Castor Membership February 2024: The Wilderness of Greatness
The singular winemaker Ivo Pages.
“The Wilderness of Greatness”
Vinya Ivo Macabeu blend “Les Sirenes de Cadaques”, Costers del Segre 2022
Vinya Ivo Tempranillo “Els Cims”, Spain 2020
Over the last few years, I have enjoyed reading the books of Norwegian explorer/book publisher/art collector/philosopher/Renaissance man Erling Kagge; if you haven’t partaken of the spare prose and direct messaging in his manageable reads such as Silence…In The Age of Noise and Philosophy for Polar Explorers, I’d highly recommend diving in, especially if you, like me, find yourself every so often on a search for a positive, peaceful pathway that incentivizes you to begin by simply putting one foot in front of the other.
In Philosophy for Polar Explorers, there is a chapter entitled “Learning Not to Fear Greatness” wherein the author, who is the first man to achieve visiting the “Three Poles” on foot (Kagge did so in the early 1990s by soloing to the South Pole, walking with one companion to the North Pole, and successfully summiting Mount Everest) defines greatness as “the potential of each and every individual to overcome obstacles.” With a welcome sense of humility from someone so accomplished in multiple arenas of life, Kagge is quick to point out that this idea of greatness is not to simply imply superiority-nor should it come as a blind arrogance devoid of the ability to self-assess. But Kagge’s assertions that we too often devalue ourselves, and thus become our own biggest hindrance towards achieving whatever our particular potential allows-or worse yet, let fear of our own greatness manifest a fear of greatness in others, paving the way for envy and bitterness, ring meaningfully for me at this stage of life as a partner, father, and business owner. As much as our minds want to tell us that we are not, that we cannot, that what we’ve done thus far is sufficient, Kagge suggests that we can find greatness as it applies to ourselves by first doing the same thing he did each day in Antarctica when it was -50 degrees: put one foot in front of the other. In those moments as an explorer, Erling Kagge had no choice but to set out on his path-perhaps in this time, where the concepts of choice and free will are exploited ad nauseum as consumerism, we could all use a little less of them, in order to provide clarity, focus, and a different kind of freedom.
The town of Cadaques on the Gulf of Lion, Mediterranean Sea.
Greatness is an inherently lonely idea; the conventional wisdom is that the labors towards genius and accomplishing “great things” require isolation. But, as Erling Kagge’s analogy asks us, in which environment are we more lonely-amongst a great throng of people where we know no one, or in solitude, truly understanding and indeed knowing the One (us)? In this sense, we have to (figuratively or literally) wander in the wilderness of our own selves to discover what we define as the “great” things we want to achieve, and the place and path by which to do so.
One would think that being born with a ready-made entry into the power structure of a Bordeaux chateau would align with ideas of greatness…or perhaps it is only a sense of duty and expectation. Those are the circumstances that Ivo Pages came to encounter on his journey. Castor members may remember last spring when we featured the flagship wine of Medoc producer Chateau la Tour de By. The estate’s principal owner, Marc Pages, was certainly the patriarch and focal point of his family’s aspirations in Bordeaux, but they held other properties in the region as well, and it was a neighboring Chateau where his nephew Ivo grew up, quite literally, in the vineyard. Ivo’s fondest memories of childhood, however, weren’t in the vines of southwest France but of his family’s holiday home in Cadaques, Spain, a seaside town in northeast Catalunya.
