Dels Aspres

About Winery and Wines

Our winery Vinyes dels Aspres is located in the municipality of Cantallops, the most northern inland town of Alt Empordà, sheltered by the Albera mountain range, a territory of gently rounded foothills of the Mediterranean Pyrenees. Notable periods in the history of Can Batlle are that of the thriving years at the beginning of the twentieth century, during the time of 'teacher grandmother' Narcisa Vicens, and when one of Narcisa's daughters married Eduard Toldrà, a celebrated musician and composer tho, summer after summer, filled Can Batlle with music and culture. Towards the end of the 1990s, we decided to continue this work, renovating and restoring the winery in keeping with today's requirements for wine making. We now use a pneumatic press to produce white wines in accordance with the hightest quality requirements, and twelve stainless-steel vats for the maceration and fermentation of grapes at controlled temperatures to produce red wines. The aging of the wine in barrels, all of which are made of French Allier oak, takes place in the ancient cellar, as does its final ageing in the bottle. Nowadays the cellar is air conditioned to maintain a constatnt temperature and humidity which favour the optimum development of the must. The wood, our production techniques and, undoubtedly, the history impregnated in the cellar's walls help us to define the characteristics of each and every one of our wines.

It is in this area, especially rough and dry, where our vineyards sit, all family owned for some generations. We enjoy about thirty hectares, all of them registered within the “Denominació d’Origen (AOC) Empordà”, with an average age of thirty year-old vines, distributed in fourteen plots. Basically they are the typifying indigenous varieties: Garnatxa and Carinyena, a few Picapoll vines, as well as Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot. With these varietals fully adapted to the terroir and climatology our whole range of wines are elaborated, especially with the outstanding versatility of Garnatxa, named Lledoner in Empordà, be it the black, the white and the red. The land component is granite and slate, ancient soils and rocky, very suitable for the production of quality grapes. The combination of land profile and the frequent north wind “tramuntana” affect the performance and yield of our vineyards, the average production being less than two kilos per vinestock. This component, together with a careful agricultural management and the subsequent treatment of the grapes in the winery, are the key to obtaining good wine.