Xogorka Wines
Braden Xogorka,
Cellar in Lledó, working with vineyards there, Fuentespalda, Cretas, and more recently Arnes (just south-east of Lledó). He is passionate about working with abandoned vineyards, so aside from the vineyards he works, the sourcing can vary a bit from year to year. Braden Clark grew up in Westport, Connecticut, went to university in Nashville, Tennessee, and had an internship in New York City.
After that, he ended up in Spain, first working a couple years as an auxiliary English assistant in Cadiz and Galicia, then beginning a few years of real travel, working in hostels around Europe and the Balkans. In 2016, he began his wine trajectory as a Workaway-er and then as a paid internship at a female-run classic domaine in Minervois. From there he ended up, working away with Simon Busser in Cahors. He spent the month of December in 2016 working with horses on a farm in the Matarraña. In January 2017 he was back in France, where he bounced around the south - first back to Minervois, then to Corbières for a bit with Titou Picard, and then back to work again with Simon Busser.
Between his stays with Titou and Simon, he went alone to the La Remise wine fair. Braden couldn't help but fall into the comfort of the Spanish-speaking crowd at the French fair - a crowd that happened to be composed of Laureano Serres, Josep of Portes Obertes, Cris Vanyo and other members of the Catalan gang. Braden ended up working harvest at Mendall in 2017. Braden spent a couple of years living in a caravan and working in the untended vines beginning the Xogorka (his mother’s family name) project between 2017 and 2018.
When the owner began the process of selling the property, he found his way elsewhere, settling with a cellar built in the 1600s in Lledó, a town away from Arnes, right on the Franja. Braden has never had a car while living in Europe, and has done much of his exploring on foot or by bicycle, ideal for scouting and encountering abandoned vineyards, with which he is fascinated, and has since the beginning of his project worked with a mixture of both. Braden’s mystical wines are the result of his true calling in the field.