Massimo and Antonella moved from Piedmont to Catalonia around 2000, leaving their city lives and settling in a bodega on the edge of the Massís de Bonastre. Previously trained as architects, they began growing fruit and vegetables; hungry for a quality of produce that, at the time, barely existed. Searching for wine of the same standard, they decided to make their own. Partida Creus is the old, local name of the plot where the bodega lies and refers to the stone crosses historically used by the Catalans to demarcate the land. A small vineyard came along with the plot and initially Massimo and Antonella made wine simply for their own pleasure. Gradually they began to work more with vines, slowly discovering abandoned parcels and plots of indigenous grape varieties. This is a fundamental part of the Partida Creus identity: a desire to restore and cultivate varieties that had been rejected, or never accepted, by the D.O. One of these, and the first variety they came across, is Sumoll, a red grape disqualified by the D.O. for its subdued colour and often ripped out by winemakers to be replaced with more popular, profitable varieties. Together they rescue abandoned plots as well as grafting old varieties to create new plantations of almost-forgotten grapes like Garrut and Vinyater. By recovering the past, they strive to build a sustainable, living future for the vines. The small plots are spread out and increasingly dry, but where vegetables struggle to grow in the absence of rainfall, vines and olive trees prevail with low yields and high quality. Steel tanks, damejeanne and oak, chestnut and acacia barrels are all used to produce wines with short macerations, founded on the 20 or so varieties that grow on calcareous and clayey soil. When a wine does not meet the quality they seek, it is returned to the fields as a natural fertiliser.
VN (Vinel·lo) Blanco ’22 is made from seven indigenous white varieties: Garnacha Blanca, Moscatel, Vinyater, Pansé, Macabeu, Xarel·lo and Parellada, harvested 5–8 days apart for optimal ripeness. Whole bunches are crushed underfoot and left for a short, 1–2 day maceration, before pressing and co-fermentation in inox. A fresh, cloudy wine with plenty of energy and a touch of anise, fennel and citrus.