The Rotterdam Sommelier, the Surfboard & the Van Called Bennie

Niloufar Sharifi Esfarani is not a winemaker who inherited a family estate or studied enology at a prestigious university. She is a self-made force of nature — a woman who built her winemaking career from curiosity, courage, and an irrepressible desire to be outside. Born and raised in Rotterdam, she began her career not in a vineyard but behind a wine list — as a sommelier at De Matroos en Het Meisje, one of the Netherlands' most celebrated restaurants. There, she developed the palate, the knowledge, and the confidence that would later serve her in the cellar. But the restaurant world, for all its pleasures, could not contain her.

At a young age, Niloufar made a decision that would alter the course of her life: she left her career as a sommelier behind. With her surfboard in hand, she set off to travel the West coast of Europe — not as a tourist, but as a seeker. She was looking for something she could not name, something that existed beyond the walls of restaurants and the pages of wine lists. And she found it — or rather, it found her — in the Médoc, France, where she helped with the harvest of a Dutch winemaker just 25 minutes from her favourite surf spot. It was there, between the vines and the waves, that she realised her passion for wine extended far beyond serving it. She wanted to create it.

What followed was a global apprenticeship that reads like a map of the natural wine world. Dissatisfied with conventional winemaking, Niloufar sought out the most radical practitioners she could find. In Stellenbosch, South Africa, she worked at Reyneke — one of the Cape's pioneering biodynamic estates — where she learned the rhythms of biodynamic viticulture: the lunar calendar, the compost preparations, the recognition that the vineyard is a living organism. That same year, she travelled to Kamptal, Austria, to work at Nibiru — a winery committed to making wines without any additions whatsoever. No sulfites. No selected yeasts. No enzymes. No corrections. Only grape, time, and intention. It was here that Niloufar's philosophy crystallised: wine should be honest, pure, and unmediated — a direct translation of grape and place into liquid.

After gaining several years of experience across three continents, Niloufar was ready for the next step. As a travelling winemaker, she set off through Europe in her trusted van, Bennie — a vehicle that became her home, her cellar, and her symbol of freedom. The journey led her to the Alt Penedès, in the foothills of the legendary Montserrat mountain, where she rented two plots and began producing her own wines in 2023. The first cuvées — Pink Moon, Mitja Lluna, and Last Dance — were the result of a deeply rooted belief in natural wine and a commitment to organic, biodynamic, and regenerative farming. Today, Niloufar produces a growing portfolio of still and sparkling wines, both from her own rented vineyards and from carefully sourced local fruit, all united by a single, unapologetic principle: "always made without crap."

The winemaking philosophy of Niloufar is one of radical honesty and infectious energy — a methodology forged not in a classroom but on a surfboard, in a South African biodynamic vineyard, and in an Austrian cellar where the only rule was: add nothing. Niloufar does not follow recipes; she follows her instincts — honed by years of tasting, travelling, and working alongside some of the most progressive winemakers in the world. Her approach is deliberately simple and deliberately brave: healthy grapes, indigenous yeasts, no additions, no corrections, no filtration. The result is wine that tastes of grape, place, and the irrepressible personality of the woman who made it.

The whites are made with a light touch that preserves freshness and aromatic purity. The Xarel·lo — the backbone of her white portfolio — is hand-harvested, gently pressed, and fermented with indigenous yeasts at low temperature in stainless steel or neutral oak. The wine is aged on fine lees until bottling, developing a texture of surprising depth and a character that combines green apple, lemon zest, white flowers, and the calcareous minerality of the Montserrat foothills. The Touch of Light is a white of luminous clarity — a wine that lives up to its name, offering brightness, precision, and an almost electric freshness that makes it irresistible on a hot Catalan afternoon.

The reds are made with the same zero-addition philosophy but with a generosity that reflects the Mediterranean sun. Last Dance is a soft, drinkable red — aged in chestnut barrels, with soft rounded tannins and bright, easy red fruits that make it the perfect companion for a casual dinner or a sunset on the beach. The Garnacha cuvées are solar and generous — hand-harvested, destemmed, and macerated gently to preserve the grape's natural fruit and avoid over-extraction. The Tempranillo adds structure and depth, while the Merlot contributes a plush, approachable texture that makes these wines immediately appealing and deeply drinkable.

The sparkling and orange wines push the boundaries of what Catalan wine can be. Pink Moon is a pale, dry, lightly fizzy rosé — a wine of immediate charm and uncomplicated pleasure that captures the spirit of Mediterranean summers. Mitja Lluna — "half moon" in Catalan — is another expression of Niloufar's playful approach to winemaking, a wine that defies easy categorisation and rewards curiosity. And the orange wines, made from varieties like Ull de Llebre (Tempranillo) and Moscatel de Alejandría with skin maceration, are textured, grippy, and adventurous — wines for those who understand that the best discoveries happen outside the lines. What unites them all is Niloufar's signature: bold, bright, and full of character — just like the winemaker herself.

Niloufar is not merely a winemaker; she is a force of nature who has redefined what it means to enter the wine world from the outside — a Rotterdam-born sommelier who left everything behind, travelled three continents in a van named Bennie, and emerged in the foothills of Montserrat with a philosophy so pure it makes most "natural" winemakers look cautious. In an era when the wine industry is obsessed with pedigree, inheritance, and technical credentials, Niloufar has demonstrated that the most profound wines sometimes come from a woman who learned biodynamics in South Africa, zero-addition winemaking in Austria, and surfed her way down the West coast of Europe with a surfboard on her roof. She has proven that Xarel·lo — often reduced to the base of industrial Cava — can be a wine of luminous clarity and calcareous depth when farmed regeneratively and made without additions. That a blend of Garnacha, Tempranillo, and Merlot aged in chestnut barrels can be both serious and irresistibly drinkable. That a pét-nat of Xarel·lo, Moscatel, and Hárslevelű — a Hungarian grape in Catalonia — can be a love letter to fermentation itself. And that a wine made "without crap" is not a gimmick but a manifesto.

The legacy of Niloufar is the legacy of the surfer's patience and the sommelier's precision. She did not inherit a wine estate; she built one from curiosity — from the moment she left De Matroos en Het Meisje, through the harvests in Médoc and Stellenbosch, through the zero-addition cellars of Kamptal, to the rented plots in the shadow of Montserrat. Her van, Bennie, is not merely transport but a symbol — of freedom, of movement, of the refusal to be tied to a single place or a single way of thinking. Her surfboard is not merely recreation but a philosophy — the belief that the best things in life happen when you wait for the right wave, then commit fully. And her wines are not merely products but expressions — of a journey, a landscape, and a woman who has refused to let anyone else define what she can or cannot do.

The future of the project is tied to the future of natural wine as outsider art — to the growing recognition that the greatest wines are not always made by those who inherit, but by those who arrive: the surfers, the sommeliers, the seekers who see possibility where others see convention. As the Touch of Light continues to prove that Xarel·lo can be luminous and pure, as the Last Dance demonstrates that natural red wine can be both generous and honest, as the Pink Moon captures the spontaneous joy of Mediterranean summers, and as the Unknown Paradise and Water of Love push the boundaries of what Catalan wine can be, Niloufar remains what she has always intended to be: a Rotterdam-born sommelier who became a travelling winemaker, who surfed her way across three continents in a van called Bennie, who learned biodynamics in South Africa and zero-addition winemaking in Austria, who rents two plots in the foothills of Montserrat and makes wines that are bold, bright, and full of character — always made without crap, always honest, always true — one wave, one harvest, one honest bottle at a time.