Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The nose of the 2023 Sus Scrofa is all wild strawberries and flowers with some herbs thrown in to complete a complex but easy to understand red produced exclusively with Sumoll. They feel they have achieved what they were looking for, with the experience of 25 years, in a very good year for Sumoll, a grape that loves heat, and the grapes ripened slowly. The grapes were very small and looked like a Pinot Noir that delivered a balanced wine like never before, with 12.06% alcohol and a pH of 3.35. It has a fine-boned palate of a superb Mediterranean red, elegant, nothing rustic about it. And it's a real bargain.
Beyond the usual suspects, there are hundreds of red grape varieties grown throughout the world. Some are indigenous specialties capable of producing excellent single varietal wines, while others are better suited for use as blending grapes. Each has its own distinct viticultural characteristics, as well as aroma and flavor profiles, offering much to be discovered by the curious wine lover. In particular, Portugal and Italy are known for having a multitude of unique varieties but they can really be found in any region.
A superior source of white grapes for the production of Spain’s prized sparkling wine, Cava, the Penedes region is part of Catalunya and sits just south of Barcelona. Medio Penedès is the most productive source of the Cava grapes, Macabeo, Xarel-lo, and Parellada. Penedes also grows Garnacha and Tempranillo (here called Ull de Llebre in Catalan), for high quality reds and rosès.