Located in the Colet I Noya region of Penedes, Laia and Jaume have converted her grandfather’s grocery shop into a winery and aging cellar for the project they started together in 2020. Laia, an oenologist, and Jaume, a photographer, shared a desire to make the purest expression of Xarel-lo and Garnacha from four plots, totalling 3 hectares, of old vines located close to the village of Saint Jaume Sesoliveres. As the opportunity arose to convert the family property, so their dream was realised, the narrow, two roomed ground floor becoming their bijou cellar and upstairs their family home.. 

The first of their plots is beside the river Anoia and is alluvial with clay, and principally Garnacha, which is vinified as a light pink wine. Production here can be as low as 500kg per hectare and produces a very distinct style of wine, both aromatically intense and mineral fresh. Xarel-lo can be found in the village vineyard, a south sloping old vine (60 years) parcel named after the owner, Marcel. Here the soil is lighter and more sandy. Over the hillside, they have two north facing vineyard overlooking Monserrat. Here is red sandy soil with some clays and limestone bedrock. The wines from these vineyards are bright, light fresh and have a touch of salinity. 

The key principle to their winemaking is to produce the very finest base wine using either stainless steel or large format oak barrels (from Catalonia only) and Sweet Chestnut from Galicia. Once the wines have fermented and resolved, they are then bottled the following vintage with a Liqueur de Tirage made from the fermenting must of the next vintage, thus avoiding using any non-native yeasts. Aging is deemed to be complete when the wine has fully fermented to dryness, but prior to any autolytic character being formed. To them, autolysis is the death of terroir, a subject the return to time after time. The resulting wines are a revelation. Purity, Mineral, clarity and extreme drinkability are all hall marks of these wines, and their passion and ability shines from the bottle. It is interesting to note that they also use paper instead of metal as foils for the bottles, highlighting their attention to detail. 

I have had the privilege to taste many sparkling wines from this region, and Spain in general, and I can confidently say that if Penedes or cava ever develop a ‘Grower Champagne’ movement, Jaume and Laia will be at the top of the list. In total they produce 3 cuvees, totalling just 7000 bottles and always single vintage.