In just four editions, BWW has become too small. The figures for 2024 are impressive: 952 producers from 73 DOs, 21,000 visitors, 20% from abroad, with 15% growth in both space and number of exhibitors. One Rioja winery, a regular at the first editions, was unable to secure a stand due to late planning, and it was not the only one: by May 2023, all the spaces were sold out. But there were also capacity problems: some visitors had to queue to get into the fair, with the ensuing anger and complaints from some wineries who saw a number of customers left outside. Some people who briefly stepped outside found they could not get back in straight away.
For the next edition, which will take place from 3 to 5 February 2025, an increase in surface area has been announced, without leaving the central location of the Montjuic Exhibition Centre.
Exhibitors of all kinds appreciate the ease and convenience of the show and the influx of importers and professional buyers who travel to Barcelona at the invitation of BWW and ICEX. For visitors, the main attraction is access to what is undoubtedly the largest trade event for Spanish wine. In the space of a few minutes, you can stop by the elegant stand of a major brand, stroll through the different Spanish regions or wander through the modest and informal, but always busy, area of the smaller producers, most of whom (70 this year) are united under the umbrella of the Artisan Wine Attraction group. The chances of finding interesting wines in any of these areas are high.
Another option for small and medium-sized producers is to share larger spaces to reduce the cost of exhibiting at the fair. Rioja'n'Roll and Parajes y Majuelos were joined this year by the group 11 Viñedos, with some very interesting names from Rioja (Diego Magaña, Olivier Rivière), Alicante (Pepe Mendoza), Mallorca (Can Verdura), Txakoli (Itsasmendi) and Ribeira Sacra (Algueira), among others. A journey through Spain in just a few square metres.
This year's programme was particularly packed, which always makes it difficult to choose between wandering around the stands and sampling wine or devoting some of your time to attending tastings and presentations. Alcohol in wine, moderate consumption, sustainability and internationalisation were other key themes at this year's edition. Among the many events we missed were the Ribera del Duero '10 magníficos' tasting led by Ramón Francàs, the Fondillón tasting and the various Cava-focused sessions.
The platform provided by BWW was seized by ICEX to announce the new Foods and Wines From Spain awards, which will be coordinated by Mundus Vini. These prizes will highlight the best Spanish wines in each category and will also be included in a Top 100 list that will be presented in key markets for Spanish wine. La Vanguardia's La Guía de Vinos 2024 awards was also presented as well as the first Catalan wine report by Tim Atkin MW. The writer and critic Fintan Kerr, who is based in Barcelona, has written it.
The fair paid tribute to prominent figures who passed away in recent months: Carlos Esteva (Can Ràfols dels Caus), Xavier Gramona (Gramona), Antoni Mata (Recaredo), Javier Zaccagnini (Sei Solo) and Paco Rodero (Pago de los Capellanes). On the Sunday before the start of BWW, Can Ràfols dels Caus revived the tasting "12 authors and their wines", one of the most special events of the Intervín (BWW's predecessor) parallel events that Esteva hosted until 2014. Sunday is also the day when Corpinnat holds its tasting of base wines. On the last day of the fair, Women of Wine held its sixth edition at the Pedralbes Palace.
Events outside the fair have increased now that the two founding partners of Off the Record have parted ways. Producer Fredi Torres, who works in Switzerland and various regions of Spain, remains at the helm of the original show at its regular venue at Casa Rius, while Marc Lecha launched the first Liquid Vins, held at the Valid World Hall gallery near Parc de la Ciutadella. Ultimately, there were more wines to taste, more producers to discover and more trips to take around Barcelona.
This was the question posed by Aragonese producer and winemaker Fernando Mora MW at a vinification tasting. It was a pertinent question because the central theme of this edition, which was the focus of several tastings and presentations, was the containers used for vinification and ageing. Although it is questionable to focus on the process rather than the territory (previous editions have dealt with soils or varieties), we attended three sessions on the subject.
In addition, under the title "Singular containers, recover to innovate", the free tasting area "Wine tasting journey" had the same theme, with more than 70 wines selected by a committee of experts. These ranged from special wines such as José Pariente Cuvée Especial or La Vicalanda Blanco from Bodegas Bilbaínas, both from major wineries, to more modest productions such as Pedranogueira from Anónimas Viticultoras or El Rosado de Padilla from Casa Balaguer.
