Wine of the week
Alan Nance is rewarded for venturing beyond his Penedès home territory in search of something sparkling.
Laietà Gran Reserva Brut Nature 2019, Alta Alella
D.O. Cava (Guarda Superior)
Varieties: Pansa Blanca (Xarel·lo), Chardonnay, Pinot Noir
ABV: 12%
€23.40 from Cal Feru
As spring saunters toward summer, I invariably find myself craving a glass of something sparkling to lift me from the end-of-working-day lethargy that becomes increasingly common as the temperatures rise. And living where I do, on the edgelands of the Penedès, getting my hands on a sparkler that will do just that is one of life's easiest tasks. Indeed, the number of affordable, quality escumosos (lit. frothy wines) to be found locally is such that there's little motivation to look further afield. But from time to time I do, and just as well, for there are jewels to be found elsewhere too.
Drive for around 60 km up the coast from where I live, and there, on the other side of Barcelona, you reach the smallest – and one of the oldest – DOs in Catalonia: Alella. It's been a long time since I've drunk a wine from this area, a place where Xarel·lo goes by the name of Pansa Blanca, and where vines grow close to the Mediterranean Sea on sandy granitic soil called sauló. And for a return visit, I couldn't have chosen much better than this Laietà Gran Reserva 2019, a brilliant sparkling wine from the Alta Alella winery.
Map showing location of the Alta Alella winery and its proximity to Barcelona.
Established in 1991 by the Pujol-Busquets-Guilléns family, farming on the Alta Alella estate has always been organic, and in the years since they've shown a growing commitment to environmental sustainability (e.g. renewable energy through solar panels, reusing bottles). They also have a parallel project, Celler de les Aus, run out of the same estate by Mireia Pujol-Busquets (the founders' daughter) and focused on making a small range of still wines and pét-nats (aka Ancestrals) with no added sulfites. Check them out, too.
As for the wine I'm supping now, this is a Cava made using the traditional method from Pansa Blanca (Xarel·lo), Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, all of which are grown on the estate. Under the current regulations for the DO Cava, which introduced new designations with the aim of highlighting quality, this means that the Alta Alella winery is classified as an Elaborador Integral, or grower–producer.
Here, the three grape varieties – in what is an unusual blend for a Catalan sparkler – were first fermented separately in stainless steel, with only gentle pressing of the Pinot Noir so as to extract some of its fruit profile without the colour. The assemblage was then bottled and aged for 58 months, almost twice as long as is required for it to be labelled a Cava de Guarda Superior Gran Reserva, before finally being disgorged in December 2024.
Back label of the Laietà 2019, showing the Elaborador Integral badge, the Reserva category and details of ageing and disgorgement times.
The result is an enticing wine with aromas of red fruit alongside more familiar hints of pear, honey and almond. The palate is complex, with a lively interplay between those orchard and red fruit notes and a more citrus and saline character that evokes the wine's coastal origin. I purposely eked this out over two days to see how it evolved, and while some doughy notes gradually came to the fore, it never lost that sense of lift from the fine-grained bubbles.
All in all, a delicious wine that delivers a lot for its price point, and which reminded me why, from time to time, it's good to venture beyond the sparkling heartlands of the Penedès.