Cati Ribot "Escursac" Mallorca, Spain 2023

FROM JOSÉ PASTOR:

THE WINE: 100% Escursac from Cati’s own finca Son Llebre vineyard grown on Cal Vermell (the local iron-rich clay-calcareous) soils. After a harvest by hand, the grapes are gently pressed whole cluster, and ferment partially in ceramic amphoras and partially in stainless steel. When fermentation is finished, the two parts switch places to rest: the portion fermented in stainless goes into amphora, and the portion fermented in amphora goes into stainless steel tank. Bottled without any added sulfur (at any moment in the process), stabilization or filtration.

THE PRODUCER: Cati Ribot is a 3rd generation winegrower making natural wines under the name Ve d'Avior (“from the past” in Mallorquin) in the town of Santa Margalida, in the northeast of Mallorca. Her family’s background was in the farming of table grapes, almonds, and olives, but in the 1990s her father Jaume planted international varieties (Syrah, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon) with the goal of making wine. Working with her father, Cati grew more and more interested in wine, eventually leading to training as a sommelier in Barcelona in 2008 (she related that she used to take the first flight each morning to Barcelona and the last flight back to Palma every night during this training). Cati pointed to this as an important opportunity to expand her horizons beyond Mallorquin wine: she tasted wines from all over Europe and the world, analyzed them and their methods of production, and connected with the burgeoning Catalan natural wine scene. She brought back different ideas about how Mediterranean wine could taste, and different goals for the family bodega. As she took on a larger role at the winery from 2009, the winemaking and the farming began to change (organic certification was achieved in 2012), culminating in 2014 when she began employing biodynamic treatments in the vineyards, influenced and guided by Joan Rubió, an expert on biodynamic and organic viticulture from the Penedès.

The culture at Cati’s well-ordered and immaculate bodega is vibrant and inspiring, as she and Eloi and Jaume experiment with newly revived grape varieties, natural fermentation methods, and novel vessels. They share vineyards and grapes, and work in distinct ways in the cellar while simultaneously embracing their collaborative environment and combined knowledge and perspective. While Cati’s finished wines are mostly blends of grapes from multiple parcels, she ferments these separately, hoping to bring out the character of each site and each variety. And there’s new ideas and dreams for the future, including collaborative experiments involving different techniques, like carbonic maceration, cofermentations of red and white grapes, and a novel approach to crafting methode ancestrale sparkling wines. It all lends the space an incredible sense of possibility: Cati’s bodega is a collaborative workshop, the home base of four hardworking, innovative winemakers and farmers and the wellspring from which come some of the most exciting wines being made in Spain today – all hail the Queen of Escursac!