It is clear that the excess of oak that was once the hallmark has now swung the pendulum in the opposite direction. But it has also brought solutions and innovations. "Today we have more tools than ever to show our territory in the way we want," said Fernando Mora MW.
The wines we tasted during his talk and the producers who accompanied him were good proof of this. Based in Mediterranean. areas, they have all embarked on their own personal journeys to express their terroirs in the purest and most direct way: in Priorat and Montsant with amphoras and glass demijohns in the case of Sara Pérez, and exclusively in concrete in the case of Dominik A. Hubert of Terroir al Limit and Terroir Sense Fronteres. Valencian producer Javi Revert presented two 2023 samples of his white blend of local varieties: one in barrel, the other in concrete. "At first I was looking more for style, I wanted to make a burgundy white, but concrete allows me to simplify and work in a purer way to find the identity of the plot," he explained.
For Sara Pérez, oak means comfort, as opposed to alternatives that cause discomfort and debate. "These wines make us question what we drink, our fears, where we want to position ourselves," she said. She drifted away from oak when she realised that the differences she found in fermentation were lost in ageing. The 2009 Clos Martinet she brought to the tasting, which had a very pure Mediterranean character, was aged in concrete because she didn't want to lose the wine's fruit and couldn't bring herself to put it in oak, old or new. Today the winery is full of amphorae and glass demijohns.
In the case of Dominik A. Huber, his departure from oak had more to do with his passion for gastronomy; he realised that oak did not suit the wines, so he sought to reflect the authenticity of the vineyard. He tried amphorae but found that they let too much oxygen into the wines. "I prefer the reductiveness of concrete, it's better for ageing because it brings more life and electricity," he said. Between 2016 and 2021 he got rid of all his foudres and since then he has been making all his wines in concrete. The Garnachas he brought to the tasting, Les Manyes 2021 from Priorat and especially Guix Vermell 2021 from Montsant, were extraordinarily expressive.
Mireia Torres, Director of Innovation at Familia Torres and a member of the fifth generation, led a tasting of wines from different DOs that also focused on containers. In addition to their Albariño fermented and aged in granite eggs, it was very interesting to taste the same blend of 75% Gonfaus, one of their recovered red varieties, and 25% Garnacha from their Purgatori vineyard in Costers del Segre in concrete and wood. Yet another example to support the view that Mediterranean varieties and wines are freed from interference, gain in expressiveness and offer better texture and fluidity in the absence of oak. Also interesting was the sample of Pago del Cielo Tinto Fino 2022 in a cocciopesto amphora (a material that imitates the ancient Roman formula of mixing ground bricks with fragments of stone, sand, binder and water), which was very respectful of the fruit. And the two examples of Forcada, the recovered white variety that is now authorised in DO Penedès, above all for its acidity potential, both in the still and sparkling versions, according to the cellar sample with nine months' ageing that we tasted. A gift in drought-stricken Penedès.
The round table of container manufacturers added another layer of complexity. Mud was represented by the Catalan artisan Carles Llarch, granite by Santiago Roma of Ánforum Barrica de Piedra and concrete by Adrià Sas, managing director of Sonoma by SAS. The first two defended the return to the origins and the bond of wine with the land (clay) and the original fermentations in stone vats. And they all defended the direct contact of the wine with the different materials, without the use of coatings.
The plethora of activities taking place in parallel with the Montjuic Fair means that visitors have to manage their time wisely, but the event is undoubtedly a great platform for many small producers who, on their own, would not be able to attract as many visitors to an exhibition as powerful as BWW.
Days before the event, Off the Record was sold out, consolidating its position as the leading alternative wine fair. In addition to foreign producers such as Niepoort and Stéphane and Christine Derenoncourt, who presented an excellent mini-vertical of their Domaine de l'A from Castillon, the show's 50 tables were lined with wines. One of them, subtle and profound, was Sílice Trousseau: only 240 bottles of this new red wine made by Fredi Torres and his Galician partners on the steep slopes of the river Sil.
