Xarel Lo
Ancestral 2022
Tiques - Joan Rubio

Grape Variety: Xarel Lo

Producer: Tiques (Joan Rubió)

Region: Penedès, Catalunya, Spain

Wild Scale: 2/5

11% alcohol

Winemaking: Biodynamic Xarel Lo grapes were harvested by hand. The grapes were put into stainless steel tanks and only free-run juice was kept. Fermentation with indigenous yeast. The wine was bottled before fermentation was complete in order to create fizz inside the bottle (ancestral winemaking technique). No added sulphur.

This Wine: Sparkling wine made with in the Ancestral method (Pet Nat) but with much more depth and roundness than most wines made in this style. Precise and complex with salty citrus and smokey apricot notes alongside biscuity, brioche flavours more associated with the Champagne style. A classy wine that is great with food or as an aperitif. 

THIS WINE WAS VOTED AS THE BEST TASTING WINE AT A HIGHBURY LIBRARY WINE CLUB IN MAY 2025

Notes on the Winemaker: Joan Rubió has a reputation as the 'master of Xarel Lo' and it is fully deserved. He spent years working for arguably the finest Cava house Recaredo before setting off on his solo adventure Tiques. He is an expert on biodynamic farming and teaches these practices to many other winemakers in the region. His wines are rich and precise and could even be mistaken for premium white Burgundy.