Can Sumoi Xarel·lo 2025
£19.95
The wine
Complex and textured, with aniseed and Mediterranean herb. A refreshing finish with bright acidity.
Xarel·lo is one of the three traditional Cava grapes and the one with enough structure to make a serious still white, which almost nobody attempts. Can Sumoi farm certified organic vineyards high in the Serra de L Home in Baix Penedès, at altitudes that keep the acidity a warm Catalan summer would otherwise strip out of the fruit.
The producer
Can Sumoi
View all Can Sumoi winesHigh in the Serra de l'Home, in the wild hills of the Montmell above the Penedès, Can Sumoi farms vines at up to six hundred metres. This is old, remote country, and the wines carry its imprint: fresh, light-footed and vividly alive.
The estate was revived by Pepe Raventós, of the family that first made Cava, as a return to a simpler way of working. Everything here is organic and low-intervention, the fruit fermented with wild yeasts in amphora and old wood, nothing added and little taken away.
The focus is on native Catalan varieties, Xarel·lo, Parellada, Sumoll and Garnatxa, coaxed into wines of real transparency. There are crisp whites, a pale rosé, a gentle red and traditional-method and ancestral sparklers, all made to be drunk with pleasure rather than pondered.
Honest, mountain-fresh and full of character, these are natural wines in the best sense. Pour them well chilled, share them freely, and taste a corner of the Penedès few ever see.