Still in Galicia, Chicho Moldes (Fulcro) told us that he will fill 80,000 bottles in 2023. The whole range is excellent, starting with A Pedreira. In this cuvée, which he profits to season the barrels, the oak represents between 60 and 70%, but the wine is very well integrated (2022 is juicy and with great acidity on the palate). The duel between the single vineyard Albariños A Cesteira 2021 (taut, citrusy, lingering) and As Dunas 2020 (deep, ripe, complex) is very nice, and the juicy red Aliaxe made from Espadeiro is marvellous - a must in Rías Baixas.
Also from the north, but further east in the Cantabrian region of Liébana, we enjoyed the freshness and drinkability of Juntos, a rosé made from Mencía and Palomino grapes from 40-year-old vines in the villages of Tama and Pumareña (60+ years old). It is a partnership between Isabel García (Orulisa), owner of the plots and maker of one of the best grape spirits in the country, and producer Goyo García Viadero, who makes wines in Ribera del Duero and Cantabria.
In the Mediterranean, we were captivated by the purity and juiciness of Coreografía, the personal project of Tatjana Peceric (Terroir al Limit and Terroir Sense Fronteres). She makes a rosé with red and white grapes from Poboleda in Priorat and a red from Montsant with grapes from Cornudella. Vinification takes place in concrete and prices are around €36. It was a pleasure to catch up with sommelier Isabelle Brunet, who had a long and successful career at the now-defunct Monvinic restaurant. She is now making a couple of ephemeral wines, a white and a red, in Garraf (Penedès) and experimenting with demijohns to age the wines.
Also from Garraf comes the plant material that Celler Pardas has grafted onto its Can Comas vineyard in Penedès. This vineyard is the source of Blau Cru, a Malvasia from Sitges with seductive notes of stinging nettle and sapidity, priced at around €17. With its low pH (3.08 in 2021), it is undoubtedly a variety to consider in the worrying climate scenario in this area.
Further south, another variety well adapted to the new challenges of shorter growing seasons and water stress is Bobal. We welcomed the unpretentious accessibility and freshness of La Pinada, from a vineyard planted in 1958 at 750 metres elevation in Requena. It is looked after by Agrícola La Portera, a partnership between Aragonese winemaker and producer Jorge Navascués and his associates Javier del Blanco and Francisco Santiso.
A good example of the kind of producers who take part in the BWW side shows is Agrícola Calcárea, one of our new discoveries at Liquid Vins. Friendly and innately charming (that's his phrase in red above), Juan Jurado worked in Australia, Chile, Italy and Spain before setting up business in Sanlúcar in 2022. He makes wines with Palomino, but also experiments with Moscatel and Tintilla and other rare varieties, as well as with different containers and techniques. Jurado fills 4,000 bottles and produces half a dozen honest and imperfect wines with names like Porfía, Sin Bulla or Arrinconao. It will be interesting to follow their evolution.
At the table next to Raúl Moreno, who will be profiled in SWL in the coming weeks, was Aitor Irazu of Makatzak Wild Wines, probably one of the most gutsy projects in Green Spain. Irazu farms three hectares of organic and biodynamic vines in Aia, on the coast of Gipuzkoa. He cultivates three hectares of organic and biodynamic vines in Aia, on the coast of Gipuzkoa, and after his sharp and vertical Sorkin, one of our favourite txakolis, he has recently launched Harri ta Zur, a selection of his best Hondarrabi Zuri grapes that completes his fine range of vibrant and taut wines.
Curro Bareño and Jesús Olivares (Fedellos de Couto) served their wines from the Bibei Valley in Ourense at Liquid. We liked their Os Bidueros 2019 (around €22), an old vine red from Seadur with the peculiarity of being blended with 50% Sumoll, which gives it a tighter structure and length. Their Lomba dos Ares (we tasted the 2021 vintage, €18) has to be one of the best value reds we have tasted recently. It has a bit of everything: depth, juiciness and acidity. Galicia in a glass.
The 2019 Mas de la Pansa Parellada made by Imma Soler is a must: complex, with just the right amount of oak, deep and with very good bottle ageing capacity. The grapes come from a clay-limestone vineyard with alluvial stones, and she blends the upper part of the hillside with the valley. As the vineyard is located in Vila-rodona, outside the boundaries of DO Conca de Barberà, the wine is sold as DO Catalunya.
