Courageous, courageous, one might say, to found a winery in a "blind" corner of the country where there is no well-known or even famous appellation to fall back on. But a Swiss couple took exactly this risk when they acquired the "Venta d'Aubert 1986" just a few kilometres from the border of Catalonia and the now famous and celebrated Priorat. The "Venta" used to be the name given to stations where travellers from the Mediterranean could exchange carriage or riding horses on their way to Zaragoza via Alceniz. With the advent of the railroad and the automobile, the buildings became redundant and many of them fell into disrepair. The area on the edge of the Priorat is at best known to Spanish wine nerds, otherwise nobody associates this small region with top quality wine. It is not even mapped as a wine-growing region, which is why it cannot have an appellation, a DO. The wines of Venta d'Aubert, which are so celebrated among experts and connoisseurs today, are marketed as "country wines". Today, the small winery belongs to Swiss wine lovers, has experienced and committed Spanish managers and, in Stefan Dorst, a gifted oenologist from the Pfalz, who has been responsible for the wines for over 20 years. The conditions for producing wine here are harsh; the vines on the 18 hectares of vineyards grow and thrive in a Mediterranean to semi-continental climate with cold winters, hot summers and recurring cold winds. But it is precisely this harsh climate that gives the wines the immense tension that makes them so fascinating. The winery has been certified for the organic cultivation and development of its wines since 2013, as sustainability is just as important here as the promotion of biodiversity. International varieties such as Chardonnay and Viognier are cultivated for the white wines, but there is also room for the indigenous Garnacha Blanco. The situation is similar for the red wines, where international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah are joined by Garnacha and Monastrell. Fermentation and ageing are carried out in the traditional way, and the wines are deliberately not "tuned" with new wood so as not to conceal their authentic character. Well, who would have thought it, a winery somewhere in "no man's land", and yet these unusual wines are causing a sensation!
