Cosmic Vinyaters
Penedès

Cosmic Vinyaters is a tale of two Catalan regions: Emporda and Baix Penedes.
 
Salvador Batlle grew up in the village of Sierra de Montmell, Baix Penedes where his family have 22 hectares of vineyards. He began making wine in his teenage years, studied, travelled and in 2012 returned to Penedès. But Salva and his father butted heads, what he needed was to forge his own identity.

In 2013 he found a cellar in the small town of Agullana, Emporda, 15 minutes from the French border, that came with a few hectares of vines. 

Located 20 kilometres from the Mediterranean, Agullana sits at 300 metres above sea level. One of the first vineyards Salva began working with was planted to Carignan Blanc. "It is a fresh variety, with a lot of acidity and structure but it has always been ill-treated. A variety that has been in this area for 300-400 years but is not recognised by the European Union,” explains Salva. The madness of the system, as he points out to me, is that international varieties are fully accepted in the region "It's a sad state of affairs, but unfortunately a lot of things happen because decisions are made in offices and they forget about tradition and the terroir". 

Connection and respect for the land and its history drives much of what Slava has created at Cosmic. With focus on re-grafting to local varieties, planting new vineyards and recovering abandoned old vines, there are now 9.5 hectares under vine in Emporda.

The vineyards sit between 90 meters altitude to 600 meters, the higher vineyards located in the Albera forest. Carignan and Grenache in all their guises; Blanc (white), Gris (grey) and Negre (red) form the majority of what is planted. At lower altitude the soils are sandy granite moving to deep granitic soil higher up. 

In 2017 he planted in the village of La Vajol, north of Agullana. At 620 meters above sea level, it is the highest vineyard in Emporda. There is a special energy here, the influence of both the sea and mountain range. Here we have Carignan Blanc and Carignan Gris, two varieties that sink their roots into the soil and give a pure vertical expression. 

Two hours away in Baix Penedes, Salva manages part of the family property. Here he has old vine Macabeu and Sumoll as well as international varieties Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon. Whilst Sauvignon Blanc perhaps is more suited to cooler latitudes, at an altitude of 500 meters, it is perfectly adapted. And in the compact limestone clay soils, it actually thrives. 

All farming is organic following biodynamic principles.

In the cellar, it’s rather simple. Indigenous yeast ferments only, vessels include tank and amphora, and different vinification techniques are used depending on the plot or variety. Constel.lacio for example is an assemblage of four vinifications.

One key aspect in the winery is maceration. Most wines have some element of time on skins, even if it’s just a few days. After two consecutive years of drought and high temperatures, the nutrients in the skin are deemed incredibly important. Despite the maceration, these are wines that drink more like white wine with texture.

“The name of my cellar is Còsmic — when you are cosmic, you are not the owner of a place; you are part of the place. The balance is when you find the difference between white and black.”