Els Jelipins

Els Jelipins was born from the desire to create a vinicultural family project that would allow Glòria and her daughter Berta to live a beautiful life in the hills of Font-Rubí, in Alt Penedès, near Barcelona. In a former life, Glòria worked as an agronomical engineer – on the “dark side”, as she describes it, but back in 2003, she decided to change all of that. Today, Glòria works with plots of abandoned Montònega and Sumoll vines – some of which are 100 years old. She carefully tends to each vineyard separately, adjusting to its individual needs, possibilities and potential. Glòria makes an orange, rosé and red wine and explains that in old Sumoll vines – “each grape matures at different times, so we have to pick each grape individually.” The delicately skinned varietal is late-ripening, making it a notoriously difficult vine to work with. Every grape is destemmed and sorted by hand, and “if it’s not perfect, it won’t make it into the barrel”, says Glòria. Throughout maceration, fermentation and three years of ageing in barrels [for the reds], Glòria’s analyses the wines with her strongest tool – her palate. “I am fortunate; the cellar is under my room. I spend hours going up and down the stairs every day to taste all the barrels. You acquire an intuition.” The acidity and freshness of the native Sumoll and Montònega grapes enable good ageing potential allowing Glòria to make beautiful wines to drink today or to enjoy in years to come.