Alella, a small appellation located on the coast near the northern suburbs of Barcelona, is subject to the incessant real estate pressure of the Catalan capital. With a long history of viticulture, but with a small surface area, its vineyards lie between the mountains and the sea and owe their reputation to their white wines. Its need for revitalisation is great: Oriol Artigas has become the spearhead of it.
The discovery of wine led Oriol Artigas first to study oenology, then to teach, and finally to a wine project that took shape in 2011 around Vilassar de Dalt, his native village, in the heart of the Alella appellation area. He has built up an estate of a dozen hectares, mostly old vines, on a terroir characterised by a soil of white granitic sands - called sauló - rich in minerals and by the marine influence. The diversity of indigenous grape varieties is important, with a dominant of pansa blanca (local name of xarel.lo), as well as the diversity of exposures and microclimates: it is this diversity that Oriol Artigas seeks to express through a totally natural viticulture and vinification, as little interventionist as possible, only able in his eyes to express the terroir and the landscape in a living way
A white wine made from mostly old Pansa Blanca vines (50-80 years old), with part of the grapes vinified by direct pressing and part by short maceration with the skins. The blend is aged on the lees in stainless steel tanks.
