AUS AA Bruant Brut Nature

Steady effervescence and cassava melon, rising bread and toasted nut aromas lead the way for apricot preserve, caramelized pineapple, croissant and cashew flavors. The pleasing finish is surprisingly bright.

Retasted 18 months along, and happily so, able to see this once crisp and racy wine putting on bottle weight. Alta Alella began 20 years ago when Josep Maria Pujol-Busquets and his wife Cristina Guillen acquired nineteenth-century estate Can Genis, near Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea, and converted it to organics. Their daughters Mireia and Georgina have now joined them in the farming of their sea-facing 17ha of vines, planted on slopes and terraces between 100-250m. Their soils are sauló, an acidic, white granite-based sandy soil. This xarel.lo (aka pansa blanca) cava is one of their natural wines. It was aged on lees up to 24 months, bottled without dosage or added sulphites. Fresh and dried green apple, roasted marcona almonds, brioche, meringue, lemon ride along a streamline palate, one starting to show some nutty maturity, but with a precision of form and acidity that holds the palate humming (aided by that classic granitic hum, most certainly).