Istiu 2024

Istiu means summer in Catalan, and the wine delivers on the name: 12.5% vol., dry, built on tension and drinkability. Enric Soler sets Xarel·lo and Malvasia side by side, hiding nothing in the cellar.

Cal Raspallet is located in Sabanell, a hamlet in the Alt Penedès near Barcelona: a Catalan farmhouse from the late 19th century, beneath which Enric Soler has set up his cellar. The subsoil is calcareous and sandy, the vines grow at 400 metres of altitude, where cool nights preserve acidity. The Mediterranean lies thirty kilometres away and buffers the summer heat.

Xarel·lo provides the structure, Malvasia the fragrance. Grapes are hand-picked in 15-kilo crates, fermentation happens spontaneously with wild yeasts, with no corrections to the must. Since 2005, Enric Soler has farmed his nearly three hectares biodynamically.

Pale in the glass, straw yellow with a green shimmer. On the nose, lime zest, green apple and white blossom, with fennel and chamomile beneath. The attack is juicy, the acidity crisp, lime and green pear carry a medium body, and the finish stays saline and clean.

In 1997, Enric Soler was crowned Spain's best sommelier and ran a sommelier school in Barcelona. When his grandfather died in 2004, he took over his plot and started afresh as a winemaker. Today he makes four wines and just over 10,000 bottles a year, all by hand.