Description

A pioneer in the Garnacha Blanca style, different works are carried out to extract the best virtues from each vineyard. In the younger vineyards an earlier harvest is carried out, to enhance the acidity and the more primary fruit; the older vineyards are harvested in a more advanced state of maturation.

Ramon Roqueta, a Garnacha lover, develops his project Lafou celler in the Terra Alta. A vineyard of its own, located in Mas Gabrielet, a farm located to the north of the municipality of Punt (Tarragona). As a result, they obtain elaborations with varietal typicity and with the character of the terroir.

Board Characteristics

Store: Own Vineyards, in LaFou Celler, Batea (Tarragona)

DO Terra Alta
Add: 2021
Grade: 13,5%

Variety: 100% White Garnacha

Operating temperature: 8-10ºC

CATA's notes: Deep cherry color, it presents a wide array of aromatic sensations. Nuances of raw hazelnut, red fruit and balsamic memories of undergrowth, which later evolve into notes of plum and black olive.

In the mouth, it provides a fresh entry that refers to the fruit, a good acidity that balances the sweetness of the Garnacha well and a long finish.

Preparation: LaFou els Amelers It comes from old vines on the 60 hectares of land that the winery owns. These are located about 400 meters high, near the municipality of Batea, in the province of Tarragona, where the winery's facilities are located.

Upon reaching the winery, the grape from LaFou els Amelers It macerates with their skins for four days and is then gently pressed at low temperatures.

90% of the must obtained is transferred to stainless steel tanks where, together with its lees, the wine rests for about four months. The remaining 10% of the wine, during this same time, ages in 300-liter toasted oak barrels.

At the end of this phase, the wines from various containers are blended and LaFou els Amelers It goes through a process of clarification and cold stabilization before being bottled.

Fou, in Catalan, means ravine or narrow passage, through which river courses pass: one of the most typical and beautiful forms of the geography of the Terra Alta.

Pairing: en Made in Spain Gourmet We recommend it with complex salads and fish rice dishes.

The DO Terra Alta, the inland Mediterranean

The area of production and elaboration of the DO "Terra Alta" (DOTA) is located in the south of Catalonia, between the Ebro river and the border with Aragonese lands and includes the 12 municipalities of the Terra Alta region.

Its landscape maintains all the characteristic features of an inland terroir close to the Mediterranean Sea: pre-coastal limestone mountain ranges (Puertos de Horta, Sierras de Pàndols i Cavalls), small rivers (the Algars and the Canaletes), mountains of conglomerate rock, holm oak forests and white pine and above all, agricultural soils stained with the typical Mediterranean crops: almond, vine and olive.

Within this framework, three clearly differentiated landscape units of agricultural interest must be added: La Plana, the Altiplano and the Valleys.

Features

Cultivated soils generally have medium textures. They have as a common denominator their richness in limestone and are poor in organic matter. The DOTA soil catalog classifies up to 17 profiles, among which Honeycomb stands out. Another of the features that vindicates the Mediterranean character of the interior is the weather. Abundant insolation and low rainfall. Two particularities stand out: a singular balance between the two dominant winds, the Cierzo (NW) and the garbinada (marinadas from the South component) and a cold winter that denotes a certain continentality.

Vineyards

The vineyard is present in all the landscape units of La Plana, the Altiplano and the Valleys and is especially concentrated in the central third of the production area, between 350 and 550 meters above sea level.

The terrace is the most common cultivation unit and is a consequence of the interaction of the cultivation with the varied orography that the land presents, arranging it on different slopes and orientations, often between dry stone walls -the margins- or covered slopes. plant, both contributing to avoid loss of crop soil by erosion.

The most traditional terrace locations are the plains and the slopes, differentiated by slopes of less than or greater than 10%, respectively. The rest of the vineyards are found on terraced terraces, the terraces, and the bottoms of the valleys, practically without slope and therefore with a greater use of water.

The predominance of traditional grape varieties is another distinguishing feature of viticulture in DOTA and it is through the Garnachas where this fact becomes more evident. White Garnacha, Red Garnacha and Hairy Garnacha are the predominant grape varieties. Together with the Macabeu, the Parellada and the Samsó add up to three quarters of the cultivated area. As for the rest of the grape varieties classified in DOTA, in general, the characteristics of the terroir mean that they are from the period of medium and late maturation, which allow the development of the characteristic viticulture of the production area.

As a result of these interactions with the terroir and the viticultural culture, in most vintages, the practice of viticulture in DOTA is friendly to the environment and the vintage is characterized by presenting an optimal phytosanitary status, ripe grapes and great oenological value. for the elaboration of protected wines.

Origin and Quality

The "Terra Alta", some wines with a guarantee of origin and certified quality

The Egyptians were pioneers in attributing the quality of a wine to its origin. Almost 4000 years later, in the middle of the 1958th century, the Lisbon Agreement (XNUMX) defined the appellation of origin as the geographical name used to designate a product, whose quality is exclusively or fundamentally due to the territory that makes up a given region. Geographical origin is, without a doubt, one of the most important attributes considered when choosing a wine.

In Europe, wine is the pioneer product in terms of protected designations of origin (PDO). The existing link between the product and the territory is explained through the terroir (geographical situation, geomorphology, climatology); vineyards and grape varieties; the culture (history, tradition, know-how) and the types of wines that enjoy this recognition.

Throughout the world, where vine cultivation is possible, the possibilities of interaction between all the elements that characterize these aspects are so enormous that it is practically impossible to find two identical fine wines.

Today the European Union establishes the main guidelines that should govern the GUARANTEE OF ORIGIN AND QUALITY of products protected by a geographical indication or PDO, traditionally called, in the case of wines, "designation of origin" (DO).

Additional Information

Weight :	1,5 kg
do	DO Terra Alta

Information about Roqueta Origen

LAFOU Celler was born in 2007 with the hope of making wines that reflect the greatness of Grenache and of a wine region as extraordinary as Terra Alta.

Its landscape, the vineyard terraces and the fous are the ideal place for this variety to express itself fully.

It was Ramon Roqueta Segalés - a member of a family with a long wine-making tradition dating back to the XNUMXth century - who undertook this personal project. During his studies in oenology in France, the Garnacha variety seduced him with its expression and elegance. It was then that the idea of developing a project based on this variety began to hatch, looking for the territory where it best expressed itself. The Terra Alta region captivated him for its Garnacha style - freshness, typicality and authenticity -, for its winemaking tradition, for its characteristic landscape of valleys and fous, for its authenticity and its traditions. And it is with this premise that since its inception LAFOU seeks to express the identity of the territory and the Garnacha to the fullest, combining respect for tradition with a vocation for innovation and contemporaneity.