2009 Mas del Serral

I met winemaker Pepe Raventós at a dinner for artisan Spanish winemakers at Noble Rot that preceded the Viñateros tasting this past February. We never met during my short tenure as reviewer, however it was his wines alongside those of Gramona, that blew apart my preconceptions of what Cava can achieve. Raventós shared a magnum of 2009 Pepe Raventós Mas del Serral, one of only 849 produced in what is its second release. It comes from 1.92-hectares parcel of biodynamically-farmed Xarello, handpicked and whole bunch pressed, fermented in stainless steel and aged for a whopping 100 months on the lees. Sporting a burnished limpid straw hue, the 2009 boasts an electrifying bouquet laced with scents of orange rind, sea spray and oyster shells - the marine-like aromas intensifying with aeration. The palate delivers exquisite harmony and the tension that would embarrass many a self-aggrandizing Champagne. There is so much energy coiled up in this Cava, with a glorious saline edginess on the finish that urges you back for another sip (and another and another.) This cuvée is not inexpensive and is very limited in quantity, but it is also unequivocally sensational. It will drink well for maybe 15 to 20 years.

There is no 2008 vintage of this sparkling white, so we tasted the 2009 Mas del Serral, the second vintage ever produced. It's from a very low-yielding year that only produced 1,800 kilos of grapes from 1.9 hectares of very old vines. This matured with the lees in bottle for no less than 100 months. The signature of this wine is the marine soils where the vines are planted, and they provide very tasty wines with a saline, mineral and marine personality. The wine is from an extreme year yet manages to keeps its poise, and it comes through as fresh and balanced and has a long-lasting finish. This has a special sense of harmony and subtleness, but there's also power and inner strength. This is one of the greatest sparkling wines produced in Spain, and it comes from a superb terroir that produces wines that age very slowly, as it's fresher and younger than many wines that are three or four years older. Because there was so little wine, they decided to bottle it all in magnums, and there are only 849 magnums. The price given is for a magnum.