The Place
Rabós. A small Medieval town in the Alt-Empordà, Catalunya, Spain. A little paradise, in the natural park of the Albera, bordered by the rocky coasts ‘Costa Brava’ and the snowy tops of the Pyrenees. An ancient wine region, dominated by local producers and old cooperatives.
One of these old cooperatives is the one we now own, Cooperativa Sant Julià, renamed as Fruita Analógica. It was build in the sixties, and has more than 30 old cement tanks. The idea is to fill up a couple of these eventually, with natural wine.
After travelling the wine world for some years, it was time for the Grapehunters Jurriaan & Dido to focus on the vineyards. Pruning, green pruning, composting and all other things one needs to know about the cycle of the vine. They were drawn to the region of the Alt-Empordà because it is a region that is quite unknown in the world of wine but has a lot of history and potential, therefore full of possibilities.
The Story
After working one year in the fields of the Empordà they found a plot for sale close to Rabós with 9,5 hectares of vines with a little house in the middle. Through crowdfunding they managed to buy it and since 2018 they are the proud owners. Since the first year they found a place to make the wine in the old cooperative of the Rabós, that they rented from the previous owner Espelt. The wines of Vinyes Tortuga were born.
The old building felt good to them, but the rental contract remained temporal and the owner was looking for a buyer. The empty tanks also reminded them of the possibility to make a lot more wine – as the market was demanding – for more affordable price.
This idea was shared with friend Bart Obertop, hospitality entrepreneur and ex owner of Brouwerij ´t IJ. He visited the cooperativa, tasted the wines and saw the potential of the building. The idea was born to make natural wine that could conquer the markets of Amsterdam and beyond.
The Future
The intention for the building is reviving it, creating a lively production floor where we make vibrant natural wines. Next to this, we want to open a restaurant, a bar and eventually also a place to stay, making this a place to be. Rabós is beautiful medieval town worthy of visiting for its history, endless trekking options and soon for a nice plate of locally grown foods and a good glass of natural wine.
The Wine
For our first release of Fruita Analogica 2020, we made a white and a red wine. We like to make white wine as a red, and a red wine as a white. This means we make a light red wine by only three days skin contact but for the white we let the grapes sit with the skins for over a week. Both wines are made with early harvested organic grapes.
The white wine is made from: Xarel·lo and Macabeo. We hand selected the grapes before destemming them and putting them together in a glassfiber tank. After a week of maceration / skin contact we pressed.
The red wine is made from: Cabernet Franc. We also hand selected and destemmed. Macerated for only three days before pressing. About a quarter is aged in old oak barrels. We added a small part of white wine to the final blend to give it a fresh kick.
