Salvador Batlle arrived in 2013 from Penedès with the idea of setting out on his own in Empordà. He could have chosen to stay in his native village, where his family works 22 hectares of vineyards whose output is sold to the large wineries in Penedès, but his desire to follow his own path led him first to New Zealand and finally to Agullana, a small village in the Alt Empordà (Catalonia), 15 minutes by car from the French border. There he created Còsmic Vinyaters, where he makes wines with names like Libertad (Freedom) or Valentía (Courage), which are some of the values that inspire him.
"I didn't choose Empordà; Empordà chose me," says Salva, who bought his small winery with a flat above it where he has lived since 2013. When the locals found out that there was a new guy in the village who wanted to make wine, they offered him a couple of old vineyards -there aren't many in the area- and he became passionate about Cariñena. "This variety has not come into my life by chance," says Salva.
Located 300 metres above sea level, about 20 km in a straight line from the Mediterranean, the first vineyard he rented in Agullana is one of the highest in Empordà. It is planted with white cariñena, a local variety that needs poor soils without clay or humidity and which is one of Cosmic's greatest treasures. "It is a fresh variety, with a lot of acidity and structure but it has always been ill-treated. It has been in this area for 300-400 years but it is not recognised by the European Union,” explains Salva, who points out that international varieties are fully accepted in the area.That's why Valentía, his wine made from 60-year-old white cariñena vines, is outside the DO Empordà. “I don’t care whether or not Cariñena Blanca has an identity card, although the DO rightly does. They don't even know how many hectares are planted.”
Since his arrival in the region, Salva has focused his energies on several tasks: re-grafting the international varieties planted since the 1980s with local varieties, planting new vineyards, mainly of Cariñena Blanca, and recovering abandoned old vines to preserve the region's identity. "If no one plants more Cariñena Blanca in 20 years, this variety will be lost," he claims.
Salva, who is very spiritual, has high hopes for his new vineyards in La Vajol, a village north of Agullana with vines at an elevation of 600 metres, the highest in Empordà. There he has planted Cariñena Blanca and Gris, two varieties that sink their roots in the granite soils that, according to Salva, gives wines a sharp, pure expression.
In this area of Mediterranean influence, with the Canigó mountain (2,800 metres) as the climatic and geographical reference point of the Pyrenees, the cold Tramontana wind is a valuable ally for Salva, who works his 6.5 hectares of vineyards organically. He also follows biodynamic guidelines, although he rejects the natural moniker.
In his small winery, where the statue of a small Buddha rests at the entrance, Salva ferments part of his wines in oak and stainless steel tanks, but amphorae are his favourite fermentation vessel because mud, he says, helps good micro-oxygenation, does not transmit aromas and lends a lot of elegance.
He produces seven wines in Empordà, where he is focused on freshness and tension, and which he has named after the emotions he feels when making them. His Garnacha Gris wine, a variety that is sensitive to oxidation and which Salva macerates with skins for a few days, is called Confiança (1,300 bottles, €16.40). It was the first natural wine he made being entirely conscientious of the type of wine he wanted. It has citrus notes and good acidity, which is something Salva looks for. “It has great future in Empordà,” says Salva, who believes it is particularly suited to making sweet wines.
Other wines in his range are Valentía (Cariñena Blanca, 2,400 bottles, €17.35), Paciencia (Cariñena Blanca pet-nat that he disgorges in December, 800 bottles, €32.50), Llibertat (Cariñena Tinta, 4,400 bottles, €16) and Essencia (700 bottles, €34 for 37.5cl), a sweet Cariñena Blanca wine that Salva defines as "a combination of extremes of sugar and acidity, a balance of imbalances.”
The latest to join the Cosmic family are Les Fades del Granit (940 bottles, €24), an ancestral sparkling Garnacha Gris fermented in amphorae, and Encarinyades (1,700 bottles, €18), which blends three Cariñenas from the same plot: white (80%), red (15%) and grey (5%). The three varieties are fermented together in amphorae and chestnut barrels and the Cariñena Tinta is macerated with skins and whole bunches to gain depth.
Although he feels fully at ease working and living in Empordà, Salva has not strayed from his origins. In fact, he continues making wines, mainly with international varieties, in four hectares that he manages in his family estate in Penedès plus some 80 year-old Macabeo that he buys from a grape grower friend.
The grapes he harvests -all of them by hand- are transported in his van to the winery in Agullana to be vinified hence the fact that the wines are outside the appellation. With these nomad grapes, Salva makes five wines: Gratitud Sauvignon Blanc (6,000 bottles, €14.40), “the wine that has injected income to my project”, says Salva, comes from a plot at an elevation of 600m in Serra de Montmell, and is fermented in stainless steel tanks, barrels and amphorae; Gratitud Cabernet Franc (3,000 bottles, €14.40), a fragile, fresh wine aged in amphorae and barrels; Passió Marselan (2,000 bottles, €18), a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Garnacha planted by Salva in Penedès, is a sort of bridge between his origins in Montmell and Empordà. Via Fora Macabeo (€1,000 bottles, €13,50), fermented with skins and Via Fora Sumoll (1,270 bottles, €16.40) "pay tribute to tradition and are wines of survival and joy,” adds Salva.
Year after year, Salva sees his project flourish. He recently expanded his winery, freeing him from the constraints of working in a reduced space and allowing him to increase production from 17,000 bottles in 2016 to 24,000 in 2017. His latest source of joy is Consciencia, his new Cariñena Gris wine (2018 is his first vintage) that is born in the granite soils of La Vajol.
