Xarel·lo

Xarel·lo is the grape that gives Cava its spine. The traditional Cava blend has three white grapes: Macabeo for the apple fruit and the easy ripening, Parellada for the delicacy and the floral lift, and Xarel·lo for acidity, body and structure. Of the three it is the one with the strongest character and the highest phenolic content.

It is a Penedès native and it suits the place: it copes with drought, ripens in the middle of the season, and holds its acid well enough to make a base wine at low alcohol without tasting thin. Because the skins carry a lot of natural antioxidant, wines made from it resist oxidation, which matters for a sparkling wine that spends years on its lees before disgorging.

In the last twenty years Catalan growers have started bottling it as a still white, sometimes from old bush vines and sometimes with skin contact or time in oak. Those wines are the argument that Xarel·lo was always the serious grape of the three: firm, faintly bitter in the way that Mediterranean whites often are, with fennel, green apple and a chalky grip.