Parellada

Parellada is the lightest and most perfumed of the three grapes behind traditional Cava, and the one planted highest up. It needs altitude: on the warm plains of the Penedès it ripens too fast and loses the delicacy that is its entire point, so growers put it on the cooler upper terraces, often above 500 metres, where it holds its acidity and keeps its floral aromatics.

It buds early and ripens late, which is an awkward combination — a long hanging season on a grape vulnerable to spring frost — and yields are naturally low. What it gives in return is lift. Where Xarel·lo supplies structure and Macabeo supplies fruit and volume, Parellada contributes apple blossom, citrus peel, white pepper and a lightness of body that keeps the blend from turning heavy. Alcohol is usually modest, which in a hot region is a genuine asset.

On its own it makes a pale, quiet white with green apple and lemon, a faint almond note and a short, clean finish. It is not a wine built for ageing and does not pretend to be; drunk young and cold on a Catalan terrace it makes complete sense, and the better single-varietal bottlings have a chalky texture that rewards attention.

It is grown almost entirely in Catalonia and barely travels. A few producers in the Conca de Barberà, inland and higher still, treat it as their signature white rather than as a blending component, and those wines are the best argument for the variety standing alone.