Costador

Old vines and high altitude!

The winery is run by Joan Franquet, a natural wine artisan who makes the impossible happen. Indegenious rare grape varieties, almost extinct, make this winery special. The high altitude and the rich terroir allow the wine to express its best form – complexity, minerality and character.

costador wine bottles

Land, soil, altitude

The Costador Mediterranean Terroir is located near Tarragona and close to Barcelona in Spain. The region is called Conca de Barberà. The master of the Costador grapes is Joan Franquet, this crazy artisan winemaker looking after singular vineyards planted with indigenous, almost extinct Spanish grape varieties.

The land is cultivated based on organic principles, most of the vineyards are also certified. The vines growing on the mountains of Tarragona are quite old, the majority are between 60 to 110 years old. The vineyards are situated high up, between the altitude of 400 to 800 meters. The soil types vary between slate, clay and limestone. It all creates a special microclimate with high contrast of temperature. Therefore, the grapes are able to mature for a long time and hence preserve freshness and some unique, salty minerality as well as acidity.

Natural process

Joan does take care of temperature control during the whole process from picking the grapes, as well as during fermentation and ageing. Handpicking allows to select only the best grapes and Joan goes above and beyond by making a second and a third selection in the cellar before going into fermentation. Old oak barrels, amphoras and steel tanks are used for fermentation which always starts spontaneously with wild and autochthon yeast allowing the wine to express its best form. The ageing is done in an amphora or used oak barrels.

“The final juice is just real, authentic and natural.”

The Catalan varieties

Costador works with autochthon Catalan varieties of grapes. We’ve stocked up mostly on some Chenin Blanc, Xarel.lo, Sumoll Blanc and Grenache. Our selection is completed with nice juicy pet nats: white, rosé and red made with the ancient ancestrale method. Watch out, some of them can be dangerous to open but once you’re over the challenge and were ready to catch the sparkling juice, you won’t regret the bubbly experience. Oh, and did we say that most of the bottles are unique clay ones which you can start collecting right away!