We also tasted Manuel Cantalapiedra's new wines. Like the rest of his range, they are outside the DO Rueda. This time he has broken away from the family business with his own label to do, he says, "what I want, with no strings attached and with the best interests of the wine in mind". Only 300 bottles of Amansalobos 2021 were produced from a vineyard with very chalky soils in Alcazarén. Creamy and deep, but with tremendous acidity and plenty of potential for further development in the bottle.
Dominique Roujou was at Liquid with Teimosia (perseverance, in Galician), a partnership between the French-born winemaker, Martín Crusat (Adega do Vimbio) and veteran grower Quín Álvarez, to focus on the potential of O Rosal for quality red wines. In this area, the grapes ripen earlier than in Salnés, to the north. He makes two reds: Teimosia and, in occasional years, a selection of the best lots bottled as A Espiña - the 2017 we tasted was very fresh and balanced. In both, sold outside the DO for €18 and €28 respectively, Roujou blends Caíño Longo with smaller proportions of Caíño Tinto, Castañal, Brancellao, Sousón and Touriga Nacional.
The organisers of Liquid, Marta Puparelli and Marc Lecha, are also producers. In 2013, they decided to team up with producers with whom they have an affinity to present Rencuentros Xurxo 2017 and Rencontres Eloi 2021 at Liquid. The former is ample and has the estuary note that is so characteristic of some Albariños from Salnés, and the latter is fluid and infused with crunchy red fruit. The couple are also recovering vineyards near their home in Montseny, where they now own 1.5 hectares and produce a fresh and expressive Merlot rosé called L'Era de Buixalleu.
Laia Esmel, from Casajou, presented her sparkling wines at Liquid, but also at an informal tasting organised at the end of the first day of the fair by the recently formed Vida Penedès collective, which aims to "dignify and respect the work of Penedès winegrowers". Given the prevailing pessimism about the younger generation's lack of interest in wine, we were delighted to see so many young people enjoying Vida on the terrace of restaurant Monocrom in Barcelona. It was one of the many events in BWW Likes the City!, a programme of experiences for the public in different restaurants, hotels and museums in Barcelona. Many other Vida producers, such as Jessica Madigan from Cisteller, Agustí Torelló from AT Roca or Roc and Leo Gramona from L'Enclos de Peralba, also combined their stands at the fair with the parallel events.
As an example of the diversity of wines on offer at this year's BWW, here are some of the wines we tasted over the three days. Starting with Pago de los Capellanes, one of the big brand stands, we sampled their latest release from Ribera del Duero. Un Sueño en las Alturas 2020 is the first vintage of a red from the high-elevation vineyards that the Rodero Vila family has been buying for some years in villages on the left bank of the Duero river in Burgos, such as Fuentenebro, Pardilla and Honrrubia de la Cuesta, with contrasting soils (reddish tones with a high presence of mica, feldspar and quartz). The winemaking process differs from the rest of the winery's reds, as Un Sueño en las Alturas is aged for one year in foudre and two years in bottle. We found rockrose, red liquorice, red and black fruits and, above all, an enveloping texture and freshness that comes from the soil rather than the climate (the wine is 15% abv), with a slightly earthy finish to add character.
At the 11 Viñedos stand, in the producer groups section, we enjoyed Diego Magaña's new single-vineyard red from Bierzo. It is called Valdehorta and comes from El Casacallo, a hamlet in Otero de los Vados, although it is not included in the classification of parajes (sites). It is a juicy wine, with crisp fruit and an electric character. This first 2022 vintage, of which only 620 bottles were produced, was fermented without the use of stems.
At Bodegas Familiares we stopped by for a tasting with Javier Arizcuren. We are more and more fond of his Monte Gatún (we sampled the 2021 vintage), a classy entry-level wine that blends Tempranillo from Rioja Oriental with 25% Garnacha and 10% Mazuelo; a textbook example of a fresh, savoury red that beckons you to drink it. We are also fans of his Solomazuelo Ánfora, which retains its expressiveness and good acidity even in such a warm vintage as 2022. We tasted El Foro 2021, which will be a Viñedo Singular in 2023, and Barranco del Prado 2021. The latter is already in this category and impressed us with its wild and exuberant style.
