Today's wine: a favera, that calls a worm, that calls a bird, that calls a fox, that calls us

We always say, in these cheerful pages, that winegrowers, farmers, are landscapers. And here we have a real one today. Gabriel Castelló is a landscaper, about to graduate. And that is why when he looks after the vineyard in Vilajuïga, he cannot help but think, all the time, of the plant cover, which protects the worms, which attract birds and mice and, therefore, foxes... At Celler Castelló Murphy there are two generations. Joan, the winegrower, Gabriel's father, and Juliette (the English artist who makes the labels), the mother. Gabriel and his partner, Vanessa Heinz, take care –each in their own corner– of making the wine. A wine that is unlike anything else, because of how it is made. It is a 100% red Grenache. Vineyards twenty-five years old, treated, cared for, with plant cover. And here I am a bit cautious, because I have just planted a vineyard, and the farmers have told me that in the first few years it cannot be the case, the cover crop, because the vines are very small and any weed would compete with it. Later we will see what.

"When I started five years ago, it was my idea, the cover crop," explains Gabriel, with that beautiful Empordà accent. "My father tore up the vineyards and my idea is to respect the organic matter, the legumes..." I immediately ask him (how nice, to ask those who know) if he has seen how in some vineyards in the past they planted broad beans. "True! Because they fix nitrogen! Now I have grasses, daisies... It's the most beautiful thing. It creates diversity... Insects, birds... It's an accelerator."

I ask them how they did it, for this harvest, the 23rd, which was already in the middle of a drought. They waited for the seed to be fully ripe (it should be brown). They harvested... on August 20th! It's very early for a red Grenache of this grade. And then, once the grapes were harvested, they did it like this: "We uncorked, put the juice in stainless steel tanks, it was there for a week with the skins, we pressed and put the juice without the skins in the amphora." The amphora deserves a separate point.

Mother and amphora

The amphora, which they see as a pregnant woman, gives the wine its name, in a certain way. Máfora. Mother and amphora. They have taken it from some craftsmen (they are called Tinajas Moreno León) who have been working with locks for years. They prepare them with a layer of rosin (the wine's resin) so that the earth, if it is porous, can cause a lot of liquid to be lost. The amphora gives it mineral and earthy notes, but also, during the sixteen months that the wine is inside, a veil of flor forms in the layer of air that remains above, like in Jerez! "It undergoes a biological and non-oxidative aging," explains Gabriel. "The veil of flor is a layer of yeast that acts as a barrier so that the wine does not oxidize. And so many months give it aromas of pastries, butter... They refine it."

This wine, dark garnet, so full, with a great taste that stays with you and stays with you, of fruit, of finesse, is very, very gastronomic. And with what? Perhaps with a pan full of Mediterranean herbs or at the end of a meal, the last one, to savour, to touch the donkey, with the tongue, but not out of contradiction but out of extreme pleasure. A wonderful rarity, earthy and airy, that you cannot miss.

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