'We traveled from vineyard to vineyard and made wine all over the world. Now we own 25 hectares of land in Empordà, Spain.
We are Dido & Jurriaan. We share a passion: wine. We traveled from vineyard to vineyard to make wine all over the world. We finally set foot down in the region of Alt-Empordà in Spain, where we found 9,5 hectares of already planted vineyards in the natural reserve of the Albera. We farm these vineyards biodinamically. From these grapes we make wine without additions or filtering, also known as vin nature.
Through crowdfunding we were able to buy the estate and machinery to start transforming the land. The year 2018 was our first vintage ever making wine from our own grapes. We live in midst of our vines, installed solar panels and use water from the well, living completely off grid. The wine we make in the old cooperative of the town Rabós, a building that we were able to buy in 2020, becoming part of our new project Fruita Analogica. Together with another partner, we are searching for the best organic/biodynamic grapes of the region to turn into easy accessible natural wine. This year we will plant 3 new hectares for Fruita Analogica, close to the vinyeards of Tortuga. Also, we are opening a restaurant in the spring of 2023, overlooking the cellar.
HOW DID IT ALL START?
Since we are together we always dreamed about owning a vineyard. As we are both from Amsterdam, we decided first to make a career in whatever we were doing and then, with some money, buy a vineyard and become winemakers. Jurriaan studied Engineering, and after he built a travel agency for low impact private journeys to South East Asia. Dido was doing research in South Africa for her master in Cultural Anthropology on the Swartland Independent Producers, a group of young winemakers making natural wines. There she realized that all those winemakers were following their dream right at that moment: by learning from different winemakers all over the world they eventually settled down in the Swartland to produce their own wine. That inspired us: why not follow our dream right now, while we are young and fit? And so we did. We managed to do internships in South Africa, Chile, Australia, France and in three different regions in Spain: Penedès, Priorat/Montsant and Conca de Barberà.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
We worked for big industrial companies as well as for small boutique wineries. Our internship at Joan Ramon Escoda changed our approach and introduced us to the world of natural wine: wine made without any additions and without filtration or fining. Just transforming grapes in their purest form into wine: to not add anything or take anything away. This sounds logical, but we experienced first hand what can be added into wine - ranging from different types of yeasts to arabic gum - more than 88 additives are allowed in conventional wine. To be able not to work with these products, the grapes need to be of very good (and at least organic) quality. This leads to a intensified focus in the vineyard, working as natural as possible, creating the most lively soil that gives us the most delicious grapes, that ferment easily on their own.
In order to achieve this quality, we sow every year a wide array of cover crop varieties in our vineyards. This year it has been subsidied by the European government. We let our small flock of sheep roam the vineyards in winter time.
OUR WINES
The names of the wines derive from album titles or songs that we often listen to. Our wines are named JUICY, Hunky Dory, Hurdy Gurdy, Mojo Pin, Cloudbusting, Magic Potion, Sugar Magnolia and Doolittle. New ones get made every year. Up to you to guess the artist!
Time line
2014: Cellar hand at Domaine Maby, Tavel, France.
2015: Cellar hand at Dragonridge Winery, Swartland
2015: Cellar hand at Celler Can Suriol, Penedès
2015: Cellar hand at Clos Mogador, Priorat & Venus La Universal, Montsant Spain
2015: Production of first wine: Ramses I @ Venus La Universal
2016: Cellar hand at Francois Lurton, Chile, Colchagua Valley
2016: Cellar hand at Clos Santa Ana, Chile, Colchagua Vally
2016: Production of second wine: Ramses II, El Niño @ Clos Santa Ana
2016: Cellar hand at Escoda Sanahuja, Conca de Barberà, Spain
2016: Production of third wine. Our first white wine: Tot Controlat @ Escoda Sanahuja
2017: Farming 25 hectares of vineyard in Cap de Creus for Espelt Viticultors
2017: Production of our fourth wine: Vinnaturo Cabernet Franc, a low priced natural wine
2018: Cellar hand at Tom Shobbrook, Barossa Valley, Australia
2018: Production of Ramses III "Down Under" @ Tom Shobbrook
2018: Owners of 9,5 hectares of vineyards in Alt-Empordà: Vinyes Tortuga
2020: Start of new project Fruita Analogica in the old cooperativa of Rabós together with Bart Obertop www.fruitaanalogica.com
2022: Building a restaurant attached to the Fruita Analogica cellar.
2023: Planting 3 new hectares with Fruita park, and opening the restaurant at the cellar.
