wines are riper, more tannic, and more powerful in flavor.
Espelt focuses on growing grape varietals native to the Mediterranean and the Emporda region, including Grenache, Carinyena, Monastrell, Syrah, Macabeo, and Muscatel. It is the Grenache and Muscatel grapes that start as sweet single-varietal white (Muscatel) and red (Grenache) wines, which are then fermented into the signature Espelt sweet, agro-dolce vinegars.