Element Pictures Birthday

A pink gold blush in the glass, this has a gorgeous nose of berry tea, rhubarb, citrus, and alexander seed. The light bubbles and gentle grip of minerality heighten the sapidity here, lifting the fruit volume and leaving us with a citrus flecked, saline finish.

All the bunches went straight to the press, before fermentation and ageing in concrete. Refermentation in bottle was with must from the same grapes, aged on lees for 12 months before disgorging.

Valsamoggia sits at the heart of Colli Bolognesi Pignoletto, the main sparkling DOCG in the area, which requires Pignoletto's use as a base for its frizzante and spumante wines. This frizzante, with its lambent haze and bold character, draws on an older tradition of gently sparkling wines that goes back centuries if not millennia.

The choice of varieties is inherent to the balance of Jacopo and Flavio’s wines, with the freshness of Pignoletto, the acidity of Barbera and Trebbiano Modenese, the body and grip of Montuni, and Lambrusco Grasparossa firming up the wine's structure and contributing length.

A lambent haze in the glass, with the colour showing some signs of ageing in bottle. We get a bright, zesty minerality on the nose, followed by fleshy white fruits and biscuit crumb. The palate is substantial, with the acidity of Xarello keeping things fresh and flowing. Great as an apero or with food.

This cuvée is closest to Ferran's heart, it being bubbles from old vine Xarello made in the ancestral method, a wine that channels so much of Catalunya's wine tradition, past and present. The harvested bunches were pressed without destemming or vatting. A month after picking, the wine was bottled in September 2022 with 23.4 grams of sugar remaining. The wine fermented and aged in bottle, completing malolactic, and was disgorged in October 2025.

These vines were planted in the late 60s in the La Creu plot, over 1.45 hectares, trained in gobelet. This particular parcel sits between 300m and 350m of elevation, and the soils are thin clay and limestone. The age of these vines and the thin soils they grow on mean they produce small quantities of rich and concentrated fruit per vine, picked a little earlier than other parcels by Ferran, bolstering the acidity of the resulting wine. For Ferran, this ancestral is his attempt to show that Penedès is more than just cava, and that when working with the old Xarello plantings of the alt-Penedès, this ancient method can produce top class sparkling wine.

This is now singing, with the primary cherry character developing a peppery, earthy complexity. The bubbles remain, keeping this bright and vital.

Syrah from Vinya la Francesca, planted in 1987. Pressed gently, giving a bold cherry blush, before fermentation in old oak with indigenous yeasts. Rosemary honey from the estate’s apiary was used for secondary fermentation in bottle. 25 months on the lees before disgorgement with zero dosage.

Despite this vintage being widely described as the worst in Catalunya since the 1940s at the time, the fruit was harvested in pristine condition from Vinya la Francesca, the site where this grows. On anything other than limestone, Syrah in these hot conditions could never achieve the detailed structure and elegant expression we find here.

These old vines show a remarkably fresh expression of Macabeu, with radiant minerality, zesty acidity, and appetising drinking flow.

Macabeu from vines approximately 80 years old. Direct press of the bunches, fermentation was in steel. The wine was racked after malolactic fermentation, and aged in steel until bottling the following April.

Black fruits on the nose with a flicker of chlorophyllic, peppery spice. Vital and lively on the palate, balanced by the concentration of syrah from this low yielding vintage.

A 50/50 blend of the two varieties, with 8 days of fermenting on skins. The majority is bled into amphora, with a portion ageing in steel. They were blended back together a month before bottling.

From two parcels, La Cova and La Come’n Gloria, planted in 2012 and 2013. The soils are limestone, one parcel facing east at 400 metres elevation, the other facing west at 600 metres elevation. The yields average at about 25hl/ha for the 2023 vintage, reflecting the third year of drought in these mountains.

Bold aromatics of quinine, lemon curd, and spice, we find a cavernous minerality on the palate, with the acidity well integrated and the citrus and floral character of old-vine Riesling on limestone.

One hundred percent Riesling, forty percent from Grand Cru Eichberg, vines around sixty years old on argilo-calcaire soils at around 350 metres. Three days of whole-cluster maceration before pressing, not enough to produce orange-wine colour, but some texture, then eleven months on the fine lees in old barriques.

