A winemaker who plays the tuba in a brass band: this is La Vinya del Músico

We're going to the DO Alella, and if we're going to the DO Alella, we're going to the native variety, the queen of the white raisins, which we call, in other places, like the Penedès, Xarel·lo. La Vinya del Músico is a single-varietal white raisin that grows at the foot of the Sierra de Marina, in Sant Fost de Campsentelles. A single hectare of sandstone (it goes without saying, if we're in the DO Alella) that perhaps has centuries-old vines. It's not known for sure when this vignette was planted, but there are documents that say it was already planted in 1936. Perhaps then, in the middle of the war, they regularized it, perhaps in a hurry. No one must have planted it in 1936, I think.

It's a beauty. Small, just one hectare, and surrounded by forest, a forest that sometimes looks new, because it's a forest that has reclaimed land from what should have previously been vines. And in the middle of it, there's a fig tree. It is called The Musician's Vineyard – and there are also those who call it Grandfather's vineyard–because that's what the house of the family who rented it was called. The project's winemaker, Marta Bericat, tells me this, simply and polishedly, with a blend of shyness and charm: "They're from Mollet, and there's a school there called Cal Músic, and it's for this family: they were called Cal Músic because on the weekends they went to play, despite being, despite being. A brass band, and we're also going to play on the weekends, even though during the week I'm a country girl."

Marta's group is called Tirant lo Banc, which shows that they're well-read and have a sense of humor (the two things I admire in people). She plays the tuba, and there aren't many tuba players. "Do you know that the last gig we did was in your hometown, Santa Eulalia de Ronçana?" she asks me.

This project was born thanks to the Raventós family, who bought what used to be Marqués de Alella. The project is called Los Vinos de Can Matons. She arrived in 2022 from Scala Dei. Her boss, our dear and admired friend Ricard Rofes, told her: "You're from Mollet, do you want to come back home?" She's now the winemaker in charge of the project, but another friend who makes great wines (we've talked about it here), César Cánovas, advises them. "I don't know what they call it!" Brand embalmerIt's what best explains our wines and communicates them."

The harvest of the wine in your glass, a magnificent and cheerful wine, so summery, so toasty, was done in August 2022. They harvest and ferment all the vineyards separately, and then they make a separate blend. "We harvest it, put it in a thousand-liter foudre, we ferment, a slow fermentation, between 15 and 16 degrees, and when it's fermented it can be filtered and bottled. I'm not much into wine tasting literature, I'll keep it simpler, the one who would explain it very well is César, but here it is. Although the white raisin is very recognizable, depending on where it is planted, it can go to a riper corner or a lighter, more elegant and acidic corner. This one goes towards the second corner. There is not so ripe fruit. Not so raisined. You find pear, maybe. It was a drought year. Since I have been in the winery, I have always experienced drought. This vintage, touch wood, will be the first normal one in a long time.

I ask her, a wine lover, if there are any disagreements with César, whom I greatly admire. I laugh. "He would like longer and more aging." batonage; she always tells me this, that she would like something that would give her more volume." You see: the cane makes the wine mix with the mothers, and the mothers –this is always the case, I tell myself– always make the creature have more body, more volume, that it acquires this flavor of toasted bread and brioche. When I ask her for a husband! –she does–. I was infinitely lucky that they invited me to Tres Macarrons, I had never been there before and I really liked it with the Maresme peas, it was incredible."

Yes, let's reproduce it, running. Let's not waste time. Writing, right now, is doing me good

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