Parellada

Parellada is the third grape of Cava and the most delicate of the three. Macabeo gives the blend its apple fruit and ripens easily, Xarel·lo gives it body and structure, and Parellada gives it finesse, a floral lift and a low alcohol that keeps the whole thing light.

It is grown in the higher and cooler parts of Penedès in Catalonia, often above 400 metres, and it needs that altitude. It ripens late and it loses its aromatics quickly in heat, so a warm site gives a flat wine. On the high ground it keeps a fine acidity and a delicate perfume of green apple, citrus blossom and fennel, at an alcohol level that can be as low as ten degrees.

That lightness limits it. Parellada makes a pleasant still white on its own but rarely a memorable one, because there is not much weight behind the aroma. Its importance is as a blending grape, and it is one of the reasons Cava tastes different from Champagne even when the method is identical.