Pla de Bages

DO Pla de Bages
History
The beginnings

The first indications of vineyards and wine in the Pla de Bages are found in Roman villas. A piece of Ibero-Roman pottery from the 2nd-1st centuries BC was found in the town of Boades (Castellgalí). where there is an inscription with the word VINUM.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, we do not find the first vineyards cultivated until the year 940.

Bageswas the most inland region of Catalonia where the vineyard was cultivated and the wine was made well. Thus, Bages was the supplier of wine from the so-called mountain lands, in exchange for wheat and other agricultural products.

The expansion of the vineyard in the century XIV it was so large that protectionist privileges began to be granted. For example, in 1330 Alfonso IV the Benign granted Santpedor the privilege of forbidding outsiders from entering wine or vintage. In fact, this was the moment of maximum splendor of the city of Manresa, with a great growth of the city and the construction of its main works.
To understand the present
In the middle of the century XVI the first stone tubs appear inside the farmhouse, which will be built en masse from the century XVII. Thus were born the characteristic tiled glazed ceramic vats of the Pla de Bages, with the wooden honeycomb as a lid to crush the grapes on top. This system will be used until well into the century XX.

The abandonment of the vineyard in Bages was progressive between 1925 and 1989. The period from 1925-1950 was when most of them were torn down due to tensions between landlords and sharecroppers, the Civil War, high cereal prices and improved truck and rail transport.

Between 1975 and 1982 the vineyard continued to decline to 500 hectares in 1989, which represented almost the disappearance of the vineyard.
Climate and soils
Within a mid-mountain continental Mediterranean climate, Bages has the ideal conditions for wine cultivation: an exceptional microclimate, low rainfall and a strong thermal oscillation, as well as a clayey and calcareous soil.
Its wines are impregnated with balsamic notes of lavender, thyme and rosemary. These aromatic plants that populate the forests of pines, oaks and holm oaks surround the vineyards.

Traditional varieties in Pla de Bages
White varieties
Picapoll White: Late variety, oval grain and thick skin, which protects it in its long maturation. It gives wines of medium acidity that makes them very kind and enhances their feeling of volume. Aromatically it reveals citrus notes, such as grapefruit, lavender and in cooler years the floral notes (white flower like jasmine).
Red varieties
Mandó: Mandó is an almost forgotten variety of red grape that is recovering satisfactorily. The wines made with this variety are surprising for their quality and personality. Therefore, a great effort is being made for its reintroduction by rescuing the few strains that have survived its abandonment. It gives truncated conical droplets of medium size considerably compact. Its grains are small and spherical reaching maturity with a purple hue.

Sumoll: The most preserved native red variety in the area. Medium cycle, large grapes and high average production. It gives reds of little color but a lot of freshness and tannic structure, with a style of continental wines (that is to say, more similar to Pinots Noirs and Nebiolos than to Bordeaux varieties). Tannins that are difficult to ripen, which is why it has always been considered a good variety for obtaining rosés.

Picapoll red.