La Foradada de Frisach

Gra fort is a Catalan hard rock band that tells stories about where they come from, Corbera de l'Ebre, in Terra Alta (Tarragona), in every one of their songs. “Tu t'has criat entre coscolls, barrancs i alts serralls per això ets dur de pelar” (in Catalan, “Raised among the oak trees, ravines and high mountains so you are tough”) is how D.O.T.A. begins, one of their most important songs about the place. A landscape that despite being heavily bombed and looted in the civil war, recovered to remain a town with its own identity. This is where the brothers Francesc and Joan Ferré have their family project Celler Frisach and where they champion the vineyards that have been cultivated generation after generation to bottle some pure D.O. Terra Alta terroir.

One of the wines made by the Ferré brothers, La Foradada de Frisach is a local brut wine “criat entre coscolls, barrancs i alts serralls” (raised among oak trees, ravines and high mountains).  Made with the Garnacha Blanca variety from vines over 20 years old and planted on a clay-limestone soil, it is made organically, following the rules of the CCPAE (Catalan Council for Organic Agricultural Production) and the grapes are harvested by hand at the optimum point of ripeness.

In the winery, La Foradada de Frisach is made using a vinification process that is quite common in Terra Alta, which involves leaving the grapes to ferment with the skins for two weeks in stainless steel tanks and then resting on the lees for almost 12 months before bottling. It is bottled without clarifying, filtering or adding sulphites.

As the cork on the bottle states, La Foradada de Frisach is simply “Naturalment vi” (in Catalan, “Naturally wine”). An orange wine made the old-fashioned way that smells of a unique territory and tastes of life.