2023 Cisteller "Lucidity" Corpinnat Brut Nature, Penedès

Cisteller is a young family estate founded in 2022 by Jessica Madigan and Sergi Canals, who met while studying together at UC Davis before returning to Sergi's family land, the Sot estate in the Ordal Mountains of Penedès. The couple was the 13th winery admitted into Corpinnat, the elite collective of traditional-method sparkling producers formed in 2018 to uphold the strictest quality standards in Catalan sparkling wine, well beyond standard Cava rules. All of Cisteller's vineyards are rain-fed, certified organic, and planted on marine-origin soils over deep limestone with a thin layer of calcareous clay. Lucidity, one of the estate's two debut cuvées, is a blend of Xarel·lo and Macabeo hand-harvested from these mountain vineyards, with each plot vinified separately before blending. In a notable departure from the Penedès norm of early picking for freshness, Cisteller leans into slightly later ripening to build additional complexity and depth. The wine is made in the traditional method and aged on its lees for an extended 18 to 24 months, then disgorged in the bone-dry Brut Nature style, with the estate's low, self-imposed yields (as little as 1.5-4 tons per hectare) concentrating character in the final wine. Expect a fresh, expressive nose of ripe lemon and grapefruit, layered with refined yeasty, brioche-like notes and white flowers. The palate shows a creamy texture reminiscent of oyster shell, a fine, persistent mousse, and delicate chalky minerality, all wrapped around real structure and complexity for the price point. It's been described as the perfect introduction to the estate's philosophy, bone-dry, full-bodied, and terroir-driven.