Xarel-lo, Parellada, Macabeu

Grapefruits, apricots, peaches, and almonds!

Vintage:

• 2021

ABV:

• 11

Funky Scale:

Mostly Funky

Style:

Cellar

Region: Catalonia, Spain

Hailing from Vilassar de Dalt in the heart of the Alella appellation, Oriol Artigas actually came to winegrowing serendipitously. He originally wanted to be a chemist (ala Jules Chauvet), but after working a harvest in Penedès, Oriol realized that a career in a laboratory wasn’t for him and enrolled in an enology program soon after. He then worked at several wineries across Catalonia, which led him to teaching enology at the local university. Landing a steady job enabled Oriol to explore his true passion: a project revitalizing old coastal Alella vineyards and making supremely transparent, non-interventionist wines that evoke the nearby Mediterranean, wines laced with garrigue and sea salt.​ Located just 15 kilometers north of Barcelona, Alella is a lesser-known region but has one of those familiar stories: A vineyard area that dates back to Roman times, once renowned for producing exceptional wines, and thanks to the appetite for seaside real estate, has now been whittled down to very little vineyard land. At just 220 hectares, Alella is one of Spain’s smallest D.O.’s. But the proximity to the Mediterranean, granite soils called sauló, and a plethora of native (read old) vines has inspired a cadre of growers to set up shop here and work to protect this area from extinction. There is no doubt that the quiet revolutionary Oriol Artigas is at the vanguard of this movement. Oriol began making wine casually, simply to be enjoyed amongst friends. But slowly he started to realize his calling, devoting himself to a career in winemaking full time in 2011. Oriol loved how it allowed him to showcase his homeland and roots, and how it allowed him to meet new people and discover the world. Since the official start of the project, Oriol has continued to grow each year, evolving and finding new ways to showcase the unique Alella terruño. His over-arching philosophy is to “cultivate the vineyards in the most natural and least interventionist way possible, to allow the grapes to express in the most intense way the landscape from which they come.” He works about 12 hectares in total, mostly of old vines. He allows vegetation to grow between the vines, prunes very little, and works the vineyards primarily along the lunar calendar. In the winery, fermentations are completely spontaneous, aging is primarily done in steel vats, and sulfur is never used at any point in his process. Oriol makes a wide variety of wines (sparkling, white, rosé, and red) the color of the wine being defined by which grapes grow in the vineyard. Ever restless, he is regularly adding to his repertoire of vineyards and wines, relying on the wisdom of the folks who originally planted these wild vineyards to make his cuvées. Each wine that Oriol produces has a beautiful refreshing texture with a subtle intensity of flavors - convivial Mediterranean wines with heart and soul. - Jose Pastor

Skin Contact Palomino, Doña Blanca

White flowers, citrus, stone fruits, and a hint of spice.

Vintage:

• 2022

ABV:

• 12.5%

Funky Scale:

Middle of the Road

Style:

Food Wine

Region: Bierzo, Spain

In the winery, Diego is extremely low-intervention since he wants his wines to retain their energy and life of the vineyards. In such, he employs a mix of unlined concrete vats and older oak and chestnut casks & foudres, since he feels that these materials breathe, while stainless steel is an inert material that will “kill” the nature within the wine. During elaboration he does not use pumps, additives or SO2 additions - starting with the 2016 vintage in his newly built bodega - stating that “enological products are cogs in the capitalist machine.” Diego views his winemaking as an extension of the creative process that he practiced in his days as a musician. A favorite Diego quote - “Too many people in natural winemaking copy and paste the words – they don’t struggle, they don’t feel their vineyards.” Clearly, Diego is not your average Viñador! - Jose Pastor Selections

Ezerjó

Grapefruit, mango, guava and honeysuckle.

Vintage:

• 2021

ABV:

• 13.5%

Funky Scale:

Mostly Funky

Style:

Food Wine

Region: Mór, Hungary

Krisztina Csetvei was born near Szabadka in 1983 (Subotica, a Hungarian speaking town in Serbia) before moving to Budapest with her family when she was a child. Krisztina studied marketing and management at the Technical University in Hungary, and in 2006 as a practical training period she worked for the then brand new Béres Winery in Tokaj. She received a WSET course voucher for Christmas from the Béres family, which she took and passed – and that was it. She fell in love with wines, started systematic tasting and became more conscious of food and wine pairing. After a 3-year detour in the marketing department of a huge corporation and postgraduate stint at university she had a ’coincidental’ encounter with a friend of her father’s, László Bóni, owner of DiBonis Winery in Serbia. After tasting his spirits and wines that familiar feeling of love of the world of wine came back. The dreams and plans were followed by action and in 2011 Csetvei Cellar was born with the renovation of an old, traditional wine cellar in the town of Mór. Now over 7 harvests in, she is married and has recently given birth to a daughter. Her creative mind (or marketing in the most positive sense) is present in the life of the winery, in naming the wines, in wine tourism programmes, and in her mission to make Mór a greatly respected wine region. She has recently created a kind of periodic chart of chemical elements, though instead of chemical elements the grape varieties of Mór’s wine region are listed in the chart. She and her husband organize unforgettable events in the cellar and in their wonderfully beautiful vineyard, complete with music, movies, great food, and of course the carefully made, artisan wines of Csetvei Cellar.

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