Winery: Venus La Universal

Country / Region: Spain / Catalunya, DO Montsant

Date Winery was established: 1999

Grape Variety: Garnatxa blanca (white Grenache), Macabeu (Viura) and Cartoixà (Xarel·lo)

Alcohol Content / Volume: 13,5% / 750ml

First Vintage Released: 2007

Ratings: 93 pts. Robert Parker (2017)

Decanting Time: no need

Good to know: This wine was born out love, out of intuition… faithful to the trajectory of recovering part of their history and traditions. They decided to make a Mediterranean white wine using local grape varieties… voluptuousness, elegance, and rectitude.

White Dido is a journey through the Montsant. Garnatxa comes from three different plots in the area of Marça and Falset. The first plot is a 70-year old vineyard, located in the earlier and warmest area from the Montsant DO. The second one, 25 years old aged, with Garnatxa and Macabeu, located in Coll de Falset, a more vigorous and fresher area and it allowed them to compensate warmth and density from the first plot grapes with a good acidity, low pH and spicy aromas. The other two Macabeu plots, aged more than 70 years old, are in colder areas in the border of the DOQ Priorat and they are more lately, providing them structure and aging potential. All of them are growing on a calcareous white soil.

A small part of the grapes are macerated with skin during 3 to 5 days with open barrels to make the starter (pie de cuba) to get native yeast, another 20% is macerated with skin during 24h to 15 days depending on the varietal and the extraction we want to reach. The rest goes straight to the press.

It is aged in different volume barrels from 300l to 600l and a foudre of 5000L for 14 months. If the rose Dido has the spirit of a white, the blanc Dido has the structure of a red, as it macerated with skins for some 30 days, but it's quite pale (the Macabeo does not go golden, and this Garnacha Blanca from granite just doesn't even if the variety normally does). The wine has a vibrant and lively nose and incredible balance on the palate, with good ripeness and unnoticeable alcohol balanced by very good freshness. It has very fine tannins and a dry, austere and stony finish

The history of Venus La Universal is born from the connection between two of the best producers in Priorat (René Barbier and Sara Perez). Rene started out in the world of wine at Clos Mogador in 1992 with his father. He has spent more than 20 years of his life dedicated to wine. For the first 10 years, he worked mainly in the winery and whilst he was there, he realized that in order to advance further, he needed to be out working the land.

In 2001 he had the option of buying a small old vine “coster” (steeply sloping) traditional vineyard called Els Bellvisos. This vineyard had been abandoned and it was fascinating, sitting right in the middle of a steep grove of holm oaks, spectacular…a spot where he could learn about growing grapes.

It was at this same time that another great influence entered his life in the form of Sara Pérez, (daughter of one of the pioneers in the region, Josep Lluis Perez and winemaker of Mas Martinet since 1996). Together with Sara, they brought the vineyard back into production. It was an uncompromising spot, which however offered them the chance to make a wine which was at one with nature. They embarked on a project which was based on their philosophy on life: a sustainable, organic project where they could close the circle of life!

René and Sara have taken the goddess as their inspiration for this project. One of their stated goals is “to interpret femininity through a bottle of wine”. This might seem an odd choice for a bodega that elaborates Grenache and Carignan based wines in Southern Cataluña, but it makes sense once you taste. These are incredibly elegant, refined, sensual expressions of DO Montsant, with restrained alcohol levels and tremendous texture.