Ester Nin
Grower/Winemaker
Familia Nin-Ortiz
Priorat, Spain
Spotlight No. 26
There are some people who connect with nature on an intuitive level, and others who can see inside it because of the sciences they have studied. Ester Nin is both. In her world there is no separation; she is inextricably part of the natural whole. Ester studied biology, so she does see nature with inside eyes. She seems to breathe with nature. Of course, we all do; we just don’t realize it.
Ester is conscientious and observant. She hears all the arguments for the use of chemicals or carving the landscape into geometric terraces. Some say it is a matter of economics. But Ester says these shortcuts do not consider the bigger picture: the cost of illness and death and collateral damage like contamination of water supplies. One person thinks they are using only a little, but collectively a lot finds its way into the groundwater.
Ester’s family are farmers. She grew up spending weekends and holidays working with the crops, including vines. When she went pruning with her father she would talk to the vines, and they became good friends. Becoming a winemaker was an evolution. She studied biology at the University of Barcelona and went on to study enology in Tarragona. Her roommate was Sara Pérez of Mas Martinet. When they graduated, Ester went with Sara to the Priorat and began her winemaking career there in 2001. Ester rented, and finally bought, a small vineyard within a parcel named Mas d’En Caçador at 650 meters (2,132 feet), one of the highest vineyards in the Priorat. When she drives along the road below, she always honks to say hello to the vines because she and her vines miss each other when they are not together. She made her first wine, Nits de Nin, from the fruit of these vines.
Meanwhile, a nice man named Carles Ortiz found his way to the Priorat, too. He discovered it on a rock-climbing trip in the 1990s and felt a connection with the land. He purchased a special parcel near Porrera called Finca Les Planetes and discovered his sensibility for organic viticulture. He was told it would never work, but 30 years later his vines are thriving. Over time he is replanting to massal selection bush vines and restoring the land from terraces back to the natural slope. Yes, it will be more work. But if you love what you do, being outside with nature is not really work.
When Ester and Carles came together, it was a match formed in the mystical universe. Neither of them wants to be famous. They just want to do good work, which for them means taking care of the land. They only use organic materials in the vineyard such as mineral sulfur, biodynamic infusions and applications of their own compost. Weeding is done by hand and the soils are plowed by their mules, Clara and Fosca. They harvest by hand, carefully sorting to remove overripe fruit, and then ferment spontaneously, extract naturally and age in neutral vessels so the expression of each vineyard can come through.
There is a little house on the Planetes property. They hope to live there one day. It is small, but Ester says she would rather have a little house and a big garden. They will definitely have a very big garden. In addition to the vineyards there are wild blackberries, rovellon mushrooms, asparagus and other seasonal delights and the babble of the stream (very un-Priorat but true), and it is like something out of Fantasia—idyllic and so alive! For the Nin-Ortiz family, working with nature is a wonderful life.
