Xarel-lo - Blanc Catalan

The WHAAAAT?! I bet lots of you think I’m making this one up, or maybe you’re mumbling to yourselves that you didn’t realize that there were any vineyards on Mars, but I assure you that this IS the name of a real grape variety…

Let’s get the pronunciation out of the way first - the name is pronounced “Charrel LO”, and the grape is native to Catalonia (the Alella [where the vine is known as Pansa Blanca] and Penedes regions especially) in northeastern Spain, and not surprisingly, the name is Catalan too. It is a white-skinned variety.

If anyone has had any contact with this grape in any form, it would be via Catalonia’s super-value, champagne-method sparkler, Cava. Along with Xarel-lo, Cava most often includes two other native Catalan/Spanish varieties, namely Parellada and and Macabeu, which is none other than the more familiarly named Viura, Rioja’s workhorse white variety.

Xarel-lo is a strapping lad (or lass). It is both highly vigorous (lots of foliage), and highly productive (lots of fruit), so to get the best from it, growers have to prune back both the leaves to expose the fruit to more sun (but too much leaf-thinning is dangerous in the blazing Catalan sun), as well as a fair amount of green harvesting (cutting off unripe bunches to intensify a vine’s fruit production). Another of Xarel-lo’s pecadillos is its almost freakishly early bud-break date, which can put an entire crop in jeopardy if the season’s Spring is particularly cold.

In the glass, Xarel-lo usually shows good weight and body, but with a balancing acidity that helps the grape avoid flabbiness. The flavor/aroma profile of Xarel-lo skews toward notes of peach, apricot, almond, and a certain dried wildflowers/dried grass quality.

Xarel-lo wines pair well with poultry and richer, white-fleshed dishes, especially ones prepared with herbs and/or cream sauces.

As I began the piece, varietally bottled Xarel-lo is not a common bottle to turn up, but more and more producers are bottling it still (not sparkling) and unblended, like the one below…As always, if you grab a bottle of this (or any other!) Xarel-lo, please post your tasting notes here…

TOM CIOCCO

Xarel-lo…HOOTCHIE, COOTCHIE!!!