Emilie Mutombo

Wine through the veins

Emilie Mutombo finds her uniqueness in her origins, between Belgium and the Congo, and her career path, which began in the events sector in Brussels, where nothing predestined her to become a winemaker... and yet!

Inspired by the wave of wine shops and bars that was sweeping through her city, she decided in her thirties to take the plunge and pursue this new path. She studied oenology and then had her first experiences in the vineyards of the South of France, notably in the Domaine du Chêne Bleu outside of Gigondas.

It was during the Les Anonymes trade show in 2017 in Angers that she met Massimo Marchiori, from Partida Creus. It was love at first sight for the wines, lively juices with a disconcerting freshness and comforting Mediterranean aromas. Love at first sight for the character, with his contagious passion, his striking laugh and his incredible charisma. The sensation is mutual and it only takes a few weeks for Emilie to make her decision and pack her bags for Catalonia. She arrived at Partida Creus in the spring of 2017 and settled in the heart of Barcelona to take advantage of the energy of the Catalan capital during her weekends, spending the week at the estate with Massimo and Antonella.

From the office to the cellar, through the vines and the harvest, Emilie touches everything, participates, learns, listens, observes... and refines her ambitions and her style. It is under the impulse of an Australian grape picker, Tom Colman, that she decides to vinify her first wine, from the 2017 vintage, with grapes bought in Partida Creus, E.T. is born.

In 2018 and 2019, Emilie refined her style, adding a white wine, Xarelina, still made with grapes from the estate.

Since 2020, Emilie has been independent and has found a small house in the heart of the village of Bonastre, just a few minutes from Antonella and Massimo's finca, with whom she still maintains this link that has become almost family-like over the years. New house, new cellar, new wines, from the 2020 vintage Emilie gives free rein to her desires and imagination, red, white, rosé, sparkling... she develops without losing her characteristic identity. After the confidential vintages of her beginnings, she will vinify nearly 3,000 litres in 2020 and around 8,000 in 2021.

A first vineyard of Parellada comes completing the estate in 2021, a plot of about 1 hectare of which 0.6 are planted with old wild vines of this very Catalan grape variety, renowned for its freshness and finesse.