{"product_id":"cisteller-xarel-lo","title":"Cisteller Xarel.lo 2023","description":"\u003ch1\u003eCisteller Xarel·lo 2023\u003c\/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA lab experiment gone right — the couple who accidentally made a great wine while trying to ruin one, now farming great-grandfather's mountain vines nobody else wanted.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrape Varietals \u0026amp; Region:\u003c\/strong\u003e 100% Xarel·lo from three separate blocks on extremely calcareous, limestone-clay soils — two within the family's Muntanyes d'Ordal estate, a third in the stonier, warmer Massís del Garraf. The vines sit around 300m above sea level in Penedès, Catalunya, on soils Sergi Canals and Jessica Madigan describe as strikingly similar to Chablis and parts of Champagne — low pH, rich in limestone and soft marls, land Sergi's family held onto because nobody else wanted 'mountain land.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTaste Profile:\u003c\/strong\u003e Vibrant and saline, with real volume and power for a Xarel·lo — a low-yielding, drought-stressed vintage concentrated the fruit, and the mix of steel, concrete and Hungarian oak adds a touch of creaminess and oak spice without burying the wine's natural cut. Luis Gutierrez scored the 2023 92 points for Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, calling it 'a vibrant white with salinity and concentration... more volume, more power, still a little creaminess and a little more oak than the others.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinemaking Process:\u003c\/strong\u003e Whole-bunch pressed at low pressure with no maceration, then fermented separately by plot — some in stainless steel, some in concrete amphorae, some in Hungarian oak barrels — with indigenous yeast via a pied de cuvée starter. Each lot aged sur lie through fall and winter with plot-specific bâtonnage, before being blended into tank in spring to integrate ahead of bottling. Just 5,278 bottles made. The estate's low-pH, low-malic-acid soils mean the wine avoids malolactic conversion naturally, without any winemaking intervention to prevent it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWinemaker:\u003c\/strong\u003e Sergi Canals grew up in Penedès; Jessica Madigan, American, met him as her lab partner at UC Davis — their first assignment was to deliberately spoil a wine with bacteria, and it came out glorious instead. They founded Cisteller in 2019 on 'mountain land that nobody wanted': vineyards Sergi's family held onto because they sat too high and too poor for the region's commercial, high-yielding vines. What they found instead was limestone-rich, low-pH soil they compare to Chablis and Champagne. In 2024, Cisteller became the 13th winery admitted to Corpinnat — the breakaway growers' collective that left Cava behind to guarantee estate-grown, hand-harvested, site-specific sparkling wine, audited unannounced during harvest to prove it. 'Cisteller' means 'basket weaver,' after Sergi's family trade; today the couple farm their great-grandfather's vineyards with their own two children in tow.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cisteller","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43206034325602,"sku":null,"price":73.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0552\/1339\/1970\/files\/Cisteller-Xarello.png?v=1787012126","url":"https:\/\/boundbywine.com\/products\/cisteller-xarel-lo","provider":"BoundbyWine","version":"1.0","type":"link"}