Pardas, Polar Boar, Skin-Contact Xarel.lo, Catalunya, Spain (2022)

TASTING NOTES

The texture and aromatics have been beautifully deepened while retaining the quality and structure of Pardas' signature terroir, salty minerality and limestone freshness. An orange wine with a white wine character. Satsuma orange, Meyer lemon citrus, a touch of savoury herbal green-ness.

A collaboration between Spanish producer Pardas and Ontario import agent Cosecha! Polar Boar is a 100% skin contact (with a two-week maceration) Xarel-lo grown at the Can Comas estate, 200- 300 meters above sea level in the upper Penedès region, spanning the Riudebitlles Valley in Catalunya.

The Bitlles River which flows through the valley significantly influences the mountain relief, humidity, wind direction, and soil types of the estate, creating a complex microclimate that produces an incredible grape and wine. 

Ramon Parera and Jordi Arnan of Pardas are in the forefront of the varietal revolution happening in Penedès. When they took over an abandoned estate, Can Comas, in 1996, they used the opportunity to painstakingly revive, replant and regraft the existing vineyards over to forgotten and nearly extinct local grape varieties that had fallen into disuse during the internationalization of the wine industry in previous decades. The focus is primarily on Xarel-lo, Sumoll, and an increasing amount of Malvasia de Sitges, a grape Ramon calls the “Riesling of the Mediterranean”.