{"title":"Bodega Clandestina","description":"\u003cp\u003eFerran Lacruz works 8 hectares of vines around his hometown of Sant Martí Sarroca in the Alt Penedès. A graduate of the Escola Agrària de Viticultura i Enologia Mercè Rossell i Domènech, Ferran was moved to make wine in his hometown after years working in tourism, where he encountered first-hand, among his clients, the reputational damage that decades of heavy, intensive viticulture had inflicted on the region. Growing up in the Penedès with a winemaking uncle, Ferran knows the hills of the Alt Penedès like the back of his hand, so when it came to acquiring vines, he already knew where to look. He was exacting in his selection, picking sites not on the hillsides where one might expect, but in the valleys, where the diurnal range is greatest, allowing slower ripening and later harvests. His Xarel·lo comes from old vine stock planted in the '60s and '70s, trained in gobelet, growing to a remarkable size in the famous cervell de gat soils of the region. He has also planted Carignan Blanc, a variety that ripens late and keeps its acidity well. In the cellar, all of the wines see a certain amount of skin contact, extracting the phenolics inherent to Xarel·lo and lending his wines a delicate complexity that shows the class of the variety. Ferran's use of glass for the élevage of the lighter wines brings a roundness and balance, while old wood and amphorae are used in the ageing of the more extracted wines. The wines themselves are remarkably lucid, detailed with the typicity of their provenance and the fiery personality of their maker.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"blanc-fugitiu-2022-bodega-clandestina","title":"Blanc Fugitiu 2024 - Bodega Clandestina","description":"\u003cp\u003eA white wine with the subtle complexity of an orange, this shows the class of Xarello from these old vineyards, with lemon posset, wild thyme, orange blossom, and apricot. The tannins are delicate, with a palate of substance and vitality that is tethered by the time spent ageing in oak. Superb Xarello here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood with:\u003c\/strong\u003e hake with lemon butter, or roast chicken with thyme.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXarello planted in 1970 in the Serral vineyard. The grapes were destemmed, with a portion submerged in the fermenting juice. The wine was then racked to steel until it completed malolactic fermentation, and was racked to 500-litre casks to age on the lees for three months.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe producer\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eFerran Lacruz works 8 hectares of vines around his hometown of Sant Martí Sarroca in the Alt Penedès. A graduate of the Escola Agrària de Viticultura i Enologia Mercè Rossell i Domènech, Ferran was moved to make wine in his hometown after years working in tourism, where he encountered first-hand, among his clients, the reputational damage that decades of heavy, intensive viticulture had inflicted on the region. Growing up in the Penedès with a winemaking uncle, Ferran knows the hills of the Alt Penedès like the back of his hand, so when it came to acquiring vines, he already knew where to look. He was exacting in his selection, picking sites not on the hillsides where one might expect, but in the valleys, where the diurnal range is greatest, allowing slower ripening and later harvests. His Xarel·lo comes from old vine stock planted in the '60s and '70s, trained as bush vines, growing to a remarkable size in the famous cervell de gat soils of the region. He has also planted Carignan Blanc, a variety that ripens late and keeps its acidity well. In the cellar, all of the wines see a certain amount of skin contact, extracting the phenolics inherent to Xarel·lo and lending his wines a delicate complexity that shows the class of the variety. Ferran's use of glass for the élevage of the lighter wines brings a roundness and balance, while old wood and amphorae are used in the ageing of the more extracted wines. The wines themselves are remarkably lucid, detailed with the typicity of their provenance and the fiery personality of their maker.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe place\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese old bush vines grow almost to the size of small trees. The red clay is littered with cervell de gat: limestone nodules that the locals call ‘cat brains’. Hot during the days, Ferran's selection of this site was due to its position in a wide valley on the hillside of the Alt Penedès, where cool air settles overnight helping to preserve acidity. Fugitiu means fugitive, a reference to Ferran’s existence outside of the DO's control.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrapes:\u003c\/strong\u003e Xarello\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRegion:\u003c\/strong\u003e Sant Martí Sarroca, Alt Penedès, Catalunya, Spain\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eABV:\u003c\/strong\u003e 11.5%\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bodega Clandestina","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54988701696338,"sku":"1700310","price":34.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1116\/0246\/7154\/files\/bw-blanc-fugitiu-2024.jpg?v=1793699099"},{"product_id":"blanc-sense-papers-2024-bodega-clandestina","title":"Blanc Sense Papers 2024 - Bodega Clandestina","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn elegant nose with citrus, sea breeze, and custard, layered with white florals and thyme. The palate shows a delicate yet complex structure with fine, featherweight tannins adding a subtle bitterness to this bright, saline, Xarello, driven by limestone minerality.