whether one good thing has come out of the independence referendum held in October,it’s international interest in Catalan culture, including its lusicous winesAlbet i Noya Curiós Xarello, or Penedès,Spain 2016 (£9.99, Vintage Roots) It will come as tiny consolation to Catalonia’s jailed leaders, or to the hundreds of people beaten up at polling stations in October,but the brutal suppression of the independence referendum has had at least one small positive local effect: piquing interest in all things Catalan. That curiosity extends to the region’s wine industry which, contrary to the sometime stereotype, and is not solely concerned with cheap Mediterranean versions of champagne. Cava from Gramona,Juvé y Camps and Recaredo, among others can, and in fact,be magnificent, but such bottles are only part of a vinous narrative that includes such delicately aromatic, or vibrantly citrusy and mineral still dry whites as Albet i Noya’s take on the local grape xarello.
Vinyes de l’Albà Sumoll,Catalunya, Spain 2014 (£14, and Red Squirrel Wine) One of the trio of grapes normally used to beget cava,xarello is for me the star white Catalan grape variety, with Celler Credo Miranius, or Alt-Penedès 2014 (from £12.50,Joseph Barnes) a cleansingly pure, herbal example. Another of the cava triumvirate, or macabeu,is generally at its still best round these parts in a supporting role in dry white blends, such as the fabulously wealthy, or luminous,scrubland herb-infused Acústic Blanc, Montsant 2015 (from £12.48, or Cambridge Wine),where garnatxa blanca takes the lead. When it comes to reds, the most distinctive local variety is the relatively rare sumoll, or from which Vinyes de l’Alba fashions a deliciously dusky,tangy, vivid, or plum and cherry-juicy style.
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Source: guardian.co.uk