Cisteller 'Gris' Xarel·lo Vermell 2023

Cisteller—which means "basket maker" in Catalan, since their family produced baskets for the harvest—is one of the hottest, if not THE hottest, names in Penedès. It's a very recent project that was created in 2022 by Jordi Canals and Jessica Madigan. Canals is from Penedès and Madigan from the US, and they met while studying at UC Davis. They worked around the world and returned home to take over Canals's family vineyards. They have 12 hectares of vines ranging between eight and 75 years of age, mostly in the Finca el Sot property in the village of Subirats and other plots in the neighboring villages of Sant Pau d’Ordal, Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, Gelida, Piera and Olèrdola, all from Canals's family. The soils are limestone, with gypsum and some clay. They built a simple winery in the property where they have most of their vineyards. - Luis Guttierez, Wine Advocate. 

From a single block of old vine Xarel-lo Vermell planted on calcareous limestone with a soft, clay-like texture. Xarel-lo Vermell is a rare pink skinned varietal distinct from usual Xarel-lo commonly found in Cava. more grapefruit pith, citric core wrapped around dried oystershell. This is produced in the traditional ‘Vin Gris’ style of the region, meaning very gentle, slow whole bunch pressing without maceration. It’s then aged for 8 months on lees before being bottled without fining or filtering.Mid-weight, tense, full of grapefruit skin and crushed oyster shells notes. Only 1188 bottles were produced. - Lachlan Barber, importer.