Robert Parker Wine Advocate rates Turó d’en Mota 2008 as top sparkling wine
The 2008 vintage of Recaredo Turó d’en Mota is an exceptional, vibrant vintage with a unique character. This is evidenced by various accolades awarded by prestigious publications such as Robert Parker Wine Advocate and the Guia de Vins de Catalunya. In fact, Recaredo Turó d’en Mota 2008 has been recognised by Robert Parker Wine Advocate as the top-rated wine in Spain, with a score of 97 points.
Luis Gutiérrez, Robert Parker’s Spanish taster, describes this wine as a “magnificent white wine with bubbles – completely different, with loads of personality and character. It’s a superior Recaredo wine and an exceptional vintage in the area.” He adds that “the aromatic palette of this wine is very different from the rest of the line-up, with green olives, curry, toasted and smoked spices, all integrated in a very subtle way”. The 2008 vintage produced healthy grapes with extraordinary acidity, ideal for the long ageing that this Corpinnat undergoes – a minimum of 12 years and six months – resulting in an exclusive production of 4,317 bottles.
Turó d’en Mota 2008 is a vintage marked by meteorological contrasts: a moderately dry and warm autumn and winter, followed by a rainy spring, which set the pace in the vineyard. The result is a wine with great harmony and delicacy that reveals the most authentic essence of the Mediterranean, with low yields (21.3 hl/ha) of very high-quality fruit. Turó d’en Mota 2008 has been fermented in 300-litre oak barrels.
Along with Turó d’en Mota 2008, Robert Parker Wine Advocate also reviewed Recaredo Enoteca Reserva Particular 2004, which was awarded a score of 96 points and described as a very gastronomic wine that maintains very good freshness and has a dense palate, with great aromatic complexity that evolves in the glass. Recaredo Serral del Vell 2017 was also reviewed and awarded a score of 95 points. The reviewer described this wine as direct and intense, with tons of elegance, very integrated and balanced, maintaining the acidity. Robert Parker also reviewed Recaredo Reserva Particular 2013 (95 points), Recaredo Subtil 2018 (94 points) and Recaredo Terrers 2018 (93+ points).
Turó d’en Mota 2008 has also been recognised by La Guia de Vins de Catalunya 2023 as the best Catalan wine, the best sparkling wine and the best Xarel·lo wine among over 1,100 wines and 206 wineries, with a score of 9.86. The experts behind the guide describe this Corpinnat as “extraordinary” and “elegant” for its overall balance and harmony, and “mineral” because it evokes the calcareous soil, adding an extra dimension of connection to the land.
Turó d’en Mota single-vineyard long-aged sparkling wine – a historical first
The Turó d’en Mota vineyard was planted in 1940 and is an important part of the natural heritage of the Penedès region. The first vintage was 1999. Released in the spring of 2008, it was the first sparkling wine produced in the Penedès wine region using grapes of a single variety (100% Xarel·lo) from a single vineyard, and the end result reflected Recaredo’s commitment to extremely long ageing. The Turó d’en Mota vineyard is located in the far northwest of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, in the heart of the Penedès region, on the northern slope of a hill known as Turó d’en Mota, from which it takes its name. The soil of the Turó d’en Mota vineyard is notable for the presence of carbonate nodules, formed through the concentration of lime in the soil, that give each vintage of this Corpinnat great character.
These intrinsic characteristics of Turó d’en Mota make it a terroir wine in the broadest sense: an expression of land characterised by highly calcareous soil, a Mediterranean microclimate, the Xarel·lo grape variety, and an approach to viticulture that stresses observation over intervention. As an extremely long-aged cava, this Corpinnat offers very subtle, complex nuances that express the passage of time.
