Llopart Vi-Brant, Penedès 2022

Llopart has restored and organically farm three terraces of the Xarel-lo Vermell grape, which they use to make ‘Vi-brant’. This rare, pink-skinned variety is a mutation of the native Penedès grape Xarel-lo. The mountain vineyard sits at almost 400 metres above sea level, where the high diurnal range allows the grapes to ripen slowly retaining freshness and developing aromatics. The vines in the Sobrecamí, Entrada and Barraca vineyards at Clos dels Costers are head-trained. This shady landscape is made up of Miocene marl soils, which are moderately deep, well drained and of medium textured clay loam. They present great biodiversity, with a moderate level of organic matter.

‘Vi-brant’ is a gently sparkling rosé with a second fermentation in bottle. The grapes were hand-harvested, destemmed, gently foot-crushed, and macerated at 8°C for four hours to impart a subtle pink hue without extracting phenolics, before a gentle press into stainless steel tanks. A Pied de Cuve was propagated separately with grapes from the same vineyard, and then used to bolster a smooth native yeast fermentation. The wine was transferred to bottle just before it fermented to dry, and completed fermentation in bottle, giving a gentle effervescence and a lower pressure than Traditional Method sparkling wines. The wine was aged on its lees for five months prior to disgorgement. There is no dosage, the bottles are topped up with wine.