Finca Parera, Sassó (2018)

100% Xarello, certified biodyncamically farmed at 350m of altitude, in l’Alt Penedès Montserratí. A single young Xarello vineyard from 1995 called “La Torreta”, with loamy-clay soil, where the bedrock presses the fertile layer and facing southeast. Grapes are manually harvested and placed in 10kg crates. The grapes are then carefully sorted in the cellar, destemmed and softly pressed extracting only the best quality must, with maceration in cement for a few days. Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts begins in cement and then is transferred to old acacia barrels mid- fermentation with all of the lees. Before the next harvest the wine is decanted back into cement to rest before bottling. Unfiltered, unfined and without any additions of any kind (zero/zero) and on a descending moon. Sasso is aged in bottle for one year before release.

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One of the most exciting regions in Spain when it comes to natural wine has got to be the Penedès. I know that may sound a bit strange considering the amount of plonky Cava being made, but this is actually part of the reason driving a group of young winemakers to do things differently. I call it the process of diseducation and at the forefront of this movement is Ruben Parera.

Ruben was born into a family of farmers but it wasn't until he finished his viticultural and oenological studies that they started making wines of their own. We first met him at a tasting in 2013 and his wines were perfect...almost too perfect, if you know what I mean. Since then, I feel like he's stopped relying so much on the books and turned to his land for answers. He converted his family's 10h estate from organic to biodynamic, continuing the natural process into the cellar while applying the same practice to their cherries and olives and obtaining the rather grueling Demeter certification on their first visit.