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Xumeu Vinya - Brut Rosé

Vine Grower’s Sparkling Wine

Made and bottled in a traditional way by the vine grower Antonio Marí Prats. The winemaking process has been carried out entirely at the country estate of Can Xumeu Vinya, following the traditional method of a secondary fermentation in the bottle, aged in horizontal storage for more than 30 months.

A Brut Nature completely dry, to which no sugar or liqueur d’expédition is added.

Long process of aging in horizontal storage for at least 30 months.

We recommend tasting it at a temperature between 6 and 8ºC.

86% Monastrell · 14%Syrah

Rose gold colour with a pale tone.Clean and bright.

The aroma of red fruits, pastry, toasted bread and roasted nuts reaches the nose.

The taste is creamy, complex, balanced and lasting.

It has a fine, well integrated bubble, of slow evolution and high persistence as a result of its long aging.

Its profile is essentially gastronomic and it combines perfectly with rice, fish, seafood, poultry, cheese and Iberian ham.


Can Xumeu Vinya

Since ancient times, in the rural areas of Ibiza, each family “belongs” to a family house, and not the other way around. All family members, along with their names and last names (which are simply a legal requirement), take the name of their house.In our case, we are “from” Can XumeuVinya.“Can” means “house of”, while “Xumeu” is the Ibiza’s language variant of the name “Bartomeu”, and “Vinya” means “vineyard”. Therefore, our family is from Xumeu’s house. But which Xumeu? Well, the vineyard owner. In the past, all Ibiza peasant houses were virtually self-sufficient. And what was not produced by its own, was bartered with the neighbours.

At our house, wine has always been made. The “pagès” or peasant winemaking process has passed from one generation to another.

The Vine Grower

After inheriting the family winemaking method, Antonio Marí Prats, or according to the “peasant” designation, Toni Xumeu Vinya, wondered why every year the result was if the same winemaking process was always followed. He searched in the books how to make wine in a technically acceptable way. And once he gained the most rudimentary knowledge about it, he wanted to study deeply the winemaking techniques. To do this, he studied for three years at the School of Viticulture and Enology of Requena in the region of Valencia. As the school is located in a cava-making region, the education he received was basically oriented towards making this type of sparkling wine. At that time the dream of making the best sparkling wine that could be made on his home island Ibiza was born.

The Vineyard

To carry out this project, the cultivation of the country estate called “Es Cap Roig d’en Xumeu Vinya” was recovered, which the family had formerly used for cereal farming and which was abandoned at that time. The estate is located at the western end of the municipality of Sant Josep de sa Talaia, in the western area of the island of Ibiza. The vineyard is mainly made up of very calcareous soil terraces, sandy terraces, and slopes of limestone and sand. It is located at the edge of the sea, at 180 meters high, on a cliff, on the side of a mountain facing south-east, which allows grapevines to receive the adequate sunlight exposure while maintaining the freshness coming from the sea breeze —two benefits of the Mediterranean climate.

In 2011 and 2012 three hectares of vineyards were planted with the help of family members and friends. The grape varieties we planted are —in addition to the local Monastrell and Malvasía— the Mediterranean Macabeo, Moscatell, Parellada and Sirah, and the Chardonnay of French origin.

The combination of soil, grape varieties and climate is what we known in Spanish as “terruño” (terroir) and its expression is what we try to reflect in our wines, carrying out traditional cultural practices, which are quality friendly and environmentally friendly.

Viticulture

The training system used is the head-trained system, a type of free standing system, because it allows us to obtain healthier and more balanced grapes given our climatic conditions, since the bunch can receive a good air ventilation without being too exposed to sunlight exposure, which is absorbed by the leaves forming a natural “parasol”. 

We work the land following the principles of the organic viticulture, which is none other than the way our ancestors worked it throughout their lives.

We do not apply herbicides or synthetic pesticides and we use natural resources with the main objective of preserving the balance of the natural environment. The maintenance of spontaneous cover crops also helps us obtain spongy soils that enable the existence of other plants, animals and insects, and to obtain better drainage of water, as well as to avoid soil erosion caused by runoff due to the steep sloping land.

We perform manually all the actions in the vine stock, from the pruning to the grape harvest, trying to intervene as little as possible.

Sparkling Wine

Sparkling wine is the generic name given to all wines that have more than 3 atmospheres of pressure produced by the carbon dioxide gas (CO2) that comes from the same wine. This carbon dioxide can be obtained in several ways. The traditional, classic or champenoise method, which is basically the same, and consists of a secondary fermentation in the wine bottle (called prise de mousse which means “capturing the sparkle” or “setting the foam”), is the method used to make great sparkling wines such as cava or champagne.

The Vine Grower’s Sparkling Wine

Under this denomination, we present a sparkling wine that has been made by the vine grower himself, from planting and taking care of the vineyard to processing, aging and commercializing each harvest.

