2007 Clar de Castenyer Penedes Xarlel-lo

J

Jay Miller

Jay Miller
Bought this as a result of a Chambers St. email blast, and I'm grateful for it.

Rich and oxidative (though not quite so much as a Tondonia), hint of hazelnuts, orange zest, some warm spices. Only getting better in the glass. Sort of like a light white dry oloroso if that makes any sense. I'll have to stop back for another bottle or two.
 
After the experience we've recently had, you'd question the variability of bottles? (a series of weird punctuation goes here)
 
Interesting wine, tiny production, from the Garraf coastal mountain range above Sitges (almost pure limestone). Xarel-lo is the most personal of the traditional Catalan white cultivars used for cava. It gives wines with quite a bit of structure. The grower, Rafael Sala, is a veteran information technology engineer who bought this old vineyard in 2000. Possibly his most interesting wines are his three Ancestral bubblies - the only ones made in Spain with the old 'mthode ancestrale' used in neighboring Limoux for blanquette, two whites (xarel-lo, malvasia) and a ros (grenache and sumoll).
 
Jay, what was the temperature of your bottle when you drank it? In hindsight, it is possible that I drank the wine when it was too warm.
 
It started at 55F, right from the cooling unit. Though as I mentioned it got better with air so it was a bit warmer when it peaked (maybe 65?).

Didn't hold up on day 2.

It also matched very well with the fried chicken I was eating so food may have made a difference as well.
 
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