Wine from a small bodega in Spain has been named the best in the world, according to a specialist magazine in China.
Marco Abella comes from the mountainous area of Catalonia in the winemaking district of Priorat. About 80,000 bottles of wine are produced every year, selling in the US, China and Catalonia.
Husband and wife team Olívia Bayés and David Marco run the operation. They had been flirting with China for six years when they entered the magazine’s blind-tasting competition in an effort to promote more sales.
The 14-member jury, made up of experts and sommeliers from China, Australia, the UK and US, gave top marks to the Marco Abella 2009 Clos Abella, awarding its blend of carignan, garnacha, cabernet sauvignon and shiraz grapes 97 points out of 100. The bottle costs some €40 or €50 in Spain.
The couple confessed the award came as a complete surprise.
China’s wine market is one of the largest in the world after a decade of rapid growth in consumption. The award could well force demand to outrun supply.
Bayés, 42, said: “We’re a small bodega – we do everything ourselves”.
The pair chose the wine business in order to escape the rat race of city life. They relocated to where Marco’s family had produced wines until the phylloxera epidemic struck in the 19th century.
With unfortunate timing, their first wines were ready for sale in 2008 when the financial crisis was making itself felt. This forced them to turn their attention to markets outside of Spain, one of which was China.
Wine imports to China rose sevenfold in 2007-13, but have slowed recently with a slowdown in economic growth there and the authority’s crackdown on lavish gift-giving.
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