2021 Vi Negre

Els Jelipins came into existence out of a desire to create a family-owned wine project that would allow Glòria Garriga and her daughter Berta to live in the hills of Font-Rubí west of Barcelona. Here, the dream was to live a moderate life in harmony with nature to appreciate the simple things in life. In 2001, the former engineer began searching for the best vineyards around Font-Rubí, where the soil, the vines and the climate each had special characteristics, and she found it all in Penedès Superior.

The grapes come from different winemakers’ vineyards scattered across the slopes in the area, but Glòria and Berta carefully cultivate the vineyards themselves without any kind of chemistry or anything else that interferes with nature. Since 2003, Glòria has been making her iconic wines with a production of a few thousand bottles, and production is deliberately kept low so that the family can do all the work themselves without having to hire workers.

Els Jelipins mainly uses the old local grape variety Sumoll (80–100-year-old vines), which is now a rarity in Spain, but the red wine also consists of Garnacha and the rosé of Macabeo, and even the orange wine consists of Sumoll and Montonega. The harvest is carried out by hand over the course of several mornings, and only the best grapes are selected for the vinification.

The wines are made with naturally occurring yeast and without temperature control, fining or filtration, but with a little added sulphur before bottling. The symbols on the bottles change from year to year, which complicates figuring out of which wine you are actually holding in your hands. But it also emphasizes that these bottles are in fact something very special. The wines demand your full attention proving that “great” wine does not have to be the same as concentrated wine. The wines are light, bright and elegant, but at the same time complex and extremely serious.