Have you ever tried a wallet-sized ancestral? It's now!

Today, the glass we hold in our hands invites us, toasting, to a double learning experience. If you've come here out of curiosity, you're welcome, and be content knowing that today's wine is a Monedero ancestral wine. But if, in addition to being curious, you're part of "the enjoyment gang" (a few Gaudineros, a few Goznes, a few Gaudinaires?), you'll want to know everything. An ancestral wine is a sparkling wine that undergoes its secondary fermentation in the bottle. You take the wine, which hasn't yet finished fermentation, bottle it, and put a metal stopper on it to prevent it from spurting out. Moneu is a Catalan variety that disappeared in the 1980s. Celler Torres revived it in 1998, and since 2008, the Incavi (National Institute of Wine and Spirits), which oversees and curates our extremely varied and prized vineyards, has authorized its planting. There are ten or twelve hectares of Moneu in Catalonia. Only six winegrowers in all of Catalonia produce Monedero. And among them, Incavi assures us that there's only one who makes the ancestral wine. I introduce you to Lambert Perera, who, along with his two hands, is the one-man band of today's winery.

"I've been making wine for two years. I was making shoes and... nothing like that. What does it come from? From the midlife crisis I had. It doesn't run in the family or anything, this wine thing. It was a bit of a need for a change. I've lived in the Penedès for a long time. I've been a wine lover for years, always an idea. I started with a friend, we did the first year, and the second year I went solo, and I bought some Xarel lo vineyards in the Baix Penedès and Alt Camp.

Starting out like him is a way to learn. And as so often, this is a stroke of luck: "Actually, the ancestral wine from Monedès comes from a mistake. I harvested too early because I had done the ripening control wrong. I added the must at seven and a half, which wasn't enough for anything. And what did I do? The ancestral wine twice, first at seven and a half. And twelve days later we sold some of it.

Moneu is a rustic variety, which perhaps not everyone likes, but which should be known. Some people work with it in blends. It's not regular (one year it can produce a lot, the next nothing...) but it's very resilient and can withstand drought. It gives a lot of acidity, and in the glass you'll find red fruit (strawberry, raspberry...). "It's a very particular sparkling wine. I don't add anything to it. And in the vineyard, I haven't even boiled it, I've only added sulfur once. It's a natural ancestral wine, without sulfites, without clarifying."

This is the first vintage to come onto the market. It's called that because it refers to Bloody Mary (when it was harvested, it looked similar in color) and to the variety, without naming it. Enjoy it, get to know it. It has nine and a half alcohol levels, which is unusual given its ancestral black origins. It's fresh and will go well with pasta or a torta de recapte. By the way! When will a businessman start a fast-food chain based on tortas de recuperar and cloches? When?

Enjoy, dear enjoyers, this sparkling wine from the vineyard above, in Aiguamúrcia. If this is your first time trying this variety, close your eyes and inhale. You always remember the moments when you learn things.