“A great vintage!!” - Enric Soler on the 2021 harvest.

If the export manager of a particular winery tells us that the latest release is the best vintage yet, it tends to go in one ear and out the other, but if Enric Soler tell us that “2021 is a great vintage!!” (with 2 exclamation marks), then it goes in one ear and it stays there.

Enric is something of a legend within the Catalonian wine scene, having established the Barcelona Wine Academy in the 1990s, where winemakers from all over Catalonia would show up to share ideas and seek advice. As well as this, he also worked in some of Spain's top restaurants and was crowned Spain's 'champion sommelier' in 1997. He then turned his hand to winemaking in 2004 after his grandfather passed away, leaving him the vineyards he had planted in 1945, and Enric now farms them organically and biodynamically, focusing on just one grape variety, Xarello. When we told another Catalonian winemaker that we were Enric’s UK importer, he was mightily impressed, which he thought best to illustrate by showing us a photograph of his dog, a dachshund, called Enric.

Enric's Xarello ‘Improvisacio’ 2021 is a fabulous rendition of this often-underrated variety and it plays like a clean guitar chord with no clumsy fingers muffling the strings, instead pressing down firmly on the frets: acidity, ripeness, concentration, varietal expression and length. Cool stone fruits, sinewy citrus and stony minerality feature subtly on the palate of this super stylish white. If you need a thumbnail sketch, imagine a Chablis made from Albariño; cool, incisive, electric. The grapes were sourced from an organically-farmed 1.3 hectare vineyard with vines between 45 and 65 years of age. It was fermented and aged for 8 months in Stockinger barrels and concrete eggs and only indigenous yeasts were used. If you like the ‘Louro’ Godello by Rafael Palacios, then this will be right in your wheelhouse. Whatever that means. 5,050 bottles produced. 12.5% alc. Drink now-2030.

Biodynamic/Organic.

Press reviews:

Decanter: “Toasted oak, white grapefruit and blood orange, with fresh almonds, pickled walnuts and hazelnut shells. Juicy apple, pear and pink peach fruit with wild fennel and oregano nuances. Long finish with preserved lemon and verbena. Drink now-2035.” 93 points

Jancis Robinson.com (Tamlyn Currin): “At first a little smoky, then like licking the teeth of winter on a morning when the sun rises white and white-breathed and veiled behind a brittle-veined etch of grey-bone-sketched branches against a cold-pearl sky. A mineral wine, if minerals are river-stone pebbles roil-rolled smooth by decades of mountain-fern-drenched headwaters. A mineral wine, if minerals are the crystals of citrine chiselled from lemons petrified in smoky quartz. If you leave it long enough to warm in the glass, you'll find a little kiss of apricot. Pair with a kick-ass attitude, dawn and bare feet on cold stones. Drink now-2032.” 17.5 points

Customer reviews:

”I had a bottle last night - absolutely delicious!!” - Mr. M. G

“Absolutely fantastic.” - Mr S.C.