El Escocés Volante, the Flying Scotsman, is the winemaking company set up by Norrel and refers not only to his itinerant lifestyle making wine across Spain but his journey to get to Spain!
Norrel embarked on a journey to become a winemaker, which involved passing the Master of Wine exams and then the well-respected winemaking course at New Zealand’s Lincoln College.
Having worked in every aspect of the wine world, in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, Norrel now works hand in hand with local growers in Calatayud to source old vine blocks of exceptional quality to make wines with real character.
You only have to see the landscape and these old bush vines to be swept away by the romanticism of a Scotsman making cutting-edge wines in this central region of Aragón. This is the heart of Garnacha country where Norrel, who is a self-confessed Garnachista, realised the tremendous potential of this varietal in this region.
His Scottish determination, coupled with the rigour of the climate, low rainfall and high diurnal temperatures during the ripening period result in lower yields and higher quality harvests.
His wines are very singular and fully express the terroir from which they hail. ‘La Multa Garnacha’ and ‘Manga del Brujo’ are grown on clay soils over chalk subsoils located at an altitude of 700 to 800 metres in the Ribota Valley, in the northwest of the DO. The red clays on chalk produce a brawny, full-bodied, mature Garnacha, with hints of red berries, cherries and plums.
‘El Puño Garnacha’ hails from the sub-region of the Jiloca Valley, at an altitude of 850-1010 metres. It is the deep slate soils that make this wine stand out due to its minerality, refinement and texture.
