A Catalan coastal variety documented since the eighteenth century — along the Alella shore it goes by Pansa Blanca — Xarel·lo is the backbone of cava. Within the classic trio it is the structured one: faintly bitter, earthy, marked by fennel, green pear and a saline touch, where Macabeo brings apple and Parellada brings blossom.
It is also the one that ages. Xarel·lo's unusually high levels of antioxidant compounds let its wines endure years on the lees without fading, which made it the darling of the long-aged gran reserva cavas and of the Corpinnat estates that have staked Catalan sparkling wine's claim to seriousness on it. Increasingly it is bottled alone as a still white — bitter-edged, mineral and firmly of its limestone coast.