Winemaking Fermentation and maceration with the skins, malolactic fermentation and ageing for six months in 225 litre French oak barrels.
Ageing 16 months in 225 litre French oak barrels. Winemaker's notes Belat is the first variety to come from the ancient varieties recovery project that we've been working on at Albet i Noya since 1999. It's ADN shows it to be unique and authoctonous, it's the variety we identified solely as Red no. 2 until now. We'll have only 300-500 bottles available each year until 2015/2016. Belat comes from "velat" or veiled, in this case, covered by the veil of time. It produces a wine that is reminiscent of Sumoll and Pinot Noir, light in colour but with fine aromas of pipe tobacco, menthol, a sweet velvety tannin giving the fresh elegance of great wines. It's time in oak rounds out the stamp of a wine of the highest class.
Whilst the origins of viticulture at Can Vendrell go back to the middle ages, it was not until 1903 that the Albet family established itself at the estate. Joan Albet i Rovirosa came to Can Vendrell to oversee the replanting of the estate after the Phylloxera plague. This process involved planting... American rootstock and grafting the desired variety onto that rootstock. After replanting the vineyards he stayed on as manager of the 210 hectare estate of which 90 hectares were vineyards.
It was the current generation, Josep Maria and Antoni, who introduced organic farming methods to the vineyards. Josep Maria took over the management of the estate after his father's death in 1972 and at the end of the seventies started producing his first organic wines. With the success of that first wine produced specifically for the Danish market, they gradually moved the entire estate over to organic farming.
In 1986 the current company was established. Albet i Noya S.A.T. was set up by Josep Maria and his brother Antoni Albet i Noya, and their mother, Núria Noya i Rafecas. The family also finally acquired the estate that they had been farming for three generations. At this point, they began a long process of continuous rennovation of the cellar, as well as switching 100% of the estate over to organic farming methods.
