Starting a Vineyard from Scratch, with Marco Abella of Priorat
Many an oenophile while sitting cramped up under the fluorescent lights of their corporate gig dream of quitting it all, moving to the countryside with fresh air and soil, and opening their own winery. The obstacles seem large - living for possibly years without incremental income and diving into an industry with tight-knit cliques that requires years of mistakes before the possibility of a successful brew. Oh, and then you need to get people to like it, and buy it, and rate it high, and then you have to repeat the miracle you just performed every year.
It's these reasons that when I meet people who have done just that, I stare in awe as if I just found a unicorn - they really do exist! David Marco and his wife are such people, and I had the pleasure of meeting the founders of Marco Abella winery in Priorat at a tasting evening they conducted with the The Sampler in North London this week.
Because of how his wine, Clos Abella, was born David took the unique approach of starting his tasting with his oldest wine and moved up to their most recent. The 2004 Clos Abella was their first attempt at winemaking - when he was still employed as an Engineer in Barcelona and had to use someone else's winemaking facilitates (!). David self-professes he knew nothing about winemaking at the time, but quickly learned it is a lot of work, which would require he and his wife to quit their jobs and throw their entire life savings at it if they wanted it to work (Wahoo! ... wait ... uhh ... yes, wahoo!).
Their first two years ... 2004 & 2005
He advises through the early years they had to be flexible, like considering taking in grapes from plots outside their own resulting in a 2007 blend that contained a high percentage of Syrah (not typical of the Priorat region), They had to be passionate about what they were doing - In 2008 their winemaker moved on, and forced David finally to dive into learning the intricacies of winemaking, and now he jokes, despite being a former engineer, all of his wine notes are in his head. And of course, it is this passion that also provides them the patience becoming a winemaker requires - months and years of waiting for that perfect moment.
Priorat is a region know for powerful reds, driven by the hot Southern Spanish sun that adds hot backed prune flavours and its unique terroir of black slate, known as licorella and winds from the sea that add salinity. However, the team at Marco Abella showed once again their bravery by deciding to try and soften the well-known blow of the Priorat reds, and have won over the hearts of many loyalists to the tradition with their unique, rich, but smooth blends.
Their gamble has paid off - the 2009 Clos Abella scored 100 points - just five years after their first ever bottle, While the 2004 is impressive for a first attempt, it does show signs of a new winemaker, with an imbalanced blend. The 2005 shows marked improvements, and its complexity and surprising young colour suggest this wine still has many years of aging and development potential.
Today, the winery continues to innovate. Now dedicated to producing wines only off their own plots in Priorat, they are barreling each vineyard and grape separately to test their indivudual strengths (predominantly Granache and Carignon). As the trend and value of single vineyard varietals is growing in popularity (and price!) this seems like a very wise move.
Though yes, it is 12 years later now, and David gives off the air of a well-saturated winemaker, it makes it much easier to envision that this dream is possible, all you have to do is start, stay passionate, be flexible, and keep moving forward.
Go to Priorat. Eat their food. Drink their wine.