Cadaques is a white-walled town of less than 3,000 people, and for Ivo Pages, it was always a place of pure magic; Ivo felt welcome. Here on holidays, he was as well surrounded by vineyards, with the land outside of the town being cultivated for centuries on slopes backing up to the Cap Creus National Park. Shuttling back and forth between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Pages was perhaps destined to become a winemaker, but his own assessment of what constituted greatness had yet to be formed, and rather than simply fall in line to assume eventual control of his family’s property, he sought to explore the breadth of terroir available to him. What followed was a multi-decade tour of Europe, with winemaking stops in Southwest France, the Languedoc, Gevrey-Chambertin in Burgundy, Italy, and his family’s properties in the Medoc and Blaye, including with his uncle Marc Pages at Tour de By. All the while, he would often return to Cadaques, walk amongst the rows, and appreciate the terroir at this special place in his heart. 16 years ago, Ivo Pages emerged from his wilderness: intrigued by the idea of helping the local vintners in Catalunya bring their vineyards back-from the disease phylloxera, neglect, and the mis-assessment of the varied terroirs, Pages determined that for him, greatness did not equal prestige, and rather than take up a place in Bordeaux, he moved to Cadaques permanently and started to create his own, founding Vinya Ivo.
Vines among the mountains, the Costa Brava, Catalunya.
Working with a longtime friend as business partner, Ivo Pages sought to, in his words, “spit out” the terroir of this land just below the French border and make wines that truly reflected and realized its potential. In a bit of shade thrown towards the bureaucracy of wine production in France, Pages also stated his reasoning for choosing the family’s ancestral home as a new home base: “You spend more time in the papers for the vineyard than in the vineyard.”
A lifelong afficionado of cooking and the interplay between food and wine, Ivo chose to work with a few different “partner producers” to satisfy his love for the diversity of offerings available to him in the nearby appellations: the “Sirenes de Cadaques” white wine is made with fruit from the Costers del Segre appellation, while his red wines are produced at small single estates near Cadaques and bottled for him. The Tempranillo “Els Cims” (“The Peaks”) is made at a single estate called “Vinyes de Muntanyes” in a tiny production; the bottle on hand for my tasting notes says its no. 375 of 1,200 (100 cases).
In keeping with a man who deflects attention and rues paper trails, research and technical data on Ivo’s wines is scant-most of the winemaking information detailed below comes from multiple foreign language websites, including Pages’ own Wordpress blog, written in either French or Catalan depending on the post and sadly discontinued before the Tempranillo project was begun. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the wines from Ivo Pages and Cadaques, the homeland of Salvador Dali, succeed in this nebulous space-ethereal yet very specific to their origin, the “Le Sirenes” and “Els Cims” somehow taste rustic and refined at once, with salty sea notes in the white and savory depth in the red (including the sweetness of red fruit that many Tempranillo sorely lack). Neither wine is meant to be a collectible, and yet that’s precisely what makes them compelling: in crafting daily wines that also show his and the land’s potential, Ivo Pages has come full circle to a place where his individual obstacles have been overcome.
Erling Kagge writes that we should be content with “smaller plates”; that his time spent in the literal wilderness made him more appreciative of simpler pleasures in the face of the hardships he otherwise suffered. I am grateful for his words and the wines of Ivo Pages- two adventurers whose collective greatness have my plate…er, glass-decidedly full-D.
Vinya Ivo Macabeu Blend “Les Sirenes de Cadaques”, Costers del Segre 2022
Country of Origin: Spain.
Places and People: Ivo Pages grew up quite literally in the vineyards, with his family owning estate in the Bordeaux commune of Blaye and his uncle, the well-known proprietor Marc Pages, owning the Medoc’s Chateau La Tour de By. But the Pages family originally hails from Catalan Spain, and after winemaking stops in Germany, Italy, and all over France, Pages returned to the small seaside town of Cadaques, where his extended family owned a vacation home that he visited frequently as a child, and created Vinya Ivo, a micro-wine project that places emphasis on tiny production levels and terroir above all.
A whitewashed village northeast of Barcelona and close to the Cap Creus Nature Park and the French border, Cadaques is home to Salvador Dali, and the “Les Sirenes” name and label honor the ladies who resided in his home village. The fruit for the “Les Sirenes” is sourced from the inland Costers del Segre appellation.
Soil: Lime-heavy soils at approximately 500 meter elevation.
