Xarel·lo

Xarel·lo is the grape that gives Cava its spine. Of the three Catalan varieties that traditionally make up the blend it is the most structured, the most phenolic and the slowest to give itself away, and it is the one that determines whether a Cava can age.

It grows on the limestone and clay of the Penedès, south-west of Barcelona, mostly on the middle terraces between the coastal plain and the higher inland vineyards. Thick skins and firm acidity make it resistant to oxidation, which matters enormously for a wine that will spend years on its lees in a cellar before disgorgement. That same resistance is why it is the component that survives long ageing while its blending partners fade.

Young and unblended, it is not an obviously charming wine: green apple, fennel, a stony bitterness on the finish and a slightly waxy weight in the mouth. Give it time in bottle, or time on lees, and it turns nutty and savoury — toasted almond, dried herbs, occasionally something close to camomile. The bitterness never quite goes, and in a good example it reads as grip rather than fault.

For decades it existed only inside a blend, but the interesting Penedès producers now bottle it on its own, sometimes with skin contact or in old barrels, and the results have done more for the region's reputation than any amount of Cava marketing. Those wines look nothing like sparkling wine and are usually sold as still white Penedès.

In Alella, a small appellation just north of Barcelona, the same grape is called Pansa Blanca and makes a leaner, more saline style from sandy granitic soils.