The wine of the week: Finca d'Espiells Postals 2024

This week, in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, Juvé & Camps presented its "exciting" project to relaunch its Finca d'Espiells wine collection, protected by the Penedès DO. The company has decided to give it a new lease of life with the clear objective of "encapsulating the purest essence of the Penedès." Meritxell Juvé, CEO of the business holding company comprising the Juvé & Camps wineries, Propietat d'Espiells, Pagos de Anguix, and the distributor Primeras Marcas, affirms that "Finca d'Espiells represents our vision of the future, based on tradition, sustainability, and excellence." She also emphasizes that "our commitment to quality white wines, faithful to their origins and with a desire to excite, reflects the conviction that the Penedès is an exceptional territory for their production."

Technical director Pepe Hidalgo Camacho states that they have aimed to "gain freshness in the wines, starting with the vineyard." They use fewer vines and do not remove leaves to protect the grapes from sunlight. All efforts are directed toward "expressing the estate's soils in the wines, maintaining the character and Mediterranean freshness of the Penedès." Ultimately, according to Pepe Hidalgo, "we want to be honest with the grape varieties, without artifice." In other words, they strive for "excellence" with "self-imposed demands," bottling their unique climatic, orographic, and varietal characteristics with transparency.

During the presentation last Tuesday, Meritxell Juvé stated that "we can't return to a place we've never left, but we can learn to cherish it in a different way. And this is also a way to return." Pepe Hidalgo added that they aim to produce "wines with a Mediterranean soul that reflect our landscape." Meanwhile, the director of viticulture, Pep Jiménez, highlighted the biodiversity and naturalization of the Espiells vineyards, which are surrounded by forests, as well as the respectful pruning practices and organic, regenerative, and precision agriculture. Juvé & Camps marketing manager, Roger Burgués, presented the new image that debuts the Finca d'Espiells wine collection, with labels that reference the wines' origins.

They are in the midst of a conversion process, planting new vineyards, respecting fallow periods and clearly focusing on native varieties. In addition to Xarel lo, Macabeo, and Parellada, they are also planting white and black Garnacha, Xarel lo Vermell, and Malvasia de Sitges. With the Xarel lo Vermell variety, at the Ermita de Can Rius in Gelida, they will be implementing the "keyline" planting system, which seeks to optimize water resources and minimize the effects of soil loss, aiding soil regeneration. They recently uprooted 20 hectares of the international Chardonnay variety.

All their wines are the result of regenerative agriculture (they are members of the Regenerative Viticulture Association) and certified organic since 2015, and are “the most authentic reflection of our territory: made with rigor, respecting the uniqueness of each plot and variety, and with the desire to capture its identity.”

They practice precision viticulture with respectful pruning and groundcovers. They describe it as a "conscious and consistent" viticulture, which considers the vineyard as part of the landscape and the wine as an expression of its ecosystem. They assert that they work "with respect for nature and its cycles."

Finca d'Espiells is located between the municipalities of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, Gelida, and Sant Llorenç d'Hortons. Hydrographically, the farm is within the Llobregat River basin, in the Avernó sub-basin (Penedès). The estate covers 183 hectares, of which 162 hectares are vineyards (including fallow land). The oldest vineyard, dating from 1973, is Macabeo. The remainder of the property is made up of woodland, streams, garrigue, olive trees, Tuscan cypress trees, and almond trees.

Finca d'Espiells represents our vision of the future, based on tradition, sustainability and excellence.

Meritxell Juvé CEO

The farm, which is radiant after this year's generous winter rains, runs along terraces between the interfluves and the headwaters of the streams that drain the estate. This allows them to have plots with very diverse orientations and altitudes, providing them with harvests of different characteristics. The soils are predominantly clayey-calcareous, shallow, and poor in organic matter. For this reason, they have designed a three-year fertilizer plan with cow, chicken, and sheep manure.

In 2024, they produced 438,000 bottles under the Finca d'Espiells brand. They exported 9% of their total, mainly to Canada, but this year they aim to increase their international sales. The spearhead of the Finca d'Espiells collection is a new white wine, Postals d'Espiells 2024. It is made with Xarel lo (56%) and Garnacha Blanca.

The Sant Sadurní d'Anoia winery states that "this wine is born between the majesty of Montserrat and the serenity of the Anoia River." This first vintage of this market debut was marked by a period of extreme drought that lasted four years. The berries ripened more quickly than usual. The winter was mild and dry, although it rained during a generously wet spring. The summer was dry and warm, but there were no significant heat waves.

The harvest was "with very healthy bunches, with good acidity, freshness, and a present aroma, given that the few bunches we had were sheltered from the sun," according to the winery. During the 2024 wine-growing season, 420 liters of rain were collected, and the average temperature for the year was 16.4°C. The manual harvest began on September 12 for the Garnacha Blanca, and on September 19 for the Xarel·lo. The wine was bottled last March.

Fifty percent of the Xarel·lo was produced as a brisado. Alcoholic fermentation, carried out at low temperatures, lasted 22 days with the must in contact with the grape skins and seeds. The goal was for the skins to provide "structure and complexity" to the wine. The must underwent static racking. When a density of 1.000 was reached, it was pressed, obtaining a 70% yield. Only the bleeding is used in this wine, produced in stainless steel tanks.

Postals d'Espiells 2024 is pale straw yellow with light greenish reflections, clear and bright. It is very Mediterranean and very Penedès, with 12% alcohol. It displays notes reminiscent of fresh white fruit such as apple and spring stone fruit, with a hint of fresh fennel. The palate is round, with very good acidity and notes reminiscent of nectarine, apple, and citrus. The finish displays a varietal touch of slightly bitter raw almond. It is long and savory. The subtle work done with the fine lees gives it a glyceric tactile sensation. It is young, sharp, and dry. On the palate, it moves with great balance and with a very interesting final minerality (a marked salinity). It is drool-inducing. It will improve with a little more time in the bottle.

It's ideal paired with oysters from the Ebro Delta, but also with seafood rice, Japanese cuisine, fish, and even cold cuts like carpaccio or roast beef. The company's president, Joan Juvé, likes to pair Postals 2024 with a good fish and seafood zarzuela. His daughter, Meritxell, prefers to pair it with creamy rice with galeras (a type of shrimp), or with baked fish with fennel and Mediterranean herbs, or grilled razor clams with a touch of lime. Pepe Hidalgo likes to enjoy this new wine with salt-baked wild sea bream, while Finca d'Espiells winemaker Glòria Vilamara prefers to enjoy it with monkfish with Orio-style sautéed fish and a side of vegetables.

Postcards 2024, from Finca d'Espiells DO Penedès

Grape varieties: Xarel lo and Garnacha BlancaPrice: €11.95