Inspiration and Tradition
LaFou de Rams is a wine inspired by traditions, the landscape, and the white Grenache variety - a grape variety with which Ramon Roqueta Segalés fell in love. In 2007, he founded LaFou Celler in Batea, Terra Alta, captivated by its style of Grenache and the landscape of valleys and fous of the region. It is a tribute to the tradition of the world of wine in Terra Alta, with its history of orange, oxidative wines and long macerations, but without foregoing the elegance and freshness that characterizes the winery's wines.
Vineyard Origin and Vinification
LaFou de Rams is a vineyard wine. It comes from Viña de Rams, a vineyard planted in 1966 located in the lowest part of the estate, at 340m. Made from 100% Garnacha Blanca, it is a blend of two different vinifications. Firstly, some juice is macerated with the skins. When fermentation begins, it is separated into two containers: one part in French 300l barrels, light toast (1st–3rd fill) where it stays in contact with the lees for 6 months, the other portion is fermented and stored in a stainless steel tank.
Unique Vinification Process
Secondly, some of the grapes are made as an orange wine; vinified as a red grape, coexisting fermentation and skin maceration. A part of this wine goes into a stainless steel tank and the other is matured in a 300l European oak barrel, with the orange wines from other years, and later a small part of this becomes part of LaFou de Rams. In LaFou de Rams, each of these four blends contributes its characteristics, each year in different proportions, seeking to enhance the expression of the vineyard and the landscape that surrounds it and of white Grenache.
Elegant Expression
The result is a wine with much pedigree, which rests in the cellar for a minimum of 30 months to express itself with maximum splendor. It is a white wine with red essence, continuing to describe the long history of a land and a variety in which the aromas open towards balsamic notes that transform licorice into menthol and close again towards ripe notes of honey and dried fruit.
Complexity and Nuances
A range of aromas that make LaFou de Rams a multi-faceted wine, which invites one not to miss any moment of its evolution. The marked acidity of Viña de Rams finds an unusual ally in this white variety; the tannicity of the orange style, a white wine with strength, fermented in open barrels, as if it were a red wine, and aged for 4 months in oak barrels. Volume and fluidity, weight and freshness, rusticity and elegance, and structure and luminosity combine to offer a long recital of nuances, like a kaleidoscope rich in sensations that are rooted in the richness of a variety and in a way of winemaking that belongs to the Terra Alta.
