Alejandro Muchada’s journey into wine began after working several vintages in Champagne with revolutionary grower-producer David Léclapart. Taken with David’s personality and his eyes opened by the approach to viticulture, Léclapart recognised the similarities between the bright albariza soils of southern Spain and the chalk of Champagne. Now, from a small rented winery in Sanlúcar’s Barrio Alto, they seek to capture the purest expression possible of grape and terroir with minimal intervention, and organic and biodynamics principles.
Vinifying only grapes from their own vineyards, they are currently in the three year transition period to organic certification, following biodynamic agriculture in all plots. All wines are made in a similar way: harvested from 6am to 10am, collected in 50kg plastic boxes then immediately pressed with a horizontal Vaslin press of 4000kg using pressing champenoise programme. The must is sulphited at 3-5g/hl, racked during the night and moved to where it will ferment spontaneously, remaining on lees until bottling after nine months, without clarifying or filtering. No temperature control is used for the fermentations, only air conditioning units that maintain a cool haven from the heat of Sanlúcar inside the bodega, keeping the fermentations at between 18°C to 20°C.
