Familia Nin-Ortiz

Mule work on schist slopes

The mule work starts in the vineyard before the cellar has anything to receive. Ester Nin, winemaker at Familia Nin-Ortiz in Porrera, keeps the estate’s Priorat work close to the ground, in old Garnatxa and Carinyena parcels where the slope sets the pace. Her training in enology at the University of Tarragona gave her the technical language; Priorat gave her the harder discipline of repetition, observation, and timing. She worked at Mas Martinet from 2000, later becoming viticulturist at Clos i Terrasses, and in 2007 became co-founder and winemaker under the Familia Nin-Ortiz label. The throughline is biodynamic cultivation, not as a badge, but as a daily method: compost, infusions, hand work, and soil left alive enough to speak through the fruit. Around Porrera, the estate farms about 13 hectares in Priorat, with additional vineyards in Penedès, and the scale remains small enough for decisions to stay bench-side. The house is known for Nit de Nin and Planetes, wines built from old vines, steep terraces, and a preference for acidity over weight.

Four weeks before the press

The program here begins with dry-farmed vineyards on schist, including Mas d’En Caçador, a 1.5-hectare site at 650 meters with north-facing slopes, ancient stone terraces, and old vines of Garnatxa Negre, Garnatxa Peluda, and Carinyena. Finca Les Planetes sits outside Porrera, with 7 hectares planted within an 18-hectare farm, including high-density costers planting rather than modern terraces. The estate works by hand in the vineyard, plows with mules, and harvests early by pH, seeking balance before the fruit tips into excess. Grapes are hand-harvested and selected over 25 days by a team of 20 sorters. In the cellar, fruit is sorted, partly destemmed, then chilled for 24 to 48 hours. Fermentations start with native yeasts. Reds are largely whole cluster, with gentle extraction, four weeks of maceration, and a small daily pigeage. Aging usually runs 16 to 18 months in neutral vessels, including French oak demi-muids, foudres of 28 to 32 hectoliters, and clay amphorae introduced in 2012.

A compact cellar at Finca Les Planetes

The cellar completed in 2012 sits within the working farm at Finca Les Planetes, not apart from it. The room feels directed by the vineyard rather than arranged for visitors: fruit arrives from steep terraces, the sorting work happens without ceremony, and the vessels stay neutral so the site is not covered by wood. Outside, Porrera’s slopes make farming physical. The old terraces hold heat and stone; the north-facing parcels at Mas d’En Caçador answer with freshness, while Planetes gives a younger register of the same village ground. This is a quiet winery, rural in its tempo, with the tasting room and cellar tied to the same practical rhythm. The pass here is the line between vineyard and vessel.

Nit de Nin as a fixed point

The reason to keep following Familia Nin-Ortiz is not expansion, but refinement inside known parcels. Nit de Nin Mas d’En Caçador continues to carry the estate’s highest-altitude old-vine work, while Planetes keeps the Finca Les Planetes material in view. Ester Nin’s next vintage will again be measured in pH, cluster condition, amphora, foudre, and the 650-meter vineyard of Mas d’En Caçador.