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood with:\u003c\/strong\u003e grilled sea bass, or goat's cheese with honey and thyme.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eXarello from two sites, planted 1962 and 1968. The harvest was over three passes, the first was pressed directly, the second pass saw short, 24 hour skin maceration, and the final pass, about 10% of the wine, got two weeks of skin contact. Each pass was vinified separately, aged in glass demijohn (the final portion was aged in cask), and blended before bottling.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe producer\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eFerran Lacruz works 8 hectares of vines around his hometown of Sant Martí Sarroca in the Alt Penedès. A graduate of the Escola Agrària de Viticultura i Enologia Mercè Rossell i Domènech, Ferran was moved to make wine in his hometown after years working in tourism, where he encountered first-hand, among his clients, the reputational damage that decades of heavy, intensive viticulture had inflicted on the region. Growing up in the Penedès with a winemaking uncle, Ferran knows the hills of the Alt Penedès like the back of his hand, so when it came to acquiring vines, he already knew where to look. He was exacting in his selection, picking sites not on the hillsides where one might expect, but in the valleys, where the diurnal range is greatest, allowing slower ripening and later harvests. His Xarel·lo comes from old vine stock planted in the '60s and '70s, trained as bush vines, growing to a remarkable size in the famous cervell de gat soils of the region. He has also planted Carignan Blanc, a variety that ripens late and keeps its acidity well. In the cellar, all of the wines see a certain amount of skin contact, extracting the phenolics inherent to Xarel·lo and lending his wines a delicate complexity that shows the class of the variety. Ferran's use of glass for the élevage of the lighter wines brings a roundness and balance, while old wood and amphorae are used in the ageing of the more extracted wines. The wines themselves are remarkably lucid, detailed with the typicity of their provenance and the fiery personality of their maker.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe place\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe majority of the Xarello here comes from the Fassina vineyard, a fascinating planting that harks back to the post phylloxera era, when the growers here were experimenting with suitable rootstocks in their vineyards. Three portions of the vineyard show three distinctive leaf shapes and growth patterns, despite it being from the same plant material.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrapes:\u003c\/strong\u003e Xarello\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRegion:\u003c\/strong\u003e Sant Martí Sarroca, Alt Penedès, Catalunya, Spain\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eABV:\u003c\/strong\u003e 12%\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bodega Clandestina","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54988701729106,"sku":"1700309","price":30.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1116\/0246\/7154\/files\/bw-blanc-sense-papers-2024.jpg?v=1793699099"},{"product_id":"el-soci-2024-bodega-clandestina","title":"El Soci 2024 - Bodega Clandestina","description":"\u003cp\u003eThese old vines show a remarkably fresh expression of Macabeu, with radiant citrus and a spring water freshness. Great drinking flow on the palate, with racy acidity and a satifying bite of salinity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDirect press of the bunches, with fermentation in steel. The wine was racked after malolactic fermentation, and aged in steel until bottling the following April.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe producer\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eFerran Lacruz works 8 hectares of vines around his hometown of Sant Martí Sarroca in the Alt Penedès. A graduate of the Escola Agrària de Viticultura i Enologia Mercè Rossell i Domènech, Ferran was moved to make wine in his hometown after years working in tourism, where he encountered first-hand, among his clients, the reputational damage that decades of heavy, intensive viticulture had inflicted on the region. Growing up in the Penedès with a winemaking uncle, Ferran knows the hills of the Alt Penedès like the back of his hand, so when it came to acquiring vines, he already knew where to look. He was exacting in his selection, picking sites not on the hillsides where one might expect, but in the valleys, where the diurnal range is greatest, allowing slower ripening and later harvests. His Xarel·lo comes from old vine stock planted in the '60s and '70s, trained in gobelet, growing to a remarkable size in the famous cervell de gat soils of the region. He has also planted Carignan Blanc, a variety that ripens late and keeps its acidity well. In the cellar, all of the wines see a certain amount of skin contact, extracting the phenolics inherent to Xarel·lo and lending his wines a delicate complexity that shows the class of the variety. Ferran's use of glass for the élevage of the lighter wines brings a roundness and balance, while old wood and amphorae are used in the ageing of the more extracted wines. The wines themselves are remarkably lucid, detailed with the typicity of their provenance and the fiery personality of their maker.