When a large buyer cancelled an order at the last minute, brothers Francesc and Joan Ferre decided to keep their carefully farmed grapes for themselves. That accident of timing became Celler Frisach.
Backstory
The Ferre family has farmed grapes and olives in Terra Alta for well over 200 years. Frisach was their great-grandfather's surname, and the name Ca Frisach still marks the family home on the main street of Corbera d'Ebre, their village. In 2009, after Francesc returned from oenology school, the brothers stopped selling their fruit and began making their own wine. Francesc, drawn to the natural wine world, steered the style toward less extraction and less intervention.
The Region
The winery sits in Corbera d'Ebre, in the Terra Alta region of Catalonia. The brothers farm about 20 hectares between 290 and 450 meters of elevation. Soils include iron-rich calcareous clay and panal, the petrified sand dunes typical of the area.
Vineyards and Farming
The vines are farmed organically. The signature grape of Terra Alta is Garnatxa, and Frisach works several forms of it: Garnatxa Fina, Garnatxa Gris and Garnatxa Peluda, alongside Carinyena. Of the roughly three hectares of the rare Garnatxa Gris (Vernatxa) left in Terra Alta, the family owns about two and a half.
Winemaking
The approach is minimal-intervention. Wines ferment in vessels ranging from underground cement vats to stainless steel, neutral barriques and oak of various sizes, with aging from a few months up to a year depending on the cuvee. Sulfur additions are low, often around 10 parts per million at bottling, with some wines made with none added.
The Wines
The range includes the entry L'Abrunet bottlings in white, red and rosat, plus La Foradada (a skin-contact white fermented in stainless steel), Vernatxa, L'Anit, Les Alifares and the red Sang de Corb. The wines are fresh, energetic and increasingly seen on lists across Catalonia.
