Alt Camp: wine without a designation
A Tarragona region presided over by the monastery of Santes Creus, where two families decided to stop selling in bulk and bottle, themselves, the ampelographic heritage of the Gaià Valley.
A region of the Camp de Tarragona, in the shadow of Santes Creus
The Alt Camp forms part, along with the Baix Camp and the Tarragonès, of the Camp de Tarragona area within the DO Tarragona — a designation that, for administrative rather than geological reasons, encompasses regions with quite different soils and climates. The Alt Camp is presided over by the monastery of Santes Creus, one of Catalonia's great Cistercian complexes, and crossed by the Gaià river valley, which creates a dry-farmed Mediterranean microclimate tempered by altitude: hot summers, but cool nights that lengthen ripening and preserve acidity.
It's a territory of old viticulture — the farming families of Vila-Rodona and Santes Creus have been growing vines for generations — but until recently almost all the production was sold in bulk to cooperatives or large wineries. The two producers we work with at Terroir Radical represent the moment that changed.
Celler Sanromà: bottling a landscape
Four generations of growers from the Sanromà Calaf family always sold their grapes in bulk. In 2013, Edu Sanromà decided to close the cycle and bottle the wine from the family's own estates himself, in Vila-Rodona. The philosophy is concise: bottle a landscape. Organic, minimal intervention, no additives. 25,000 bottles a year, all with the character of the territory and without a designation of origin.
La Rural: the Sumoll and Vinyater of Santes Creus
Xavi and Andreu Padró, of La Rural, make skin-maceration wines in Santes Creus — even the whites spend some time in contact with the skins. Their vineyards spread between Santes Creus, Vila-Rodona and L'Albà, between 284 and 422 metres altitude. The commitment to almost forgotten varieties is deliberate: the 53-year-old Vinyater and the 56-year-old Sumoll planted in L'Albà represent the ampelographic memory of the region — varieties the designation never needed, but that the Gaià Valley never stopped having.
Vines without a DO, by choice
Neither Celler Sanromà nor La Rural bottle under any designation of origin. It's not a shortcoming: it's a decision. Working without a DO frees them from the obligation to plant 'accepted' international varieties and lets them keep alive plots of Sumoll or Vinyater that, under the rules of a conventional designation, would probably have been pulled up long ago.
A dry-farmed microclimate tempered by altitude, in the shadow of the monastery of Santes Creus.
Almost extinct varieties surviving in family plots over 50 years old.
Two producers who decided to stop selling in bulk and bottle their own landscape.
Producers of the Alt Camp at Terroir Radical
All the producers we work with who have their vineyards in this territory:
Wines from Alt Camp
Sumoll, Vinyater and much more: the Gaià Valley without a designation of origin, bottled by the person who works it.
See the wines of the Alt Camp See all the producers