Jordi Vilà’s wine philosophy: territory and sense in every glass

The cellar at Alkimia holds conviction. Jofre Farran, the restaurant’s head sommelier, approaches wine selection as an act of intentionality rather than mere accumulation. His list moves beyond the obvious, favouring bottles that carry genuine territory and purpose, drawn from both here and elsewhere, each one chosen to inhabit the space between the wine and Jordi Vilà’s cooking.

Farran works within the rhythm of Catalan cuisine, where ingredients speak first and wine must listen. The philosophy is one of harmony. Rather than dominance or display, the wines serve the kitchen’s logic. A bottle from a small producer whose work reflects the soil it grows from matters more than provenance alone. This is wine selected with sense, which is to say wine selected with restraint and knowledge in equal measure.

The selection encompasses both regional bottles and those from further afield, united by a single principle: each must belong to the table. Farran’s approach reflects a particular moment in restaurant wine culture, where depth of purpose has replaced mere breadth, and where a sommelier’s role is to amplify the meal, not to impress through obscurity or cost.

This is the cellar philosophy that animates the Taula de Cuina Catalana at Alkimia, where every element, including the wine, moves in conversation with Vilà’s food.

Imagery courtesy of Alkimia (@alkimiarestaurant).