Recaredo, Particular Brut Nature Reserva, Cava 2011 - 75cl

Recaredo disgorge by hand. No frozen neck, no crown cap — every bottle sleeps under a natural cork, and the cellar master flicks the sediment out with a wrist movement that takes years to learn. Doing that to a wine with the better part of a decade on its lees is either madness or faith.

At Sant Sadurní d'Anoia the family were the first in the region to take Demeter certification, back in 2010, farming calcareous ground along the Bitlles. Particular comes from their oldest holdings, Xarel·lo and Macabeu planted between 1950 and 1955, fermented partly in oak barrel and partly in steel, then left alone for at least eight years before disgorgement. One thing worth knowing about the label: Recaredo walked out of DO Cava in February 2019 with the other Corpinnat founders, so releases from that point carry Corpinnat rather than Cava. Whatever the bottle in front of you says, it has never been a Cava de Paraje Calificat — that designation belongs to their single-vineyard Turó d'en Mota and Serral del Vell.

Zero dosage, and you feel it. Dried apricot and toasted hazelnut first, then something saline sitting underneath. The years on lees have taken the fizz down to a soft prickle rather than a foam. It drinks like a mature white wine that happens to have bubbles. Bone dry. Very long.

How to Serve

10°C, in a white-wine glass — a flute strangles it. The estate suggest opening the bottle a few minutes before you pour, and they're right. If it has been lying down a while, stand it up for a day first.

Where to Drink It

Planque in Haggerston, where the cellar rewards a bottle like this. Brat in Shoreditch — the wood-fired turbot was made for it. Dandy on Maltby Street, for something looser and later.

Food Pairings

Roast chicken. Not the obvious answer, but the nutty, faintly oxidative edge that comes from all that lees ageing sits beautifully against browned skin and pan juices, and the absence of dosage keeps everything taut. Grilled prawns with too much garlic also work.