2001 Turo d'en Mota
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The big news (in terms of quality, not in terms of volume) is the release of the 2001 Enoteca Turó d'en Mota, from the family reserve they kept of the single-vineyard Xarel.lo they started producing in 1999. This range was born 25 years after that first harvest, taking the long aging in bottle with the lees even further. It has 12% alcohol, with a pH of 3.05 and 5.5 grams of acidity. This vintage was still note certified organic or biodynamic. 2001 was an atypical year, perhaps the finest to date; I can say that because I tasted all 25 vintages together. It has a very complex and subtle nose that is nuanced and with great complexity of aromas, a mixture of ash, toasted bread, yeasts and smoke from the extended contact of the wine with the lees, hints of mushrooms, diesel, moss and spice, a little balsamic twist (camphor), baked brioche... It has a laced palate with very fine bubbles that give it texture and freshness but are barely noticeable. It has incredible complexity and elegance, really breathtaking. Bravo!! Unfortunately, this is a very limited release of only 150 bottles: the total production of that vintage was 2,770 bottles; they did the normal release and are keeping a handful of bottles at the winery, but this is it. The bottle I tasted was disgorged in April 2024 after 263 months in bottle (21 years and 11 months!). They released the 1999 and now comes this 2001. For now, they are not releasing the 2000. It's closed with a spectacular natural cork, worthy of the best wine they have produced to date and, to me, the finest sparkling wine from Spain. Tasting all of the potential "Enoteca" years, the released wines, from 1999 to 2009, at a vertical of 25 years of Turó d'en Mota in October 2023, this was clearly my favorite, followed by the 2003.
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Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
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The 2001 Turo d’en Mota spent 130 months on its lees, and was disgorged in March 2013. This is a single- vineyard Cava from pure Xarello planted in 1940, and as all sparkling wines from Recaredo, it is from a single vintage and carries the Brut Nature label, meaning no expedition liqueur is added to the wine. Turo means small hill in Catalan, so the name means the small Mota hill. Only four vintages have been released so far, starting with 1999, and the 2001 was launched after 2002, as they thought the wine required longer bottle-aging. The nose is complex and elegant, showing the extended contact with the lees in notes of brioche, croissant and freshly-baked bread, slightly smoky, with green coffee, chalky notes, baked apples and a touch of petrol. All of it has a touch of elegant rusticity, which here I use in a positive way, that make it unmistakably Cava. To understand elegant rusticity, think of an upper-class British farmer, elegantly dressed in corduroy trousers and a tweed jacket. In the mouth the gas is less present than in younger sparkling wines, compact, well-integrated, with lively acidity and weight. Very dry. A very gastronomic wine that makes you salivate. It cries for food. Only 2,770 bottles were produced. Up there with the best sparkling wines of the world. Bravo! To me this is the best Turo d’en Mota yet. Drink now-2021. Recaredo is a very old Cava house, as they have been grape growers and wine producers since 1924, but they have come to the forefront of the quality leaders recently. They have worked very hard for that, especially when it comes to work in the vineyards and respect for nature and tradition. They only use grapes from their own vineyards in the Alt Penedes zone, which are worked organically and biodynamically (Demeter certified). All grapes are hand-harvested and vinified by them and the wines are aged sur lie with cork stoppers. They are disgorged by hand without resorting to freezing the neck after no less than 30 months in contact with the lees and regular hand turning of the bottles. No liqueur de expedition is added to any of the wines, they are all Brut Nature. All wines are produced from a single vintage. I’m not sure if there is any other sparkling wine producer in the world who works with such strict standards, but what is most impressive is that all that is certified for the wines produced in the last ten years! Congratulations to the Mata family and to winemaker Ton Mata for such achievement. There is a sense of energy and harmony in their wines that is impressive; they are all highly recommended. Prices for the top-bottling can be steep, but the regular Brut Nature is a bargain. Importer: Rosenthal Wine Merchant, Maspeth, NY; tel. (518) 207-9100, www.madrose.com