“My dream is for Priorat to become the world’s first biodynamic designation of origin.”

PorreraThe dream of winemaker Ester Nin is that "Priorat be the first biodynamic denomination of origin in the world," she stated to the audience attending the winery's tasting organized within the programming of the Terrer Festival at the Escaladei monasteryNin maintains that he would have also wanted Priorat to be the first organic wine region in the world, which the Penedès DO has achieved. "And I'm also happy for Penedès, because I make wines in both denominations; in Penedès, because that's where my family is from, and in Priorat, where I settled in 2001," says Nin, who believes that wine, in general, worldwide is not experiencing its best moments.

In Porrera, having left behind some of the region's tightest curves, is the Bodega Familia Nin Ortiz, run by Ester Nin, Carles Ortiz, and their eldest son, Andreu Ortiz. When asked if Catalan and international wine is enjoying a good moment, they respond that sales have fallen because alcohol has been demonized, but also because of the economic situation. "Wine is a luxury item; if people spend less, wine feels the consequences. And it's not the only thing that's feeling the effects, because beer sales have also dropped for the first time in history," notes Nin, who asserts that "when we experience a happy economic situation again, then wine sales will rebound." In the meantime, no, because "there is a great deal of uncertainty," to the point that "the first six months of this year have been the worst for wine sales for all wineries in general, and not just for us," the winemaker continues.

A large winery, faced with declining sales, builds another warehouse, air-conditions the wines it produces, and stores them for when the economy improves. But if you're a small winery, the story is very different, and Hence, it is understood that there are distributors of other designations of origin in the State that make 2x1 offers on pallets of wines..

Following the thread of wine crises, the Bordeaux crisis is viewed with respect."Priorat started by looking to Bordeaux, even bottling in the same type of bottles, but that's no longer the case." The current benchmark is Burgundy. "We were the first in Priorat to revive bottling in Burgundy bottles, the 2003 vintage, just as they did with barrel-aged farmhouse wines, cooperatives, or Escaladei wineries forty years ago." And all this "at a time when there was an attempt to create the Priorat bottle, but it didn't happen, and now perhaps we could try again," say Ester Nin and Carles Ortiz.

Burgundy bottle, since 2003

"We opted for the Burgundy bottle because Priorat is closer to this French region due to the particularities that give a distinct personality to the registered soils; due to the red varieties they grow, which are Garnacha Peluda, Garnacha, which is the Pinot Noir of the Mediterranean, and Cariñena Blanca, which we have recovered." Nin confesses that she opted for the cultivation of old vineyards and traditional varieties because it didn't carry any stigma or pressure. "I studied biology, then I studied oenology, and when I finished, I went to visit forty wineries in Europe, including the biodynamic wineries in Europe," explains Ester Nin, who admits that she began studying biology to distance herself educationally from her family, winegrowers. But in 1997, when the oenology studies were created, she enrolled, and there she coincided with three of today's great figures in oenology: Sara Pérez, Ton Mata, and Joan Rubió. "I remember my father telling me I'd chosen biology because I had to bring them up from being farmers, and I told them again that I wanted to dedicate myself to it," says Ester Nin, who recalls that her first job in the vineyard was working fourteen hours a day to transform the family bush vineyard into a trellised vineyard. All of this in the Penedès. "It was like a punishment at the end of my biology degree," says Nin, who adds that during her oenology studies, she continued working with her sister at the Loxarel winery.

To continue, the Nin Ortiz family highlights, among all their current projects, Flor, which was born from observing how old vines were dying and, therefore, were no longer economically viable: "We need between five and ten vines, depending on the year, to make a bottle of wine, and that would mean low-yielding wines," they say. Thinking about their children, about the future, they thought about planting vineyards. "Priorat is synonymous with coastal areas and old vineyards, so we plant following the structure and genetic selection we have inherited, and that's how the Flor project was born," they comment. Flor, in the wine world, is what small or young wines are called, "that have a quality line with the same production process." Thus, Flor, for the Nin Ortiz winery in Porrera, means that they have planted "vines around old vineyards, following the same structure as our ancestors hundreds of years ago, with coastal areas and following the dry stone margins." In practice, since last February, the family has built a thousand square meters of dry stone walls on the La Rodeda estate, following the structure of the ninety-year-old Garnacha Peluda vines.

On the other hand, on the corks of the wines from the Familia Nin Ortiz Winery you can read the legend: "Biodynamic since day one". Biodynamics, the viticulture technique they chose from day one, is believed to enhance the land and their work as winemakers. The winery is currently certified by the two biodynamic labels in the world that certify wine, La Renaissance des Appellations and Biodyvin, and of the two, Biodyvin has achieved the Biodyvin. In fact, this label is one of the most prestigious, and is held by wineries such as the French Romanée-Conti. Andreu Ortiz, the eldest son, works and produces his own bottles, two ancestral ones with grapes from the Pla de Manlleu vineyards in Penedès and a third, a rosé, in Porrera.

Regarding biodynamics, the winemaker explains that one of the key points is conceiving agriculture as a living organism, and the vineyard is part of a self-sufficient farm without monoculture. "Daphne Glorian, from the Clos y Terrazas de Gratallops winery, with whom I've worked since 2003, says a phrase that I like because it's very illustrative, which asserts that biodynamics is carried out in the vineyard, and we accompany it in the winery," Ester Nin points out to reinforce the idea of what it is. "The ideologist of biodynamics, the German Rudolf Steiner, asserted that the fruits taste of what we have done to the land," the winemaker comments. The Clos y Terrasses winery also practices biodynamic agriculture, and has such benchmark wines as Clos Erasmus and Laurel.

Finally, the practice of biodynamics in Priorat has only one obstacle, according to Carles Ortiz and Ester Nin, and that is animal manure. "We can't find any cows in Priorat, whose manure we would use; so we have it brought from the Pyrenees, because that's where we find cows fed and raised according to the principles of organic farming, and we have it brought to Porrera." A journey that allows them to make the compost they use to fertilize the soil.