November 1979. In a remote farmhouse in Orís (Osona), a 27-year-old young man, who became a sheep herder after giving up the comforts that his family in Barcelona offers him, discovers something that will change his life.
Bubbles!
The surprise has been huge: upon uncorking a wine that he made two months ago, Carles, better known as Carriel, observed a foaming overflow.
Carriel tastes the wine with curiosity.
It's fresh, fruity and sparkling!
And since it is good, he shares it with friends and neighbors;
and she reflects.
She probably bottled it before it had finished fermenting and the bubbles formed at the end of the process inside the bottle, as happens with champagne, but naturally.
“How fun and how well received it has been…” Carles said to himself after a few days, “Would you know how to reproduce the process?”
View of the main building of the Carriels dels Vilars winery, property of Carles Alonso.Kike Rincon
The above is a fiction based on real events.
But, more or less, that is how Carles Alonso discovered the ancestral method 45 years ago, a way of making sparkling wines that is on the rise and that many people point out as the last hope for young people to become interested in wine.
More information
Guide to understand what natural wines are, which ones to try and bars where you can drink them
The ancestral method, which gives rise to the so-called
pet-nat
- from the French,
pétillant naturel
, which means natural sparkling -, consists of starting the fermentation of a wine outside the bottle to finish it inside and, thus, trap the carbon dioxide. .
Unlike what happens with the production of champagne - in which the wine ferments completely the first time, it is bottled and, by adding sugars and yeasts, it ferments a second time in the bottle - the ancestral method does not require adding anything to the wine. liquid to form the desired bubbles.
Carles Alonso walks through his vineyards of native varieties such as Cariñena and Garnacha, located 200 m high in the Empordà region.
Kike Rincon
Today, Carles is a cult producer among people who love natural wines.
At 72 years old, he sports a white horseshoe mustache, a ring in each ear and receding hair.
Anyone would give him the lead role in a pirate or bandit casting, but after a while of conversation one comes to the conclusion that Carles cultivates a tough appearance to protect his tremendous sensitivity and the dignity that has led him to live as a Thoreau describes it in his
Walden
.
Since 1990 he has established his home in Els Vilars, a remote town, close to Espolla and nestled in the Albera Natural Park, north of the Ampurdán or on the southern slopes of the Pyrenees, depending on how you look at it.
His home and cellar lack glamor.
It is a set of rustic buildings, built with the same slate on which its vines grow and lined with cracks through which the rain, which, fortunately, is falling on the day we visited, sneaks in.
Several bottles of the natural wine that Carles Alonso makes in his winery. Kike Rincon
It took 30 years for someone to become interested in Carles' wines.
“One day in 2009, Roger Viusà walked through the door and told me 'I've come to tell you that you make the best sparkling wine in the world,'” says Carles, “I didn't take it seriously, I didn't know who he was, but he insisted and Well, the word spread.”
At that time, Roger Viusà was already a reference in his profession - Best Sommelier in the World 2008, Best Sommelier in Europe 2008, Best Sommelier in Spain 2007 - and today, he runs Plaça del Vi 7, a renowned natural wine bar in Girona .
From Viusà's epiphany, Cava producers, Champagne producers, still wine producers, and journalists and enthusiasts from all over the world began to pass through Mas Carriel dels Vilars.
Carles shared and disseminated the ancestral method like someone who makes cuttings, although he manifests himself with great modesty.
“4,000 or 5,000 years ago this was already done,” the winegrower rightly states, although it was he who disseminated the method as we know it today.
Carles Alonso, owner of the Carriels dels Vilars winery, talks about the ancestral way of making natural wines. Kike Rincon
Today sparkling wines made with the ancestral method are experiencing a very good moment.
For many wineries they are a strategic bet, because they believe that they will bring them closer to a segment of the public disconnected from wine.
“Yes, the ancestral one is very easy, people are no longer used to powerful, alcoholic wines… look at the importance that the
frizzante
has gained and that they add carbon dioxide to it,” confirms Carles Alonso.
Ancestral sparkling wines have low alcohol content - around 12 percent volume, normally, less - and usually share very recognizable primary aromas - floral and fruity -;
In addition, the bottles are usually covered with a cap, so it is easy to open them and drink them.
A bottle of sparkling white wine from the 2017 vintage on a tractor in Carles Alonso's winery.Kike Rincon
But these are not the only reasons that make the sector dream of having found the key to young consumers.
Furthermore, ancestral drinks compete at the same time of consumption as beer or other aperitif drinks - although there are all kinds of them and many can easily cover a meal.
Which ancestral sparkling wines should you start with?
To discover this type of bubbles, it is inevitable to recommend the Pétillant Blanc de Carriel dels Vilars, which Carles makes by mixing the triad of Cava grapes - Xarel lo, Macabeu and Parellada -, Chardonnay and Garnacha Blanca.
This wine varies greatly from one vintage to another, but maintains a common thread: Carles harvests the grapes at the optimal point of ripeness, something unusual in sparkling wines dominated by acidity.
Bottles stacked in Carles Alonso's winery.Kike Rincon
Carles himself recommends three other wines.
One is the Brut Nature from Alba Viticultores, made with Palomino Fino from Pago de Miraflores from San Luis.
Another is also made in Sanlúcar de Barrameda by the couple of producers that make up Bodega En Movimiento, and is called Bolli.
The third, from the Empordà winery Arché Pagès, is a Garnacha Tinta rosé, L' Efervescent.
There are 1,000 bottles of the first, 350 of the second and 1,198 of the last, and the wines of Carles are also rare to see, who is in the process of increasing its total production from 4,000 to 8,000 bottles, so below I am going to recommend more ancestral sparkling wines. easy to find.
Other recommendations from the author
Aus Pét-Nat, from the Celler de les Aus / Alta Alella winery, is a Pansa Blanca that is very easy to drink, festive and with notes of fennel and saline flavors.
It is one of the best wines to start trying out ancestral wines, because technically it is impeccable, it is delicious and, in addition, it has a very pretty image (it all adds up).
Adda, by Núria Renom, is fruity, with hints of pear and is made with Parellada, considered the silly cousin of Cava, but from which Núria knows how to get a lot of use.
He is a refreshing sparkling wine, with only 9% alcohol.
In Bierzo, Verónica Ortega makes Gloc, an ancestral rosé made with Mencía and Palomino, which in my eyes is a delicious rarity, with aromas of red fruits and a lot of delicacy.
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Outside of Spain, ancestral ones are also made, of course.
This Pet'Nat' from Hannes & Claudiu contains grapes as difficult to pronounce and easy to drink as Scheurebe-Müller Thurgau and Gewürztraminer, but it also has Riesling and a little Pinot gris.
This translates into a wine with marked acidity and very floral notes, which fill your mouth with a party.
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And finally, L'Enclòs de Peralba Pét-Nat.
It is made with Malvasía de Sitges, a very aromatic variety that awakens Mediterranean joy in me, but if I bring it up it is because this wine represents, for me, a generational change: it is the ancestor of Roc and Leo Gramona, heir to Gramona, one of the most prestigious wineries in Spain that produces sparkling wines according to the champenoise method.
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The ancestors turn 45, long live the new bubble!
Jordi Luque is a journalist, writer and communication consultant.
He has been writing about liquid and solid gastronomy since 2010, and is the author of Free wines: artisan wines, unique wines, wines without labels (Planeta Gastro, 2022), a book about natural wines, with which he has achieved recognition as Best of the World Gourmand Award 2023.
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