Case of Aucalà Blanco 2023 | $33.00 per bottle

Aucalà Blanco 2023 | D.O. Terra Alta, Catalonia Producer: Serra i Barceló · Winemaker: Josep Serra Region: Aucalà, between Gandesa and Bot — D.O. Terra Alta, Catalonia, Spain Grape: 100% Garnatxa Blanca (White Grenache) Ageing: 8 months in stainless steel on its fine lees, mixed with lees from previous vintages $33.00 bottle | $396.00 case of 12 The Vibe White Garnacha has spent a century as an anchor in Catalan whites, the supporting act in the Rhône. Terra Alta holds roughly a third of the world's plantings and has quietly been proving the grape can stand alone. This is that argument at everyday price: no oak, no tricks, just the grape, the limestone, and eight months of patience on the lees. The Taste Almond blossom and white orchard fruit, with dried Mediterranean herbs and a chalky mineral thread running underneath. The lees give it weight without softening it — ample and rounded across the palate but very fresh through the middle, finishing clean and refined with the light bitter twist that is white Garnacha's signature. More texture than most whites at this price know what to do with. Best Enjoyed With Serve at 8–10°C. Grilled vegetables, anchovies, tortilla, roast chicken, hard cheeses, anything off a plancha. Genuinely good on its own, but it comes alive next to food with salt and fat. The Story Josep Serra is a fourth-generation grower from the Ribera d'Ebre. He spent twenty years running the technical side of other people's wineries, bought three hectares of very old vines in upper Capçanes (Montsant) in 2001, and founded the family label Serra i Barceló in 2009. Terra Alta followed in 2013 — nine hectares on limestone, clay and quaternary fossil dune in the Aucalà partida, farmed with minimal intervention using the estate's own native microbiota. Serra is also the advising winemaker at Vinyes del Terrer in Tarragona. See his other wines. Across the Range The Blanco and the Aucalà Cuvée are the same grape from the same limestone — what separates them is time and vessel. The Blanco spends 8 months in stainless steel; the Cuvée spends 30 months in cocciopesto clay amphorae. Both are built on the same perpetual-lees method, each vintage fed with the lees of the ones before it. Think of the Blanco as the weeknight version of an idea the Cuvée takes to its conclusion. Shipping & Delivery For details on shipping times and costs, please visit our Shipping & Delivery page.