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe place\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eFerran likes to say this wine is a good honest table wine. For me, it delivers so much more, highlighting the quality of the raw materials that the Penedès has to offer by keeping the vinification relatively simple. Macabeu is always a grape from which I expect broad shoulders and breadth of fruit, but this is something else entirely, built on a balance of purity and acidity. The vines are up to 80 years old, so we have a great mineral density in the wine, though it is not weighed down. Ferran looks for vineyards that are planted in small \"valleys\" on the hillsides of alt-Penedès, where the cold air settles at night and evens ripening. The altitude is also a factor here, and while we are not at dizzying heights, the vineyards grow between 190masl an 390masl, where the climate and diurnal range become a factor. The 4 parcels were harvested over four passes. Ferran seeks stability here, so the first pass is on the cusp of ripeness, keeping the ph down. This is then blended with the other three passes, capturing the evolution of the fruit at harvest time in one wine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrapes:\u003c\/strong\u003e Macabeu\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRegion:\u003c\/strong\u003e Sant Martí Sarroca, Alt-Penedès, Catalunya, Spain\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eABV:\u003c\/strong\u003e 11%\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bodega Clandestina","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54988702941522,"sku":"25\/001090","price":26.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1116\/0246\/7154\/files\/bw-el-soci-2024.jpg?v=1793699099"},{"product_id":"ancestral-confiscat-2022-bodega-clandestina","title":"Ancestral Confiscat 2022 - Bodega Clandestina","description":"\u003cp\u003eA lambent haze in the glass, with the colour showing some signs of ageing in bottle. We get a bright, zesty minerality on the nose, followed by fleshy white fruits and biscuit crumb. The palate is substantial, with the acidity of Xarello keeping things fresh and flowing. Great as an aperitif or with food.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGood with:\u003c\/strong\u003e salt cod croquetas, or fried squid with aioli.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis cuvée is closest to Ferran's heart, it being bubbles from old vine Xarello made in the ancestral method, a wine that channels so much of Catalunya's wine tradition, past and present. The harvested bunches were pressed without destemming or vatting. A month after picking, the wine was bottled in September 2022 with 23.4 grams of sugar remaining. The wine fermented and aged in bottle, completing malolactic fermentation, and was disgorged in October 2025.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe producer\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eFerran Lacruz works 8 hectares of vines around his hometown of Sant Martí Sarroca in the Alt Penedès. A graduate of the Escola Agrària de Viticultura i Enologia Mercè Rossell i Domènech, Ferran was moved to make wine in his hometown after years working in tourism, where he encountered first-hand, among his clients, the reputational damage that decades of heavy, intensive viticulture had inflicted on the region. Growing up in the Penedès with a winemaking uncle, Ferran knows the hills of the Alt Penedès like the back of his hand, so when it came to acquiring vines, he already knew where to look. He was exacting in his selection, picking sites not on the hillsides where one might expect, but in the valleys, where the diurnal range is greatest, allowing slower ripening and later harvests. His Xarel·lo comes from old vine stock planted in the '60s and '70s, trained as bush vines, growing to a remarkable size in the famous cervell de gat soils of the region. He has also planted Carignan Blanc, a variety that ripens late and keeps its acidity well. In the cellar, all of the wines see a certain amount of skin contact, extracting the phenolics inherent to Xarel·lo and lending his wines a delicate complexity that shows the class of the variety. Ferran's use of glass for the élevage of the lighter wines brings a roundness and balance, while old wood and amphorae are used in the ageing of the more extracted wines. The wines themselves are remarkably lucid, detailed with the typicity of their provenance and the fiery personality of their maker.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eThe place\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese vines were planted in the late 60s in the La Creu plot, over 1.45 hectares, trained as bush vines. This particular parcel sits between 300 and 350 metres of elevation, and the soils are thin clay and limestone. The age of these vines and the thin soils they grow on mean they produce small quantities of rich and concentrated fruit per vine, picked a little earlier than other parcels by Ferran, bolstering the acidity of the resulting wine. For Ferran, this ancestral is his attempt to show that Penedès is more than just cava, and that when working with the old Xarello plantings of the Alt Penedès, this ancient method can produce top class sparkling wine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGrapes:\u003c\/strong\u003e Xarello\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRegion:\u003c\/strong\u003e Sant Martí Sarroca, Alt Penedès, Catalunya, Spain\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eABV:\u003c\/strong\u003e 10.5%\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bodega Clandestina","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54988706513234,"sku":"1700312","price":32.5,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1116\/0246\/7154\/files\/bw-ancestral-confiscat-2022.jpg?v=1793699098"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1116\/0246\/7154\/collections\/bodega-clandestina--i103.jpg?v=1793700049","url":"https:\/\/www.brianswines.ie\/collections\/bodega-clandestina.oembed","provider":"Brian's Wines","version":"1.0","type":"link"}