May's Wine Club - Celebrating Catalunya!

We love wines from all over Spain, but there’s a special place in our hearts for Catalunya. Pedro actually lived in Barcelona, one of the world’s most beautiful cities, in his early 20s. Many wines from all over the northwestern corner of the Iberian peninsula are world class.

In case you aren’t familiar with the geographical and cultural make up of Spain, there are many parts of the country that have very distinct histories, cultures, and even languages. While nearly everyone in Spain can speak Castilian Spanish, many prefer their ancestral languages. In much of Catalunya, Catalan is more commonly spoken than Spanish, and there are even pockets where Spanish isn’t spoken at all!

From a cultural and historical standpoint, Catalunya has long been the artistic, modern, avant garde part of Spain. Salvador Dalí, Antoni Gaudí and Joan Miró are all from there, and Pablo Picasso spent his early career in Barcelona, honing his skills and developing the approaches and philosophies that would lead to his masterworks. This artistic and innovative spirit shows up in their wines as well.

Like their language, history, and culture, Catalans also have indigenous grapes they take great pride in. The most famous style of wine produced in Catalunya is Cava, followed by wine from Priorat. For this month, though, we wanted to dive a little deeper. We found a still Xarre.lo (pronounced “char-el-lo”, one of the three main grapes used in Cava, and a Sumoll (“suh-muy”), a lighter colored, relatively thin-skinned grape. The Xarel.lo is silky and a touch creamy, with a beautiful finish that reminds us of Albariño, and the Sumoll will appeal to any Pinot Noir drinker, especially those that love Burgundy.

We will be having the release party this Sunday, as usual. We understand that some of you may be traveling this weekend, so we already have Wine Club available to pick up right now. Both of these wines make perfect sense for any Memorial Day celebration!