Carme Casacuberta and her husband Antoni Pena purchased their land for Vinyes d’Olivardots in 2002, focusing on indigenous varietals and high quality wines. Carme is the winemaker of the duo, with a chemical sciences degree and an oenologist. In 2016 their daughter, Carlota, followed her mother’s footsteps and joined the Vinyes d’Olivardots team as a winemaker. Today, their four hectares of land turns out an amazing group of wines, coupled with a truly unique wine tour set in the hills of Alt Emporda, near the French border with Catalunya.

The winery enjoys a mix of young vines and old vines, which translates into several blends of red and white, plus single varietal and low production single varietals from single plots. One of their unique varietals are old vine (80 years average) white varietals including Macabeo and White Grenache, blended with old vine Grey Grenache to make their Groc d’Amfora, which as the name denotes includes 4 months of ageing in clay amphora pots. They are also one of the few to have old vine grey carignan, which they have made into a rosé. Their single varietal, single vineyard wines have received top Parker points of 90+, inclusive of some interesting red varietals.

The Capmany area has become a bit of a hotbed of wineries in the upper region of Emporda, and Vinyes d’Olivardots is one of the crown jewels. Featuring an architecturally unique building with a tasting room allowing for gorgeous vineyard views, many love this mountainous area, near the Pyrenees. With a variety of soils – sand, slate, granite, quartz, and even alluvial – you will find a unique signature amongst a walk through their vines, and find it hard to only spend a few hours amongst their vines.

The winery is a combination of practical production meets unique architecture utilising a colour scheme which compliments the land surrounding it. Carme and her husband planted new vines to surround the vineyard building, and 15 years later, those vines have matured to give amazing views from their tasting room which is at the corner of the building that offers some of the best views of Alt Emporda.