Vins del Silenci, the DO Montsant wines of the Agrícola d’Ulldemolins, presented L’Aniceto, the second tribute wine in the El Llegat collection, at an event held on Friday 10 September in the Plaça del Loreto in Ulldemolins.
El Llegat is a collection of small-production wines made with great care and affection that sets out to celebrate the uniqueness of some of the area’s vineyards and to pay tribute to people whose hard work and dedication have helped make the Ulldemolins Cooperative’s wine project possible.
L’Aniceto sets out to honour a vineyard that is unique in Ulldemolins, known as Aniceto’s vineyard, which he planted himself more than a hundred years ago. These very old Grenache vines were planted on a special plot of land and have been tended for three generations with the care and wisdom of someone who loves what they do and where they do it. With a background like this, the result could only be a unique wine, one that aims to capture the pride of a whole village, concentrated and expressed in this wine.
The family’s affection for this vineyard has meant that it has not been altered over the years and is still kept just as it was originally planted, trained as bush vines. This way of growing vines means doing practically all the work by hand, and keeps the traditional structure in which the vine is trained low to the ground with three or four open arms. This lets us aerate it very well, make the most of the sunlight, protect the grapes and help the vine suffer less water stress.
L’Aniceto is aged for nine months in oak barrels, and in 2021 the first vintage, the 2019, was bottled. To let it express itself fully, we recommend opening the bottle a little while before drinking and letting it breathe; it will gradually open up so that you can perceive more intensely the imprint of the Vall del Silenci, which comes from the altitude and the climate and is, essentially, freshness. The terroir of the plot also gives it its distinctive fresh aromas of forest fruits, balsamic notes and aromatic herbs, with sweet notes such as honey, clove, hazelnuts… This originality comes from the fact that all the Grenache used to make this wine is from the same vineyard, which lies in an area where gypsum predominates. That sets it apart from the great majority, which are planted in other parts of the Ulldemolins area on flint, slate (llicorella) or more chalky soils.
Sílvia Naranjo and Jordi Alcover, authors of the Guia de Vins de Catalunya i el Rosselló, also attended the launch, which was enlivened by the acoustic Concert de Petaca by Petit Taller de Cançons, organised by Ulldemolins Town Council as part of the Festa Major. The evening ended with a tasting of the new wine.
