Celler Pardas Rupestris, Spain 2022 (£19.14, The Sourcing Table) It was love at first sight for me and the Catalan grape variety xarel·lo: just the look of the word on the bottle. With its striking ‘x’ and the interpunct dot separating the two ls, it has something pictographic or runic about it, something ancient and mysterious, but also quintessentially Catalan and Mediterranean. That’s how the excellent dry white wines made from xarel·lo come across, too: the best are made from very old vines in the Penedès region not far from Barcelona and come with timeless, decidedly Mediterranean flavours, with a waft of fennel, thyme, chamomile, orange citrus and orange blossom, and a distinctive chalky and sometimes salty-mineral quality that is simply irresistible. Try the pristine Rupestris, which also has a little of the local malvasia de Sitges in the blend, and the intensely mineral Celler Credo Vi-D-Re Xarel·lo 2021 (£32.49, lescaves.co.uk).
Torres Viña Sol, Spain 2022 (from £5.99, Asda) While the still xarel·lo whites are a little recherché, you can nonetheless find a wine made at least in part from the variety in most supermarkets and wine merchant. That’s because xarel·lo is one of the three grape varieties that comprise the traditional blend for cava and other Catalan bottle-fermented sparkling wines. There are in fact examples of 100% xarel·lo fizz, such as the extremely smart dry Recaredo Corpinnat Brut Nature Subtil 2017 (£46.88, sipwines.shop) made by the same team as Celler Credo. Most, however, will mix xarel·lo with macabeo and parellada, as in the wonderfully herbal and crème fraiche-creamy Mestres Coquet Cava 2019 (£24.60, wine.gauntleys.com/uk), while others (the very good-value Waitrose No. 1 Castillo Perelada Cava Brut NV, which is currently down from £11.99 to £8.99) show off the different charms of parellada and macabeo without xarel·lo’s tingling support. Perellada is also one of the key ingredients in Catalonia’s bestselling white: the ever-reliable, briskly apple fresh Viña Sol.
Venus La Universal Dido Tinto, Spain 2021 (£19.14, Master of Malt) Catalan wine is far from being all about white grapes, even if the majority of bottles we buy from the region in the UK, most of them sparkling, are made from white grapes. Among the neglected local red grape varieties given a new spin in recent years is the tangy red-fruited sumoll (try Celler Pardas’s earthy Sus Scrofa 2022, £20.10), while the Torres family behind Viña Sol has been working to bring back such endangered varieties as Garró, Querol, Gonfaus and Moneo. For now, though, most of my favourite Catalan reds are made from a variety widely planted in Spain and Mediterranean France, garnacha, or garnatxa to use the Catalan spelling, which is the base for such silky-juicy, berry-filled, liquorice-spicy and herbal reds as Dido Tinto and Terroir Sense Fronteres Negre 2021 (£21.81, armitwines.co.uk), both from the southern Catalan region of Montsant.
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