Follow the routes de vins d’Alsace south from Colmar, through Eguisheim, and then you’ll find Husseren-les-Châteaux in your sights. Its commanding hillside position sits at the foot of the Stauffen massif, below the three hilltop castles for which the village is named. This position is significant, these are the highest vineyards in Alsace, at about 350masl, with views all the way across to the Black forest on a clear day. The village is today home to a thriving and progressive winemaking movement. The microclimate here distinguishes the villages wines from elsewhere in Alsace, particularly the Pinot Noir which is well suited to the cooler nights of these elevated hillsides. The limestone of Eichberg shines in Pierre’s wines, bringing a chiselled detail and fine structure that keeps the fruit feeling fresh.

Spectacular Gamay from a steep half hectare of ancient vines on pink granite in Marchampt.

From a solar vintage, a thread of granite minerality has found its voice after 5 years in bottle. A true taste of history.

Macerating in whole bunches for 5 days, the juice was then pressed into 2 clay 160L eggs to age over winter sur lie.

Nestled deep in the western hills of the Beaujolais vert, these vines from this 0.5 hectare parcel were planted in 1952 by the ampélothèque that preceded the Alonsos’ arrival. The soils are quite literally solid, pink granite bedrock, with a thin layer of humus, wild shrubs and grasses growing between the vines. The parcel is steep, growing in low trained gobelet, indeed you can barely distinguish the plants from the vines in the height of summer. We’re at about 450masl here too, protected from harsh winds by the biotope across the valley. The varieties tell a rich history of viticulture in the region, with noir a jus blanc Gamay present in several distinct clones, the teinturier Gamay vines - Gamay de Bouze from the Cote d’Or, Gamay de Chaudenay from Saone et Loire, and Gamay Fréaux, with the even more obscure Gamay de Troye also growing here. We also find Gamay Gloriod, Picard, Geoffray (which is grown widely today in the production of quality Gamay), Cibella, Direct, Malain, Ancenis, Piccolo, Figuette, and Plant-Robert, a variety identified as a distinct mutation of Gamay growing in Vaud soils in Lavaux, Switzerland. The clay eggs for which the cuvée is named stand upright in gravel in the cellar.

These old vines show a remarkably fresh expression of Macabeu, with radiant minerality, zesty acidity, and appetising drinking flow.

Macabeu from vines approximately 80 years old. Direct press of the bunches, fermentation was in steel. The wine was racked after malolactic fermentation, and aged in steel until bottling the following April.

Black fruits on the nose with a flicker of chlorophyllic, peppery spice. Vital and lively on the palate, balanced by the concentration of syrah from this low yielding vintage.

A 50/50 blend of the two varieties, with 8 days of fermenting on skins. The majority is bled into amphora, with a portion ageing in steel. They were blended back together a month before bottling.

From two parcels, La Cova and La Come’n Gloria, planted in 2012 and 2013. The soils are limestone, one parcel facing east at 400 metres elevation, the other facing west at 600 metres elevation. The yields average at about 25hl/ha for the 2023 vintage, reflecting the third year of drought in these mountains.

All the saline, citrus flecked, herbal aromas of Parellada, with crisp white fruits. In the mouth the bubbles are fine and well integrated, with fine acidity, and a hint of fleshy white fruits. Bright and satisfying.

From 14 year old vines planted at 425 metres of elevation in Blancafort, on alluvial marls and limestone. A brief skin maceration before fermenting in tank, finishing its sugars in the can to create these bubbles.

The combination of Macabeu and Parellada, grown up in the mountains on limestone, strikes a wonderful balance. The herbal freshness of Parellada and the fleshy fruit density of Macabeu bring a feeling of harmony to this wine. This is the northern edge of the Conca de Barberà DO, on the eastern Ebro basin, where alluvial deposits from fresh water laid these soils. So this is not marine limestone, but continental carbonate from the lake floor, formed after the Ebro basin was cut off from the sea.

Blood orange, hibiscus, and red berries. Fine bubbles, with crunchy fruits and refreshing salinity. Cristina describes this as 'Llaminer', which has no direct translation from Catalan, but means something like ‘moreish’.

Trepat from Solivella, at about 480 metres of elevation, on highly alkaline red and white clays. There’s a brief maceration before bleeding off to tank. The wine finishes its sugars in can, so an ancestral style bubbles.

Solivella is on the northern fringes of Conca de Barberà, well inland of the Mediterranean. The soils here are similar to those in Blancafort, poor, highly alkaline clays and limestone. The growing appreciation for still reds made from Trepat is a departure from the tradition, which was to use it for rosat or rosé sparkling wines, as we find here...