Om vinbonden

Knappt åtta mil väster om Barcelona, i de allra högst belägna delarna av Alt Penedès, ligger den pyttelilla byn Font Rubì. Här valde Glòria Garriga att slå sig ner i början av 2000-talet, efter att tidigare ha jobbat åt andra vinerier i Priorat. Sedan dess har hon gjort eget vin i små upplagor, med inspiration av klassiska förebilder, utan att kompromissa med kvaliteten och det autentiska uttrycket.

Frukten kommer från arrenderade vingårdar på de skogbeklädda höjderna runt Font Rubì, som sedan gammalt är planterade med lokala druvsorter. Vinerna framställs med hantverksmässiga tekniker som fottrampning, hela druvklasar i balans med avstjälkning för hand, jäsning i amfora samt ovanligt långa macerationstider. Vanligen buteljeras de utan tillsatser, och tiden har bevisat deras lagringspotential.

 

Glòria Garriga:

”Els Jelipins was born from the – naïve? – desire to create a vinicultural project that will allow us to live in the hills of Font-Rubí, enjoying a life of moderation in which we as a family can find personal enrichment in tandem with the forces of mother nature and an appreciation of the simpler things in life.

Observing the changes that a vineyard undergoes over the course of a single year is a wonderful experience: bud-tendril-leaf-maturing fruit-winter hibernation. The wine-making experience reminds us that we are all part of an eternally evolving process. The effect of the moon and the position of the planets does not seem in any way absurd. And it’s fantastic that there is so much we can’t explain. So much we can’t control. What magic!

Our wine is a personal journal that absorbs our energies, something we rely on a great deal, not only because we want it to supports us as a family but also because we want it to be liked-to make people think-to banish inhibitions-to make itself known. Is that too much to ask from a fermented fruit juice?

We are horrified by extreme viticultural techniques. This is almost an aesthetic issue: respect for the land, non-aggressive methods, awareness of natural cycles. We strive to achieve a fruit that can mature naturally and healthily, without becoming trapped by a particular dogma or excessively strict regime.

Oenology? Ageing? You could call us release traditionalists.
Our wine-making is ruled by commonsense-sensitivity-abstract analysis-touch-experience-vision-taste.

The Els Jelipins philosophy is plagued by flaws-desire-contradictions-energy-dilemmas, like the wines that we love:

always mature-subtle-vigorous-fine-balanced, at times strange-shy-surly-contradictory-hard,

and never dressed up-green-opulently fat-oaked-diluted.

Like us, spartan-combative-amicable-ridiculous-happy. Whether or not this is the right way to go (if there is a right way), it is the way we have chosen.

Els Jelipins; a name with feeling, without meaning, magical and strong.

At Els Jelipins we use different selected hillside vineyards, that work the selected growers and thus have the opportunity to revalue their work. We watch over their duties at vineyard and advise them throughout the year, carrying out certain delicate duties such as the pruning ourselves. Each vineyard is chosen for its particular location, its individual climate, the grape variety, the age of vines, the soil type … We work each vineyard separately, adjusting to its individual needs, possibilities and potential. Our search for the right vineyards began back in 2001 and led us to the best plots in the Penedès Superior. We will soon be planting out a number of micro-vineyards across the Font-Rubí hills in order to observe the different characteristics they display. Each step we take is a conscious reflection guided by instinct. As the fruit matures, we select the part of each vineyard that is to produce the crop for that particular year, the part of the crop that we believe is ideal for the creation of a future and different wine. We pick the grapes by hand, usually over the course of a number of sessions. We pick early in the morning and load the grapes into small cases.

We try to keep intervention as little as possible during the wine-making process, acting respectfully, gently, sensitively, delicately. If we have to destem, we do it by hand, the wine must is not racked off its lees, because all that arrive at cellar from our vineyards is good and health. The fermentation temperature is established naturally and is normally low, and we use wild local yeasts which have a potent effect due to the low levels of treatment that the grape receives on the vine. We use small vats, individually assigned for each producer, and fermentation normally lasts around 2 months. The extraction process is slow and careful, and we drain by tasting, respecting vital cycles and without making any prior analyses.

We are also against any kind of intervention during ageing. We prefer to use more neutral containers such as cherry-wood casks, large-volume Italian barrels, used French casks, terracotta amphoras and cement vats. We like the ageing process to be long, smooth, slow and silent. We bottle the wine on specifically chosen dates without clarifying, filtering or stabilising. The unique SO2 doses that we add at cellar is a tiny one at the bottling. Our aim is to produce a Classic, Ancestral, Crystalline wine.

Els Jelipins is notable for its balance. The nose is intense, with kirsch aromas, clean and well-defined red fruit, accompanied by a subtle hint of balsam and flowers and a suggestion of cacao and minerals. The taste starts straight, vertical and very crystalline, with medium weight, warm and juicy and tremendously clean, with a silky tannic structure, and the end is exceptionally long, voluptuous and fresh. This is a pleasant combination about 70% Sumoll and 30% Garnacha, full of breeding and elegance, fruit and freshness, a freak with great cellaring potential.

As our wine comes from grapes growed in cool climate vineyards, fermented naturally at low temperatures and aged in a cool environment, we recommend that it be drunk at between 14 and 16ºC in order to retain the delicate fruit and minerality.”