Bodega Clandestina
Ferran Lacruz farms 8 hectares of vines in Catalonia, in the small village of Sant Marti Sarroca, in the heart of the Penedès wine region. Ferran started this project with his first vintage of 2018. He works completely outside of any appellation, farms the grapes organically, and is not adding anything to any of the wines. All the grapes are hand-harvested, and nothing is filtered or fined. Ferran grew up in this part of Catalonia, and since being a small child was seduced by the landscape, natural beauty, and the important of wine producing in the culture. He studied tourism in college, which left him feeling unfulfilled. So, with a friend, he began to embark on the journey of becoming a winemaker, looking to produce clean natural wines that express his homeland with honesty.
Blanca Sense Papers — Back to the top
Age of Vines: 51 years
Varieties: Xarello
Vinification Method: Grapes are hand harvested at 3 different times as the individual bunches of fruit are ripe. The first harvest (65% of the total wine) is fermented in stainless steel and then aged in demijohn for 3-4 months. The second harvest (25% of the total wine) is quickly macerated on the skins before fermentation, then pressed to stainless steel for fermentation, then ages 3-4 moths in demijohn. The 3rd harvest (10% of the total wine) is macerated on the skins for 3 weeks during fermentation and then aged for 4 months in a 500 liter oak barrel. The 3 wines are then blended together and bottled, unfined, unfiltered, and with zero addition of sulfur.
Blanca Fugitu — Back to the top
The Fugitu (fugitive in Catalan) vineyard experiences a thermic inversion from day to night that results in cool breezes during the morning, producing wines with very lively acidity.
Age of Vines: 49 years
Varieties: Xarello
Vinification Method: Grapes are hand harvested and ferment in stainless steel tanks on the skins for 3 weeks. Ferran takes care that the skins are submerged the whole time so they do not oxygenate and to avoid extracting harsh tannins. The wine is bottled unfined, unfiltered, and with zero addition of sulfur.
Orange Censurat — Back to the top
Varieties: Carignan Blanc
Vinification Method: Grapes are hand harvested and destemmed. The grapes are pressed to stainless steel tanks and ferment with indigenous yeast in contact with the skins for two weeks. Manual punchdowns are performed once or twice a day another two weeks after fermentation finishes, still in contact with the skins, so 30 days total skin contact. The wine is then racked to 160 liter amphoras where it ages for 5 months. The wine is unfined, unfiltered and has zero addition of sulfur.
Ancestral Confiscat — Back to the top
This wine is made with grapes from the Fugitu vineyard.
Age of Vines: 49 years old
Varieties: Xarello
Vinification Method: Grapes are hand harvested and pressed to stainless steel tanks for fermentation. The wine is transferred to bottle just before fermentation is finished so it will finish fermentation in bottle in the ancestral (pet-nat) method. The wine is disgorged and is re-corked with zero addition of sulfur.
Blanc Malvat — Back to the top
This is a vinification of a small plot of Malvasia from a very high altitude.
Varieties: Malvasia
Vinification Method: Grapes are hand harvested macerate at cold temperatures for a short time before being pressed. The wine ferments in 3 54 liter demijohns and 1 160 liter amphora. After a long slow fermentation of over 1 month, the wine is racked off the gross lees and returned to demijohns to age for 5 months. The wine is bottled, unfined and unfiltered and with zero addition of sulfur.
El Soci — Back to the top
Winemaker’s note: “El Soci was born from the desire to bring wine closer to people who sometimes feel a certain fear of drinking it due to its “elite-like” status that often exists. This wine is the opposite of that– it wants to invite everyone to have a glass of
wine and just enjoy a good time with friends, partners, family etc, to remind us that wine is above all a partner for great moments in our lives.”
The label differs from Clandestina’s other labels to reflect that philosophy: “This wine basically wants to offer a big revitalizing energy, to be easy-drinking for these convivial moments, when the wine is not center of attention, but a small part of the casual conversation that we are sharing with our friends, giving harmony to that moment. In Catalan, we have a specific word for a person like that – the word is “Soci”, meaning something like “fellow colleague” or also “membership”. To share this easy-going idea also in a visual way, we opened the lock (closed on the other wines). As in: “don’t over-think, the lock is open, so enjoy!!”
In order to produce a refreshing, light wine, the winemaker Ferrán Lacruz chose the Macabeo variety and focused on showcasing the acidity that makes you long more of the wine after each sip, but also balancing it with 2nd later pick for phenolic ripeness and intensity of flavors.
Grape: Malvasia
Vineyards: Ruidemilans, limestone, 290m ALS, “so old we honestly don’t know the age”, Ferrán says (early pick); Munsarra, calcaric stony soil, 390m ALS, 30+ years olk, and Pla, limestone, 220m ALS, 25+ years old (both later pick)
Making of: the grapes from each vineyard were hand-harvested at different times in August, to get them at optimum ripeness. They are then directly pressed into the same stainless-steel tank where they fermented together with the vineyard’s indigenous yeast. After the alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, the wine rests in the same tank for about 5months and is bottled in the following spring. Unfined, unfiltered, 10ppm SO2 added at bottling, 15ppm total. (Ferrán usually doesn’t add any sulfur, but this particular wine in the 2022 vintage felt like a good idea to add a tiny bit in order to keep it in shape.)
Personality: Flowers and citric fruit mingling with minerality, electric in the mouth. Its freshness and lightness make it really perfect to drink at any occasion and time of the day.