The Cosmos, the Tramontana & the Granite Hand
Salvador Batlle was born into grape growers in Baix Penedès, left for New Zealand, and was called home by Empordà — where he found a cellar in Agullana, fifteen minutes from France, and began a project named for the universe itself. Since 2013 he has farmed two radically different Catalan landscapes biodynamically, championing forgotten varieties like Carinyena Blanc and raising pure, energetic, low-sulfur wines in amphora, steel and oak.
Origin — The Teenager, the Geometries & the Homecoming
The Batlle family are grape growers from Rodonyà in Baix Penedès, where they still farm some 22 hectares of vines — land that, for generations, supplied fruit to the large wineries of the region. Salvador grew up in this world, and by his teenage years he was already making wine. He studied agriculture, viticulture and winemaking at university, then in 2011 travelled to New Zealand to learn English and absorb other forms of viticulture and cellar work. He returned the following year — but the family estate was not where his path would end.
Salva and his father butted heads. What he needed was to forge his own identity, his own voice, his own cosmos. In 2013 he found it: a small property with a cellar in Agullana, a quiet town in the Alt Empordà just fifteen minutes from the French border, culturally intertwined with neighbouring Roussillon. He moved in above the cellar, and when the locals learned a young winemaker had arrived, they offered him old vineyards — the first planted to the ill-treated, magnificent Carinyena Blanc that would become the soul of his work.
Alongside his partner Joana Padilla, he now tends 9.5 hectares in Empordà and manages family parcels in Baix Penedès — two terroirs, one philosophy, and a gravity-fed cellar expanded in 2017 by buying the house next door.
Place — The Granite, the Limestone & the Two Catalonias
Còsmic Vinyaters is a tale of two landscapes — one born of fire and wind, the other of clay and Mediterranean sun — united by biodynamic rigour and a winemaker who believes that when you are cosmic, you are not the owner of a place; you are part of the place.
Agullana, Capmany and La Vajol sit between 90 and 620 metres, where sandy granite soils and the fierce Tramontana wind shape everything. At La Vajol — the highest vineyard in Empordà — Carinyena Blanc and Gris sink into pure granite at 620m, giving wines of sharp, vertical expression. The Mediterranean breathes 20 kilometres away.
Rodonyà and the Sierra de Montmell hold the Batlle family inheritance: red clay and compact limestone soils at 300–500m. Here old-vine Macabeu, Sumoll and Parellada grow alongside Cabernet Franc, Sauvignon Blanc and Marselan — international varieties that have adapted surprisingly well to altitude and calcareous ground.
"This variety has not come into my life by chance." Carinyena Blanc has grown here for 300–400 years yet is not recognised by the EU. Salva re-grafts, plants new vineyards and recovers abandoned old vines to preserve it. "If no one plants more Carinyena Blanca in 20 years, this variety will be lost."
Sacred geometric drawings — the flower of life, symbols of creation — mark wines from established vineyards. Colourful hand-painted labels come from vineyards Salva planted with his own hands: "a world in a world." The names speak of intention: Valentía, Confiança, Llibertat, Destí, Gratitud.
Winemaking — The Amphora, the Gravity Cellar & the Intention
Salva rejects the "natural wine" label even as he embodies it. For him, the bridge is between the person who cares for the land and the person who makes the wine — "who feels and interprets with the greatest possible sincerity and with the utmost respect for the entire process." The result is a cellar of precision, patience and spiritual intent.
All farming is organic following biodynamic principles. Harvest is entirely by hand. In the cellar — expanded in 2017 into a gravity-fed space — fermentation is always spontaneous, with indigenous yeast only. Vessels include stainless steel, old oak, glass, and, above all, clay amphorae: "Mud helps good micro-oxygenation, does not transmit aromas and lends a lot of elegance." Temperature is controlled where the wine asks for it. Maceration is a constant — even the whites see skin contact, from a few days to two weeks, building texture and nutrient depth.
Most wines are bottled without fining or filtering, with total SO2 typically below 10 mg/L. The approach changes with each plot and each vintage: some cuvées are direct-pressed, others foot-trodden whole-cluster, others blended from multiple vinifications of the same vineyard. Nothing is dogmatic; everything is felt.
Organic and biodynamic farming across two DOs · Indigenous yeast, spontaneous fermentation only · Gravity-fed cellar since 2017 · Amphora, steel, oak and glass vessels · Skin contact as a rule, not an exception · Low to zero sulfur — typically <10 mg/L total SO2 · Unfined, unfiltered · Names chosen for the emotions they evoke.
The Wines — The Emotions, the Geometries & the Two Terroirs
Each wine is named for a value or feeling — courage, confidence, freedom, gratitude, destiny — and each carries the energetic, textural, sun-and-wind signature of its origin. The Empordà wines are taut, saline and granitic; the Penedès wines are riper, more Mediterranean, yet equally alive.
Alt Empordà
Baix Penedès
Legacy — The Visionary, the Buddha & the Ninth Generation
Salvador Batlle is an independent, determined and deeply spiritual winemaker — a small Buddha sits at the entrance to his cellar, and his courtyard fills with mandarin trees and church bells. He lives above his wines, literally and figuratively, and his home overlooks the same hills his vines cling to. In 2017 he bought the house next door to create a gravity-fed cellar, freeing himself from the constraints of a cramped space and allowing his production to grow from 17,000 to 24,000 bottles — still tiny, still hand-made, still utterly his own.
Within Catalan wine, Salva occupies a singular position: he is at once a champion of the local — fighting for Carinyena Blanc's recognition, re-grafting international varieties back to indigenous ones, recovering abandoned terraces — and a bridge-builder between two worlds, making Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc with the same care he gives to Sumoll and Garnatxa. He does not believe in borders, only in balance. "The balance is when you find the difference between white and black."
His wines have found their way to tables in Barcelona, Paris, London, New York and Tokyo — carried by importers who understand that Còsmic is not just a name but a philosophy. And still, at the end of each harvest, Salva returns to the quiet of Agullana, to the mandarin trees and the granite, to Joana and the small Buddha, ready to feel what the next vintage will ask of him.
"When you are cosmic, you are not the owner of a place; you are part of the place. The balance is when you find the difference between white and black."