2022 Fuente Guijarro Membrilla

REGION: Andalucia, SP
SIZE: 750ml / ABV: 7%

Apple and quince grown on schist and mica, washed in local source water, with a single fermentation completed in bottle, resulting in sparkling cider. Rigorous removal of lees during ferment prior to bottling always yields a very pure expression of fruit.

Manuel Moreno and Sara Bertani farm ancient Spanish apples and make cider from their base high in the Sierra Nevada in Spain's southern region of Andalucia.

The highest cellar in Europe, the property is at high enough altitude to see across to Morocco on a clear day, and the diurnal temperature shifts are drastic as a result. But despite the altitude and luminosity, the ciders are not characterised by intense concentration. Rather, and somewhat surprisingly, they are delicate, intricate and hydrating. 

This hydrating, almost water-like character is more often than not found in white wines grown in schist and quartz soils — a roundness and suppleness that we don't really associate with limestone, for example. And as much as we've seen this quite gorgeous character in schist-based white wines, we've never seen it more so than in the exquisite ciders of Fuente Guijarro. The soils here are made up of fine, friable sheets of schist and mica and to look at they resemble in many ways the soils found in Valais and Corbieres.