Hungry Heart, a xarelo ancestral that has umami

We have in the glass an ancestral wine, a sparkling wine that has fermented only once, not twice, like cava or champagne. I am convinced that ancestral wine, that sparkling wine that has always been made in such a "natural" way, taking wine from the vat, bottling it, and letting it finish fermenting in the bottle, is a cheerful and informal gateway to bringing young people closer to wine culture. Today's winery, Álvaro González Marcos, bears the name of the winemaker. "I'm in an area with abundant Xarel·lo, the part closest to Barcelona, ​​​​in Sant Llorenç d'Hortons, on a farm called Can Raimundet," says Álvaro. "I came to the world of viticulture late and I've kept the vineyards that no one wanted. Mine are Xarel·lo."

"Every year I make wines that I repeat and I make one or two special ones, doing tests... I name them all after songs I like. Like this one. The world of the vineyard has perhaps changed a lot. There are those who want young vines, to produce more. Trellised vineyards. In the Pened. They had enough with five or six hectares and now they need thirty, they've multiplied by five or six, because the countryside has changed."

"It's a great moment for Xarel·lo, now," I tell Álvaro. And he says: "Outside of Catalonia, more than here! Not long ago I was at a fair in the south of France. I was very surprised, because there is a lot of white and gris Garnacha there, and they were in love with Xarel·lo. The same thing has happened to me at some fairs in Madrid, but it's also because I am in the world of natural wine, or call it "open." Let's talk about natural wine. "I work only with grapes, I don't add additives. I remove the stems, I add the grapes as if it were a red wine, and I do a very quick maceration, as if there were a breeze, so that the skins stay on top. It ferments in stainless steel."

Let's get to the bubble. Álvaro is not into bubbles. And maybe that's why he tells me: "You'll notice little bubbles, and this is because the ancestors put them pointed like cava. So, with Xarel·lo, I'm left with a lot of lees and I can't get them all out in a single disgorgement. The wine is cloudy, and cloudiness kills the bubble." It's not a very present bubble and, instead, what is very present are the yeasts. Xarel lo is a polyhedral variety. By this I mean that it reflects the area in which it was grown. "My xarel los have a very present aromatic component," he says. "In my xarel los the herbal part is more diluted and, instead, you will find apple and pear"

As always, I ask him how he got into the world of wine. I did BUP in Sant Sadurní and my classmates introduced me. An aunt of mine bought a farm and I started managing it. And one day it was inevitable to say: "What if we make a wine?"

In 2016 they started and in 2017 they already had the first vintage. "I am an engineer of telecommunications training and I tried it, that wine thing. I still try."

Today I'll tell you a pairing that will surprise you. This ancestral wine can go wonderfully with Chinese food. Yes! "My importer in Japan tells me that this is because Xarel lo has umami. The salinity, but also the caramel of the toasted notes." Open, enjoy, invite, with all the joy, without transcendence or suffering. Chinese food and this ancestral wine to share with a group of young people, let's see what they say. Enjoy!

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