AUS Bruant Brut Nature ungeschwefelt 2022 1500ml Magnum

Wild and vivid in the glass: a Cava that needs no added sulphites at all, yet still shows depth and longevity. Made as Brut Nature, it goes into the bottle with no dosage and stays dry, with pronounced acidity.

Alta Alella lies two kilometres from the Mediterranean and fifteen from Barcelona's Ramblas, nestled within the Serralada de Marina natural park, where bees, falcons and lizards live among the vine rows. The tone is set by the sandy granite soil, Sauló: high in acidity, almost free of limestone, with perfect drainage. In 1991, Josep Maria and Cristina Pujol-Busquets bought the overgrown Can Genís estate and rescued 60-year-old vines. Today their daughters Mireia and Georgina run the winery as a second generation, organic since day one.

The native Xarel·lo, known here as Pansa Blanca, thrives especially well on this granite; yields stay below 6,000 kilograms per hectare. The Bruant belongs to the Celler de les Aus range, founded by Mireia in 2012 and named after the birds that nest in the natural park – aus means birds in Catalan. The wines in this range use no added sulphites.

Upfront, pear and yeast, followed by crushed chalk and a salty sea breeze, the mark the Sauló leaves on the house's sparkling wines. Crystalline precision, with no sweetness to cushion the acidity.

In 2006, Alta Alella produced Spain's first sulphite-free Cava, years before the term natural wine even existed. The 2022 vintage appears here as a 1500-millilitre Magnum, 12.0% ABV.