For years we've searched for the Spanish Lapierre, Souhaut, or Pfifferling. And in Toni Carbo's Celler La Salada, we've found it.

Toni Carbo's family farmed grapes for hundreds of years before his grandfather was finally... Read More

For years we've searched for the Spanish Lapierre, Souhaut, or Pfifferling. And in Toni Carbo's Celler La Salada, we've found it.

Toni Carbo's family farmed grapes for hundreds of years before his grandfather was finally able to buy land. Of course, he didn't have much money so he had to buy cheapest land around: steep, rocky vineyards high up in the Penedès.

They were considered inferior because they were so low-yielding, full of infertile limestone and clay soils. But to us it sounds like amazing terroir for making great wine. But back then, with the focus on high-volume industrial winemaking, nobody wanted it.

The good luck/bad luck thing continued. Toni's family didn't have the money for fertilizers and other chemicals; they have, in effect, always been practicing organic.

So when Toni made the switch to biodynamic winemaking, it wasn't such a stretch: the vineyards took to it beautifully. And now he uses cover crops instead of tilling: his soils are alive, his vines are vibrant, and his fruit is clean and healthy.

That beautiful fruit is a big reason why he's able to make such clean, pure, beautiful wines without any additions at all in the winery. No sulfur, no factory yeasts. No nothing. He bottles, of course, without fining or filtering. Just a beautiful expression of vintage, grape, terroir.