Ivette, from Terra Alta, the one who pairs wine with friends and not with rice

Her name is Ivette Alonso López, 32, and she's enthusiastic, yet very calm and thoughtful, about everything related to wine. "You don't remember me!" she tells me (because I don't remember anyone). "We met one day in Terra Alta!"

Ivette has been the winemaker at La Botera winery for a short time. "We have it in Batea, at the entrance to the town; come see us, I know you have friends here." La Botera is made up of five founding families, one of them—and that's why she tells me this—that of Joan Arrufí, who is the producer—much admired by this woman—of the Vinerel·les wine collection. Botera is not a cooperative. It's a winery that started with five partners; now there are perhaps six or seven, but they are all family. "They started producing wine in the center of the village. They started making wine in bulk, then in carafes... And they wanted to go a step further and bottle the same wines. They started making the Arnot range, with a white, a red, and a rosé, and continued with the Vila Closa range, whose white is the one we have in the glass today." Villa. Hence the name. And the label represents the keyhole of a door, because in the wall there were five or six doors that were the entrance to the village."

The wines in the Vila Closa range are single-variety white and red Garnacha wines. The red wine goes through a short period of time in casks, but they don't call it that. breeding because it's only two months. "We keep saying young wines".

This white today, fermented in a stainless steel tank, I think is the maximum expression of the Garnacha of Terra Alta, which, as we have said many times, is the flagship variety of the region. In this bottle there is a set of Garnacha from different estates (italics explained soon). Old estates, which provide structure and body, and young ones, which provide freshness and vitality. Old and young wines (also) are like people. That's why the blend is so good. They ferment separately, as if it were a coupage, but, when talking about the same variety, we don't call it that (italics explained). "Once fermented, we decide on the blend, because what's important is that the lees are still in suspension so that the whole has that three-month aging time." The lees are the mothers, that is, the dead yeasts (the dead mothers, in other words), which provide aromatic complexity and texture.

"It's a fresh wine, very easy to drink, with a super varietal nose." That is, the typical aromas of our beloved Garnacha: white flowers, tender almonds... It's more floral than fruity. And in the mouth, oh, in the mouth. "Thanks to the aging process, we give it more depth, smoothness, it is more fleshy, although it is still a fresh wine. You can make it like in drinking, because it's easy to drink, but has the creaminess to stand up to a good meal. That part of freshness and tension, you know?"

Ivette's way of working has sought to maintain the essence of the winery. However, the vintage she has in her glass is her first. "I'm in favor of fresh, low-alcohol whites. And making wines with low alcohol content, in Terra Alta, and more so with Garnacha, is not impossible, but it is complicated." How do they make sure a wine isn't heavy or too warm, taking alcohol content into account? Well, with wisdom. We sold wines thinking more about the acidity they want, rather than the alcohol content, because alcohol content... they take care of the fields and the estates like their children. My job is to ensure that that work is not lost. Just that. If the product that comes from the fields is so good, what I have to do is not lose it." The vintage, Ivette's first, the 24th, she explains this way: "It's been a vintage that's been fantastic for me, very limited. When I came in here, I thought: Let's see what I'll find. And when I started looking at the grapes that were arriving, I saw that I didn't have to do anything; they were so good. It's a short vintage of very good quality."

Pairing this wine? "Personally, I think that the pairing, more than the food, is the moment. They can tell me that for this wine, the ideal thing is rice. But is it the rice or is it the people around you making the rice?" She's right, of course. But yes, it would go ideally with rice, with seafood, with tuna, which is meatier. "Now is the time for galeras. It would be very good with a galeras rice," she says. And there's no phrase that excites me more than the one that begins with: "Now is the time to..."

When I was little, Ivette wanted to study biology. She got into oenology somewhat by chance. "I explain to everyone that the world of wine is all about. My family has always been into tastings, of course, and they've passed that on to me... It's a world that always makes you want more. You start with wine from the supermarket, you end up going to look for things at a winery... I became passionate about oenology and decided to take on a personal project. Making garage wine, however I could. I bought grapes and made them myself, it was really cool. And I stopped when I started at another winery. I left it in standby, but I would reprimand La Botera."

There's one more thing I need to know about this. It's a germ that, bottled without label, has passed between six and six months under the sea. One day, if ever - I point out -, I'll have to taste the two ampoules together. The d'avui and the one that has been raised in the fons marí. Diu la Ivette que l'un, the cup, tea much fruit and flower, and the other is more mineral. On the contrary, he deixarà lliure, que voli i faci piruetes. I s'ha ser molt savi, per voler i poder fer això amb un vi. Visca els enòlegs.

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