Spain

For twenty straight years, former Spanish champion sommelier Enric Soler has made wines that read like love letters. They are a public expression that Xarel-lo is worth time, effort, and attention. His zen-like focus on the grape has led to nicknames (The Iron Knight of Xarel-lo) and resounding accolades.

Xarel-lo is typically blended with Parellada and Macabeo in Catalunyan cavas, but in the right hands, it exhibits the balance and structure of the world’s great white wines. 

Soler works his grandfather’s 78-year-old Xarel-lo vineyards (Vinyas del Taus) and a younger but more rural vineyard (Espenyalluchs) biodynamically with stunning results. His grandfather’s old bush-trained vines are surrounded by vibrant ground cover and lovingly tended. He waxes poetically about these vines saying that they are like us and that old people and vineyards need special attention and care. While the Espenyalluchs vineyard is younger, it’s easy to see the potential of the clay soils in this remote, high-altitude (400m) corner of Catalunya.

Like his farming, there is elegance, balance, and intention in every step of his winemaking process. He harnesses rich acidity and transforms the firm phenolics of the Xarel-lo grapes into character and structure through minimal but precise cellar treatments. 

The resulting wines are concentrated and complex, aromatic with bright herbs and rich citrus, vibrant and energetic but still elegant with the structure to stand up to long cellar aging.

This 78-year-old plot has been farmed biodynamically since 2005 and produces Xarel-lo that, under Soler’s hands, is easily mistaken for excellent white Burgundy. For Nun, the grapes are hand-picked and sorted before being fermented with native yeasts in a blend of old (two-year-old) and new French oak. Aging takes place with zero battonage over eight months. Only 240 cases are produced.