Partida Creus ‘SP’

Partida Creus ‘SP’ – the perfect substitute for one’s first shot of espresso; a gong’s vibrations, liquefied and bottled. This near-extinct varietal assaults the senses with such a commanding freshness, one could believe that it was only transferred from barrel yesterday. Subirate Parent, once knocking on death’s door, was renewed with wondrous life and now seeks to permanently quench one’s thirst. Bursting forth with aggressive excitability are an equilibrious myriad of cleansing aromas. Leading the charge are jowl-biting notes of lime and lemon peel, followed hastily by a punch of sweet grapefruit. Plush textural tones of creme fraiche and black tea solidify this wine in memory. Finally, a windshield-wiper of minerality cleanses the palette and prepares one for the inevitable next sip.

The Partida Creus project has been a labour of sustainable love since 2007 for Italian architects Antonella Gerosa and Massimo Marchiori. Having uprooted their lives in Piedmont, they sought agricultural solace in Bonastre, a whistle-stop village in the Baix Penedés region. The initiative was spearheaded by ecological yearnings from the outset; they renovated a dilapidated farmhouse with recycled materials, purchased vineyards that were almost, if not fully abandoned and began working towards reintegrating forgotten varietals into the viticultural zeitgeist. Some of these autochthonous varieties had been disqualified from the D.O altogether, most were verging on complete obsolescence. This was not solely a wine-making operation but a restoration of regional history, yielded by tradition and happy soils.

Partida Creus ‘SP’ – a graceful two-step of racy, if not somewhat volatile, acidity and lavish freshness. A stunningly energetic and crisply textured light-bodied white that will come close to pouring itself. Partida Creus succeed in expressing the astonishing uniqueness of this region’s autochthonous grapes.