Grape Varieties: A proprietary blend of Macabeu, Sauvignon Blanc, and Gewurztraminer (from tasting, the Macabeu most definitely makes up a significant proportion).
Winemaking: The “Les Sirenes” ‘three varieties are vinified separately, and this first step is carried out with absolutely no sulphur used. Assemblage is done “sur lie” (on the spent lees/yeasts left over from fermentation).
Aging: The sur lie aging is done for 4-6 months, after which the “Les Sirenes” is bottled promptly.
Flavors and Foods: A pale, slightly golden glass greets you and reminds that Macabeu and Gewurztraminer supply plenty of color. The nose is rife with white flowers and acacia; the “Les Sirenes” places you in the Mediterranean firmly from the get-go. A cornucopia of citrus fruits (lime, melon, lemon plums) dazzle on the vibrant palate, backed by the white flowers (more lily on tasting) and a pleasant earthy limestone drive. The “Les Sirenes” feels texturally more substantive than you might expect, which helps make my featuring it in February a bit more plausible (to be fair, these wines are new to the market and produced in small quantities-it was now or never!).
Service and Cellar: The texture of the “Les Sirenes” is best enjoyed on the lower end of white wine cellar temp (48-50 degrees F). The flower elements and giving citrus are strong enough to find their way out of a cooler temperature, but let warm too much and the lees aging on the wine brings an out of balance creaminess texturally. The “Les Sirenes” is meant to be enjoyed young, but per my observation above, if you have the discipline to stash a bottle for warmer weather, much good may it do you.
Vinya Ivo Tempranillo “Els Cims”, Spain 2020
Country of Origin: Spain.
Soil: The vineyards for the “Els Cims” Tempranillo are located at a single estate (“Vinyes de Muntanyes”) outside of the winery’s home base of Cadaques, and grow on clay-based, iron-rich soils.
Grape Varieties: 100% Tempranillo.
Winemaking: The “Els Cims” is vinified traditionally in tanks (mostly concrete), without the use of oak barrels.
Aging: The 2020 “Els Cims” is aged for approixmately 1 year in the same vessels in which it was fermented. A small percentage of the wine is placed in barrels, but none of these are new, imparting very little wood flavor.
Flavors and Foods: Tempranillo, contrary to a lot of popular conception, is a mostly medium-bodied grape that offers a ton of sweet red cherry and grenadine notes if not aged to oblivion in oak barrels. The “Els Cims” offers a wonderful counterpoint to Spain’s tradition of oak aging, and the resulting flavor profile features unctuous red fruit (cherry, pomegranate), along with some fun savory non-fruit (carmelized onions, fresh thyme, smoky spice a la sweet paprika), presented in a smooth textural profile. The slightly rustic nature of “Els Cims” gives the wine a smoky-yet-sweet overall impression that invites one word: barbecue. Whether you’re talking what we in the US consider bbq or just implying cooked outdoors over wood, the “Els Cims” is a delicious companion, and its smooth texture invites richness from meats like ribeye, beef short ribs, pork spare ribs, or even smoked turkey breast. If meat isn’t on your menu, try the “Els Cims” with a pan of patatas bravas and the aforementioned paprika.
Service and Cellar: The Tempranillo glass is usually a tall, slightly thinner shape similar to Syrah, but I actually really enjoy the “Els Cims” served in a more Burgundy-style wider bowl glass; it really seems to aerate the sweet and smoky elements of this wine and create better balance on the finish as well. Red cellar temperature is, as always, highly recommended (56-60 degrees F). I think the “Els Cims” has the potential to age 2-4 more years, but it’s delicious enough right now that I’m not concerning myself with testing this theory. One last (important) service note: the wax at the bottle tops is of a loose variety and easily opened by putting your corkscrew straight down through it as though it’s not there; when extracting the cork, have a towel of some variety (paper is fine) handy just in case any wax is about to fall into the bottle as you’re finishing the pull.