Childhood friends from Bot in Terra Alta, Marcel Carrera and Ramon Viña began Vinya Ferrer in 2010 to produce terroirs expressing wines from their hometown.
As an adult Marcel moved Barcelona, where he began to develop his passion for wine. After meeting some of the most empassioned Catalan natural winemakers and tasting their wines he decided the most interesting and drinkable wines were those that had been made from a single region with nothing added and nothing taken away, in a word pure. He approached his longtime friend Ramon, who had spent his life cultiuvating grapes just to sell to large producers and together they decided to keep the grapes for themselves and instead produce the kinds of wines they wanted to drink.
Cultivating 2 hectares of vines in and around Bot, their project is beyond tiny, with a total production of just over 2,000 bottles. Their 4 plots are a mixture of clay, limestone and “panal” which is a special type of soil particular to the region, free of stones and highly absorbant, allowing roots to reach particularly deep, protecting them from the drought stress typical to this area. The region benefits from two major winds, El Cierzo -dry and hot which helps prevent mildew and La Garbinada which comes in summer around midday from the sea - cool and humid which prevents the vines drying out too much, maintaining freshness.
The concentration, intensity and freshness is amazingly suited to the indigenous Garnatxa (which they dub Txaranga as an anti-DO anagram) typical to Terra Alta, and the richness and full bodied quality of their white is particularly well suited to the local tradition of Vino Rancio - an old Terra Alta tradition of solera aged oxidative Garnatxa Blanca. Ramon and Marcel produce just 50 500ml bottles per year, unfined with zero sulphur from their 5 tiny barrels, the oldest of which is 80 years old. This is a wine not to be missed - intensely rich and aromatic.
