2009 Cava Gran Reserva Brut Nature Ill Lustros Gramona

This blend of Xarel-lo and Macabeo, available in Spain for under 25EUR, shows that fine Cava need not be expensive. It's pale gold in colour with light lemony fruit, sweetened a little with the scents of aniseed and dry brush. On the palate, it is concentrated, vinous and flowery, yet with ample biscuity fullness too: so roundedly dry as to be almost paradoxical, and given lift by the swarm of fine bubbles.

I had two very different vintages of the flagship III Lustros to taste. The 2009 Gran Reserva Brut Nature III Lustros is the one from a warmer year with an early harvest. It's a wine where the fruit is combined with aromas developed during the long aging in bottle with lees. The grapes were picked the first week of August, but the fast ripening generated sugar faster than it burned malic acid, so the wines retained good freshness. It's a blend of Xarello with 25% Macabeo with no dosage. It was disgorged after 77 months in bottle with lees and has a cork stopper. Just poured into the glass, it felt closed and serious, with a sharp palate with austerity and precision and very good balance, surprisingly fresh. 30,000 bottles produced. 2018 - 2021

75% xarel-lo og 25macabeo med 96 måneders gærcellekontakt og derfor markant autolysekarakter i form af caramel, fudge, brunet smør, fishsauce og tomatvand. Og samtidig er der en provokerende tordsigkerne af kaffe, hasselnødskal og frisk fennikelcrudite på bagt pære. Moussen angriber mildt tunge og gane, her er fadsødme, uden at der nødvendigvis er trukket noget ud af fadgæringens beholder, men vanilin er der i hvert fald. Og så afslutter den fornærmende tørt, kontant, men fortsætter så i det skjulte med grapesaft. Sammensat og perpleks på den geniale måde.