As the farmers' protests echoed outside the gates of the fair, some artisan producers wore a sticker with the slogan "No farmers. No wine". Among them were many from Penedès, but also winegrowers such as Roberto Oliván, from Tentenublo in Rioja. His new single-vineyard wine, the deep and graceful Escondite del Ardacho San José, comes from a recently acquired plot of land in Lanciego, with fruit trees interspersed among the Tempranillo, Viura and Malvasía vines, "which reminds us of the viticulture of yesteryear," Oliván explained with a touch of nostalgia.
Next to him, at the Parajes y Majuelos collective stand, Rebeca Montero from Zárate, one of the most respected producers in Rías Baixas, praised the smooth running of BWW, while we tasted the 2019 vintage of their entry-level white, proving once again the excellent evolution of the Albariño variety in the bottle.
At the DO stands we explored other styles of Ribera del Duero with Noelia Callejo, the second generation of Bodegas Félix Callejo. We recommend Parajes de Callejo (40,000 bottles, around €20), a field blend of Tinto Fino (85%), Garnacha (10%) and Albillo (5%). Aged in concrete, foudre and 500-litre barrels, it is savoury and fresh, without sacrificing the power you expect from Ribera; and Finca Valdelroble 2021, a very different expression with plenty of tension. Sourced from a vineyard on very shallow limestone soils in the páramo (moorland), it combines Tinto Fino with 25% Merlot and is aged in 500-litre barrels.
We also visited Jumilla, where we tasted Matas Altas, the village wines of Cerrón. Made in white and red, they come from old vineyards that mix Monastrell with other varieties to produce a floral, silky and persistent red, with much more acidity and freshness than expected in this area for the white. In their top white, El Cerrico Airén, the style is now purer and more direct, as they have abandoned fermentation in amphorae and the use of skins. This wine is now aged longer and released two years after the harvest.
At Can Matons in Alta Alella we liked the contrast between two of its village wines, Santa Maria de Martorelles and Sant Fosc de Campcentelles. Both use cement and oak and are within walking distance of each other, but the former is finer and more saline while the latter is rounder and longer.
In Montsant we visited the stand of Bell Cros, a 24-hectare estate producing 40+-year-old organic Garnacha and Cariñena. Founded by Swedish investor Peter Skoglund in 2017 and advised by winemaker Joan Asens, we welcomed the Mediterranean character of El Tracte Cariñena and the experimental editions of their One Off series, particularly the #5 clarete, blending Garnacha Tinta and Blanca.
One bodega we will be hearing more about in the near future is Saíñas, in Ribeira Sacra. Following the death of the founder, Javier Fernández, in 2020, the winery is now run by his daughter Saleta and son-in-law Jorge. Five hectares of heroic vines, between 20 and 90 years old, on the banks of the river Cabe, on granite soils, local varieties and the advice of Luis Seabra, whom they met as students at Ingavi, Galicia's leading sommelier school, produce fresh and serious wines that will undoubtedly continue to improve.
The charm of G Street is that you can find "celebrities" like Fernando Mora MW serving wines next to unknown producers who may one day become cult winemakers. We don't know if José Joaquín Ballesteros of Vinos Llámalo X will be one of them, but this young producer, who has decided to stop sending his family's grapes to the co-operative, is releasing good Airen wines fermented with skins in vats made in his home town of Villarobledo. Together with two of his neighbours at BWW, Vinos Entre Lindes and Fernández de la Ossa (see all of them in the photo below), they have set up a Tinaja Association in the village to restore pride in this typical La Mancha tradition.
Bundled with the Artisans, José Antonio García Viticultor presented his wide and well-constructed range of wines from 17 hectares of organic and estate-owned vineyards in Valtuille and Corullón in Bierzo. From his entry level, formerly called Unculín and now Godello and Doña Blanca (€15), through his expressive and mineral Godello Viñas Viejas to the chalky texture of Corullón Palomino, all his whites deserve attention. Among his reds, with slow fermentations and stems in different percentages, the finesse of Julia (a blend of Mencía, Merenzao, Garnacha Tintorera and white grapes in grey slate soils) and the structure and depth of Corullón Viñas Viejas stand out.
