Artesano Vintners

The Artesano Vintners winery was founded in 2016 in Catalonia, an autonomous community in northeastern Spain. The project was the brainchild of two rising stars on the international wine scene: Mike Shepherd, a winemaker from Barcelona, and Alex Craighead, owner of the two wineries Don and Kindelli Wines in Nelson, a New Zealand town on the northern tip of the South Island, on the Cork Strait.

From the outset, the winery's aim has been to showcase local grape varieties such as Xarel-lo, Macabeu and Garnatxa Negra through an artisanal approach that respects the terroir. In the early stages of the project, Alex and Mike worked with local wineries to immerse themselves in the local winemaking tradition and set up a small botega to produce their first two wines. Compared with their traditional beginnings, the New Zealanders are expanding both their production range and their area of expertise.

Over time, Artesano Vintners has developed its own production philosophy, which involves absolute respect for the material and the terroir, from the vineyard to the cellar operations. In the vineyard, any form of synthetic chemistry that might in any way compromise the spontaneity and naturalness of terroir is abolished. In the cellar, the same credo applies: fermentation is carried out exclusively with indigenous yeasts, there is virtually no human intervention in the winemaking process, and all invasive processes (such as the addition of sulfites, clarification and filtration) are kept to a minimum. The entire production process, from winemaking to ageing, takes place in stainless steel tanks, allowing the grape variety to express itself fully.

The labels are distinguished by their originality, depicting various magnificent landscapes with black-and-white illustrations that further underline the winery's artisanal thinking. Today, Artesano Vintners offers a range of red, white and macerated wines distinguished by their deep territorial profile, capable of moving and telling in an original and spontaneous way a land particularly called and often mistreated.