Els Vinyerons Vins Naturals - Diables - 2021 - 9% - DO Penedès

100% Macabeu (30yr)

Alcohol: 9 %, Ph: 3,54, SO2: <20 mg/l, resid. sugar: 254 g/l

Amos direct presses his Xarel.lo grapes, and then reduces the must over heat for one week - continuous boiling at temperatures of over 100 celsius. After a week, unreduced wine, with its indigenous yeasts, is added to what is now a viscous syrup of concentrated sugars, with beautiful acidity (also ampilified by the reduction). The wine now begins its long, slow passage through fermentation, over a different period each year, at least 10, sometimes 12 months. Fermentation is infinitesimally slow, because of the great stress (osmotic pressure) these sugar levels place on the cells of the yeast. Then when fermentation ends, the wine goes old french oak barrels for one or two months. ⠀

When he first revived this method, in his shed-cellar in 2012, Amos was sure the intensity of the initial reduction would kill all the wine's natural flavour precursors. In fact, he was met with a powerfully complex, sweet wine with that drinks like heaven, despite its name. As per Amos: ⠀

"Diables means Devils and I have called the wine Diables for different reasons. The heat of hell related to the boiling process and to the traditional Diables dancing in Catalonian villages; the sensuality of the resulting wine that is very "hot" in sexual terms and the orange color of the overhanging part of the Diables wall in Montserrat mountain in Catalonia, due my passion for climbing. ⠀