Anima Mundi, "Gres" 2022

Penedès, Spain. 100% Xarel-lo, fermented three ways. 1/3 direct-pressed & fermented in stainless, 1/3 macerated for 2 weeks on the skins in stainless, and 1/3 direct pressed & fermented in amphora. The different vessels are all blended and bottled after 6 moths of rest on the lees. Zero/zero.

What does a Platonic Dialogue have to do with Macabeu? Xarel-lo? For Anima Mundi the answer is in its asking. From Plato’s dialogue with Timaeus, the Latin term ‘Anima Mundi’ was laid bare: 

“…Therefore, we may consequently state that: this world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence…a single living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related” (Plato, Timaeus, 29/30).

“World-Soul” is a kind of rough translation of the concept. Clearly this is fertile ground from which to name a biodynamic wine operation. Truly, the wines of Anima Mundi are a free-space where holistic viticulture deigns to the maximal suggestion of Plato’s concept. Founded by Agusti Torello Roca in northeast Spain’s Penedès, he is a grower of some natural sparkling wine renown due to his family’s other winery AT Roca. Here, however, the ambitious winemaker goes into specialized territory, focusing on hyper low-yields and converting what is otherwise the practicing organic endeavor of AT Roca into a tiny full-on biodynamic project. And so Anima Mundi is the next, further iteration away from traditional, bulk cava & this single expression of the Xarel-lo grown here. It is the frontier, the “Soul of The World;” it is something pure that’s bubbling in Catalonia.