For that purpose we have spoiled the vineyard following the principles of a viticulture that puts the final quality of the grape before the productivity per hectare, seeking to make a “wine with soul”, a wine that honestly expresses the characteristics of our terroir, according to the influence of the climate in each vintage year. We take care of the cultivation of the vines, we make and bottle the wine using our own grapes, in a traditional way, entirely in our house Can Xumeu Vinya and, after a long aging, we also directly commercialize our small-scale production.

        

Traditional Method

Through this method of making sparkling wine, the wine undergoes a second fermentation and then the aging of the wine takes place in the same bottle that will finally reach the consumer's hands. This process consists of several stages:

1st stage: Making the base wine.

  • Classic vinification: When the grapes reach an optimum level of ripeness, also trying to achieve some acidity that gives the wine a long life and freshness, the grapes are harvested manually and placed in crates, each holding 15 kg. We gently crush the whole cluster of grapes in a small pneumatic press until reaching a 50% yield with which we obtain a first quality clean must. The resulting light pink colour of the must is generated by the maceration of the skins during pressing. In this way, the berries release part of the colouring substances found in the skins into the must. After finishing the pressing, the must is decanted for its settling by a cold treatment and it is left to ferment in temperature-controlled, stainless-steel tanks.

  • Coupage: The “coupage” is the process where different wines from different grape varieties, different vineyard plots and even different vintages are blended together in order to create a base wine with the structure (character) and typicity (personality) that enables, through aging, achieving the elegance and complexity that we seek in great sparkling wines.

2nd stage: Transforming the base (still) wine into sparkling wine and its aging on lees.

  • Tiraje: Addition of sugar, selected yeasts, and clarifier (bentonite, fine natural clay) to the base wine. Then the base wine is bottled and capped with a metallic crown cap closure, capable of withstanding pressure.

  • Prise de mousse: The secondary fermentation is carried out in the bottle. The yeasts transform sugar into alcohol, releasing natural carbon dioxide gas, as occurs in any fermentation process. The difference is that, in this case, the gas will stay trapped inside the bottle, gradually integrating itself into the wine during its aging. And this is how the bubbles of sparkling wines are born by the traditional method.

  • Aging on lees: Once the second fermentation in the bottle is finished, the yeasts break down by autolysis and begin their interaction with the sparkling wine. The yeast remnants after fermentation are called lees. They are also known by the name of “mother” in Spanish, for being the ones who bring up the wine. In this case we could say that the “father” is the time necessary for the aging to occur. The bottles are left to rest horizontally and in rhyme (horizontal storage), so the contact surface of the lees with the wine is as large as possible. The aging process takes place in the darkness and peace of the cellar. Aging, in sparkling wine as well as in people, is what makes it possible for a newborn wine, with sparkle, joy and freshness, only through time and in contact with the lees, to refine its character and its personality until it achieves elegantly the balance, fullness and complexity of a mature wine. During the aging three aspects are verified:

  • - The evolution of primary aromas from green fruit to ripe fruit.

    - The greater integration of carbon dioxide, which reduces the feeling of acidity and increases the feeling of creaminess.

    - The creation of wine bouquet and the appearance of toasted nuts, toasted bread and pastry aromas.

    Our sparkling wine has a minimum aging in horizontal storage (in rhymes) of 30 months, which is equivalent to the aging of a “Gran Reserva” in the areas where cava is made.


3st stage: Expedition.

  • Riddling and Clarification: Once the aging is finished, in order to get a “clean” sparkling wine, it is necessary to separate the lees of the aging (remains of yeasts) so that they do not make the wine cloudy. This is achieved by decanting the lees down into the neck of the bottle, while putting the bottle in A-frame wooden rack called “pupitre” until it is “on point”, that is, with the neck down. In that way, the sediment of the yeast is collected in the neck of the bottle, ready for the disgorging.

  • Disgorging: expulsion of yeasts with the aim of obtaining a perfectly clean wine. When the crown cap is removed, the pressure inside the bottle makes the aging lees to be expelled. The disgorging is performed manually, and each of the bottles is smelled to detect any final irregularity and the visual clarity of the sparkling wine is checked. The small amount of liquid lost due to the high pressure at the time of the disgorging is replaced using another bottle of the same wine. So that the wine can express rigorously the character of the terroir we do not add expedition liquor, therefore, the sparkling wine is a “brut nature”. A completely dry sparkling wine, to which no sugar or liqueur d’expédition is added.

  • Corking, wire hooding and labelling: After the disgorging, we close the bottle of wine with a natural cork, we tie it to the neck of the bottle using a wire hood, we put a foil capsule over the cork and wire hood and finally we add the labels to the bottle. From then on our sparkling wine is ready to make us enjoy.

Cheers!

Contact

Direct sales in winery. We also offer home delivery service.

Antonio Marí Prats  |  Can Xumeu Vinya

BCP Can Xic Nº 7
Sant Josep de sa Talaia
07830 Ibiza. I. Baleares