A new Corpinnat member, a new discovery
Barcelona Wine Week is an annual wine expo in Barcelona, a great event to meet existing partners and to meet new ones. Exhibitors come from all over Spain, and certainly Catalan sparkling wines are not missing from the fair. Let me share one of the most memorable sparkling wines I tasted and loved at the BWW.
Corpinnat–the European brand of Penedés sparkling producers with the strictest rules–has recently welcomed a new member called Cisteller. The small family estate has an annual production of only
40 000 bottles, they make both still and sparkling wines.
I do not say Corpinnat sparkling wines are better than cavas, but we can say that due to the strict rules, all the vineyards are looked after with the maximum attention, it is guaranteed. Of course, I was curious about the new member, so at BWW I visited their booth among the other Corpinnat producers.
Settling after travelling the world
A jolly, long bearded young guy greeted me with welcoming smile, and started to introduced the wine in perfect English. It is not typical at all in Catalonia, and soon it was explained: Sergi Canals went to Napa Valley to get experience, where he met Jessica Madigan, and they continued their journey together to several wine places including Australia. The family estate in Penedés was where Sergi returned and with Jessica, his wife they started to bottle wine, for the first time in the family.
Cisteller means basket weaver, the ancient profession of the family, and choosing this name clearly signs their true respect for their homeland.
Below: Corpinnat members with the newcomer couple in the middle
“Corn silk, citrus mousse”
I tasted both their Corpinnats, and I was really impressed by Lucidity, a blend Xarel·lo and Macabeu. The first official Corpinnat vintage is 2022, but at the fair we tasted the 2020 vintage. Striking freshness aligned with complexity and elegance. Refined yeasty notes, white flowers, mineral notes.
As Sergi explained, their vineyards produce extremely low yield, around 4 tons per hectare, but 2020 was even worse with only 1.5–2 tons. The outcome is definitely worth all their effort, I can’t wait to taste 2022, which has been released since then.
Another thing: most sparkling wine producers here, in Penedés, bottle the base wine with the tirage around January-February after harvest, while Sergi and Jessica wait almost a year. Plus, a small portion of the base wine matures in French oak.
Cisteller wines are available in several countries, for example in the Czech Republic, Denmark, and in some remote places like the USA, Australia and the Philippines.
Click here to read more about vintage 2022, among other this poem-like tasting note: “Oyster shell, yellow Chartreuse, corn silk, citrus mousse, chalk core.”
Cisteller website with fact sheets of all their wines in three languages
