August 2025 Crianza Club

Trinca Bolotas 2021 Alentejo Regular Price: $19.99 Club Price: $16.99 Buy Now

The name “Trinca Bolotas” means “acorn cruncher,” a nod to the black Iberian pigs that roam the forests of Alentejo. They’re central to the region’s identity, not only in cuisine but in the broader agricultural rhythm of life here. That name also signals the wine’s rootedness in a specific place, with a personality that reflects more than just the grapes in the bottle. As a sidenote, what is fascinating about the Iberian peninsula is that over a relatively short geographic extent, some things remain the same (pigs roaming oak shrub and eating acorns happens on the eastern side of the border to Portugal in Spain's extremadura), while others change dramatically, like the amount and style of wine produced. 

This wine is produced by Herdade do Peso, a project of Sogrape, Portugal’s largest wine company and the force behind names like Mateus and Sandeman. Herdade do Peso represents a more focused, terroir-driven effort within the Sogrape portfolio. Located in the Vidígueira subregion, the vineyards benefit from slightly cooler conditions than the surrounding Alentejo plains. That touch of moderation helps bring balance to grapes that otherwise ripen very easily under the hot sun. In that way, this wine reminds us of previous wine club choices that also featured "less ripe than the rest" wines from Alentejo. 

The blend here includes Alicante Bouschet, a rare red-fleshed variety that contributes deep color and concentration. Aragonez (known across the border as Tempranillo) adds structure and freshness, while Trincadeira brings herbal and savory notes. A short period in used oak helps integrate the flavors without getting in the way. The result is a wine that is dark-fruited and supple but not heavy, making it ideal with grilled pork, chorizo, or hearty vegetarian dishes. And that's just perfect for the last of your bay area summer bbqs before the kids go back to school (or you go back to work).

L'Efect Volador 2020 Montsant Regular Price: $25.99 Club Price: $22.09 Buy Now

We have featured a lot of wines from Rioja in the club lately, and had therefore chosen to showcase a roble-style Ribera del Duero this month  But alas, the wine gods wanted it differently.  The chosen wine showed up with what we determined to be heat damage, turning something intended to show off “fresh” and youthful Tempranillo into something closer to a dry port.  Lucky for us, this unexpected change made us look farther afield, and we landed on a much more fun and unusual wine made by Josep Grau in Catalonia’s Montsant.  Fitting, given the fact that yours truly writer just returned from Catalonia and was reminded of the wine and food riches the semi-autonomous region has to offer. 

Melissa Leighty, a freelance writer and photographer based in Barcelona, Spain does a wonderful job summarizing Josep Grau’s career arc in her 2017 piece “From Numbers to Grapes: The Intrepid Project of Josep Grau”, from which we have adapted the following. Josep Grau didn’t come from a long line of winemakers. In fact, he had a career in finance which he chose in spite of his father’s warnings: ‘In this work, you believe something, you construct something, but in reality it’s nothing. It’s smoke. Nobody is going to thank you for the work you do.’  Usually, it’s the other way around:  the young son, full of idealism for wine, is talked out of it by a father espousing the benefits of a stable career in finance.  But alas, despite success in finance, Josep Grau found himself yearning for more.  In his own words, ‘at the end of the day, my work was about nothing.’  Initially, his visits to the wine country served as a way to escape his unfulfilling work life and to relax.  But over time, he got more and more serious about wine, leading him to enroll in the Enology program at the Catalan Institute of Vine and Wine in 2000.  A short 3 years later, he went on to find and buy a forgotten vineyard in Montsant’s Capcanes for 18,000 Euros in 2003.  By 2007, he had studied enough from other winemakers to have formed his own opinions and started making wine, winning awards and recognition for his Vespres wine in 2010.  By 2013, he had decided to commit to making wine full time and today, he has an impressive lineup of wines (https://www.josepgrauviticultor.com/els-vins/), many of which higher-end than the Volador we are featuring in the Crianza Club. 

From the beginning, Grau’s approach was low-intervention, even when it wasn’t yet fashionable. He works by hand, uses only ambient yeast, and avoids new oak entirely. His goal isn’t to impress; it’s to translate what’s in the vineyard into the glass as directly as possible. That might sound cliché in 2025, but the results speak for themselves—and Volador is a great introduction to his style.  Fermented and aged only in concrete, the wine showcases the terroir and the fruit, nothing else. 

Grau farms organically in Montsant, and his vineyards sit at elevation, many on the granitic and slate soils that this rugged region shares with neighboring Priorat. But Montsant is very much its own story. Officially separated from the Tarragona DO in 2001, Montsant has since become a hotbed for thoughtful producers who see the potential for wines that speak clearly and with precision, rather than just power. That’s exactly what Grau is doing: making wines that feel rooted in place, but with a freshness that sets them apart.

Josep Grau named this wine Volador, “flyer” in Catalan, as a nod to its lightness, energy, and lift. In a region known for structured, powerful reds, Volador takes a different path: it’s fruit-forward, agile, and refreshingly honest. Made of a blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Caringnan, 10% Syrah from vineyards in Falset, Marcà and Capçanes in D.O. Montsant.  The vineyards are on calcareous clay soil, the vines 10 – 20 years old, farmed following organic practices without chemical or synthetic products.  The grapes are hand harvested in September, destemmed and pressed fermented with native yeasts and aged briefly in concrete. It shows great concentration of fresh fruit, especially cherry and  strawberry with floral, licorice and pepper notes rounding out the aromas. It combines full flavor with a delicate mouthfeel and good acid balance.  This wine manages to combine subtle spice, and that signature Montsant minerality—like cracked rock and fresh rain on dry earth. 

We’ve featured a few Montsant wines in the club over the years, and they always spark interest. The region still lives a bit in the shadow of Priorat, but that’s slowly changing. With growers like Grau focusing on balance and authenticity, rather than extraction and brawn, Montsant is building its own identity that’s worth exploring as much as its more famous neighbor Priorat.  We encourage you to use your wine club discount to explore the Vespres white we feature in the ByT club, and we encourage you to enjoy the Volador. It’s one of those wines that disappears quickly, the kind you open before dinner and realize is gone before the food hits the table.