Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature 2019 - Clos Lentiscus

From a visit in March 2026.

Record breaking rains in early 2026 brought a dramatic end to years of punishing drought that pushed the vineyards of Mediterranean Catalunya to the brink. For the oldest vines at Clos Lentiscus, planted in 1939, the rains came just in time. “We didn’t think they would make it” muttered Nuria Avinyo as we gathered in the early March sun beside their cellar, overlooking a parcel of Malvasia de Sitges.

Evidence of the extreme conditions, and the extraordinary methods employed by Manel and Nuria to help their vines to survive, is there to behold. A thin black pipe running beneath a budding row of vines: the estate's first ever use of irrigation. The roots of these vines reach 12 feet down into the bedrock, but years of consecutive drought depleted the water table such that these vines were dying of thirst, and this step was necessary.

This was also the first year that particular ground cover crops were cultivated between the vines. Leguminous shrubs that help the soils retain moisture and enrich it with nitrogen were planted every second row, so as not to introduce too much competition to the vines as they regained their strength. With 10 storms already this year, this ground cover also helps secure the thin layer of clay that sits above the limestone and sandstone bedrock, preventing flash rains from washing it away. The white mustard is already flowering, and with small buds appearing and sap moving in the vines, a feeling of hope prevails as the season gets underway.

The property itself is remarkable, nestled at the foot of Montgros, overlooking the Mediterranean. Both factors distinctly influence the microclimate of this 40 hectare estate, with the mountain shielding the vines from hail and storms, and the Mediterranean providing cool breezes that help mitigate disease among the vines, while facilitating the thermic inversion that optimises ripening during the hot Catalan summers.

With 20 hectares under vine, the remaining 20 hectares are forest and bush, the crown of which is a 1000 year old lentiscus tree after which the estate is named. The tree/shrub is a potent symbol of the symbiosis between man and nature that underpins the work Manel Avinyo has done to revive his family’s commercial winemaking project, inheriting techniques that were aligned with biodynamics from his grandfather and uncle, who had worked using natural resources before it became widely acknowledged as an approach to farming. The lentiscus tree itself is an example, with its phenolic-rich, resinous leaves having been used by Roman winemakers to clean amphora, a practice Manel still uses today. The forest is a resource, with tisanes and lacto-ferments foraged and brewed from the estate's flora playing a key role in disease management and sun protection.

Wild bushes and flowers also play an intimate role in the fascinating typicity of these wines. Manel uses honey from his native bees for secondary fermentation of his famed traditional method sparkling wines, having become unhappy with the process of freezing their must for the same purpose. After much trial and error, honey from rosemary flowers is now the preferred choice. This practice, of course, excludes Manel’s sparkling wines from the Penedès DO. Curiously, his cultivation of indigenous variety Sumoll also excluded his wines when he first returned to his family estate in 2000, an example of Kafka-esque bureaucracy that has stripped these classifications of their relevance in contemporary wine.

The estate is a living ampelography of sorts. Wine has been made here continuously for over 600 years, thus centuries of massale selection has made the vines here uniquely adapted. Here, Xarello expresses a heady herbal quality that bears too close a resemblance to the fragrant leaves of the Lentiscus tree not to remark upon it. They call Xarello ‘Cartoixa’ in this part of Catalunya, and they also cultivate a rare pink clone, Cartoixa Vermell, not often found in commercial vineyards. Its character is quite distinct to the rest of Penedès. Two distinct profiles of Sumoll have also been selected. One yields ovular berries suited to producing sparkling wine. Another, with small round berries suited to the production of red wine, which is seemingly ageless, usually released after 7 to 10 years bottle ageing. Every single parcel of vines is vinified and bottled separately, a practice more common in places like Burgundy. If nothing else this shows the respect the family has for their land and the unsung pedigree of soils they work. It also makes for quite fascinating verticals, that allow the family deep insights into their vineyards and wines. This region was once the seabed, and as such boasts all the mineral deposits and marine fossils you would expect, with hard limestone and sandstone and a touch of Marne Bleue speaking to the quality they are working with.

Sant Pere de Ribes, Penedès

Grapes: Malvasia, Greco

Region: Sant Pere de Ribes, Penedès, Catalunya, Spain

ABV: 12%