Varieties
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The name Tempranillo is the diminutive of the Spanish temprano (early), a reference to its early ripening, because it’s harvested at the end of September. In Catalan it’s called Ull de Llebre (eye of hare) because of the rounded shape of the grape. It’s a variety of red grape with a thick skin, a long and compact bunch of grapes and a medium-sized blue-black fruit.
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The name Sumoll comes from the word “sumollar” (to ripen) that is used in a dialect of Catalan. It’s also known as Sumoll negre, Piñuela or Sunnites. It’s a type of red grape but there’s also a white subvariety.
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The Xarel·lo is a variety from Penedès and Camp de Tarragona, used to produce cava along with Macabeu and Parellada. It’s a white grape variety and it’s balanced, silky and tasty.
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It’s indigenous to Conca de Barberà, where it takes up a very small area. The Trepat or Trepadell is a vigorous variety of red grape. Bunches are big and compact and the grapes are medium-sized, spherical and bluish black.
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In Catalan it’s called Samsó and in Spanish Cariñena. The bunch of Carignan is small and compact. Its grape is medium-sized, round and purple, and it has a lot of juice and a sweet taste. It’s a productive variety, with a slow budding, so it’s not affected by spring frosts. It has a good resistance to drought but it doesn’t stand humidity and it’s sensitive to diseases.
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The Folle Blanche is a variety of white grape indigenous to Pla de Bages, where it’s called Picapoll or Picapolla. It’s a scant variety that is found especially in Catalonia and Occitania. Nowadays, its growing doesn’t arrive to 20 hectares, and the 96% of it it’s cultivated in the DO Pla de Bages. In France it’s also called Picpoul and it’s used to produce the distilled wines from the regions of Cognac and Armagnac.
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The Parellada is a very productive and good quality variety of white grape. The bunch is big and compact. The grape is medium-sized, greenish gold coloured and it has a tough skin. It has a long cycle, with an early budding and a late ripening, and it resists well the temperature changes, but it’s sensitive to diseases and drought.
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This is a variety of grape typical Mediterranean and it’s the second most important variety in Spain, after Grenache.
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The Muscat, known in Catalonia as Moscatell, is a variety of white grape. There’s also a variety of red grape but it’s scarcer. Its bunch is small. The grape is big and egg-shaped, white or purple-coloured. It’s characterized by an intense and pronounced aromatic perfume and by its sweetness.
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The Malvasia is a variety of white grape, but there’s also a red sub-variety. The bunch is small and with little compactness and the grape is big, tender and egg-shaped, very sweet and aromatic. It has a good acidity and it’s sugar-rich, and it’s difficult to find these two characteristics in the same grape.
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The Grenache is a variety of grape mainly located in the wine growing areas in the South of Catalonia and in the Empordà. It’s a vigorous variety and it can adapt well to different areas. The bunch is medium-sized and compact; the grape is red and fleshy.
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The Macabeu, also called Viura, is a white variety of wine grape native to Catalonia. The bunch is big and compact. The skin of the grape is thin and gold-coloured. Its budding is slow and the harvest period is short, with a premature wine harvest, from mid-August to early September. It resists well the frosts and the droughts, but it’s sensitive to diseases, mainly the Botrytis cinerea.
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The Grenache Blanc is a Spanish variety of white grape. It has medium-sized and compact bunches. The grapes are also medium-sized, round and greenish yellow. The grapes have a lot of juice and they are harvested late. The origin is not clear, but it’s believed that it’s a mutation of the red variety, the Grenache.
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