Massís and Marina del Garraf
For more than 2,000 years in the Garraf, wine has been produced. The Iberians cultivated the vineyards and loaded the wine to sell in the towns along the Mediterranean coast, as can be seen in the excavations of the Darró settlement in Vilanova i la Geltrú. They have found, even bronze coins from the 2nd century BC, Iberian, illustrating the trade with the Romans, who settled in the area and also marketed wine by sea.
The calcareous massif of the Garraf is an area with unique characteristics and different from the rest of Catalonia. It is a large mass of calcareous rock located at the southern end of the coastal mountain range, limited by the Mediterranean Sea and the plains of Penedès, with calcareous soils, very poor, where fossils are found, and with a typical Mediterranean understory. The proximity to the Mediterranean Sea is also a significant factor, which gives recognizable mineral, salt and iodine notes to its wines. It is a landscape of austere “beauty, formed by a succession of rounded hills-some rise to more than 500 meters in height, surrounded by deep valleys and steep slopes, between rocky walls of whitish gray.This orography limits the amount of arable land. they characterize the wines and differentiate them by impregnating them with a unique character.
There is no doubt that if there are two white grape varieties that identify the Garraf, these are the aromatic Malvasia from Sitges and Xarel · lo (also the Red Xarel·lo). The Garraf is an area with very great possibilities of obtaining great wines, also red wines (highlighting Merlot, Cariñena and Sumoll), which allowed them to reach 2016 a sub-area within the DO Penedès. Within this subzone are our vineyards of Malvasia de Sitges, Xarel·lo and Xarel·lo red, Garnacha, Syrah and the plots of Muscat Can Parès, Les Aballes and Mas de les Catalunyes, and the Cabernet de mas of the Catalunyes.
The sub-area Marina del Garraf of the DO Penedès includes the maritime area of the Garraf and Baix Penedès regions, which are more sandy and more mineralized due to their greater proximity to the Mediterranean Sea.
The vineyard was one of the main crops of the region until the end of the 19th century, the phylloxera plague completely ruined the vineyards of Catalonia. The tenacity of the farmers to replant their vineyards with the American foot, after grafting it with genuine varieties, laid the foundations for a solid and high quality production. Today the vineyard is experiencing a new height and many of the abandoned fields are being recovered. The winegrowers of the region produce excellent wines and cavas from the varieties of white grapes (Malvasia de Sitges, Xarel·lo and Muscat) and black (Cariñena, Garnacha, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon) within the DO Penedès, with the character that gives the Mediterranean climate together with the clayey limestone soil of Garraf.
The Garraf wines are characterized mainly by their unique terroirs, marked by the influence of the Mediterranean breeze and a few poor, argillic soils and very little retention of limestone water due to the great drainage of the porous earth. Very few wine regions in the world, such as Champagne or Garraf have calcareous terroir. The Garraf massif, unlike the fertile central valley penedesenca offers more extreme conditions for the cultivation of vines, which makes the production of grapes are more scarce, but high quality. They are wines with character, structure, body and interesting mineralization.
Its mineral personality is very marked and lately they have been conquering the menus of the restaurants of the region and starring pairings and wine samples. Several local varieties, such as the terpenic and the legendary Malvasia de Sitges, the Xarel·lo, the Xarel·lo Vermell, the Muscat, the Garnacha, the Cariñena, the Monastrell or the Sumoll, give even more uniqueness to the wines of the Garraf massif who aspire to obtain the greatest international successes. El Garraf, however, exists a place for international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah, Petit Syrah, etc. The Garraf massif is not just wines, pink and white black. Quality sparkling wines are also produced (VEQPRD) covered by DO CAVA and Penedès, centuries-old liquor wines and bitter stale.