2009 Mestres Clos Damiana Gran Reserva

The Clos Damiana from 2009 is a blend of 60% real Brut Nature Gran Reserva. The grapes come from vineyards with selection of the oldest vines of more than 67 years old) and are only produced in only the best vintages. It was a great year, remarkable for the balance of grapes, ideal for extensive cavas of long age. A year characterized by finesse and freshness, with good acidity.

In the glass, the Clos Damiana has a bright golden color with virtually no color evolution (surprising due to the long aging) and an immediate release of highly integrated small bubbles. The nose contains notes of baked apple and also ripe stone fruit (peach and apricot). Creaminess, roundness and very good balance, with an interesting acidity and a touch of minerals and aromatic herbs in infusion (chamomile). Harmonious, with a sweet sensation, except for a final touch of raw almond. The taste is tight and complex, with very small bubbles, complex flavors and a dry, long and tasty aftertaste. This is an exceptional Cava that has been matured for a long time and with a very positive evolution in the bottle. Only 3,870 bottles were produced. A very gastronomic cava. A delicious Cava that could easily remain in the cellar for another decades, but why would you do that. We dare to take up the challenge. Just put this Mestres Mas Via Gran Reserva next to a Dom Perignon and have a blind tasting.

This Clos Damiana 2009 also uses two corks for each bottle to make the cava. The base wine is fermented and aged in chestnut barriques on its lees for 12 months. The second fermentation in the bottle is completed in contact with the first 100% natural cork, in a horizontal position for 140 months in the traditional bottle again on its lees. After disgorgement (manual process of removing dead yeast cells), the second cork and associated plaque are placed in the bottle.

FACT: Mestres has always printed the date of disgorgement on the label and Metres is one of the few houses that opts for traditional aging methods and is the godfather of "Long Aged Cava". Under the Appendix tab you can find an article by Jancis Robinson with a paean to these great Cavas which have a level that most top champagne houses cannot match. In the Penedes report of the Wine Advocate from the end of September 2022, LUIS GUTIÉRREZ writes: " ....To me, Mestres is the top quality producer in Cava, and they are somehow specializing in long aging and larger format bottles (magnums and larger). They are aiming at a segment of the market that has been neglected by the appellation: they look for drinkers of high-quality Champagne rather than trying to compete with Prosecco. To me, they are the best Cava producer today, with a great balance between acidity, oxidation and bubbles"

ABOUT MESTRES

The MESTRES family have been documented in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia since 1312 as owners of vineyards and also as traders of grains and wines. The family has been connected to the wine world for 29 generations. At that time, the date of 1312 was taken as the year of the creation of the MESTRES vineyards. During Christmas 1928, the first bottle of Cava MESTRES was released, which Josep Mestres Manobens produced with grapes from the 1925 vintage. From this date, the family specialized in the production of sparkling wines with a very long maturation made according to the champagne method, namely the traditional method. From that moment on, they focused solely on high quality and MESTRES grew into a reference and benchmark for top cavas. Josep Mestres Manobens is the one who started using a high-quality base wine to make a Cava using a 'champagne' (method 'champenoise') without adding a sugar liquid (this is used for the extra fermentation by most houses), which he called "Visol" ((WINE ON IT'S OWN). At Mestres they only work with wine and no additives. This is how the first Brut Nature was born and has been registered in the Patent and Trademark office since 1948. Mestres are therefore the parents of Brut Nature. Today, the 29th generation of the MESTRES family follows the path of their predecessors and maintains that restless and enterprising spirit that characterized the MESTRES family, a winery with seven centuries of history. During all these years we have been able to follow the tradition and respecting a philosophy of unique elaboration, bringing the name MESTRES and the word CAVA to excellence. Mestres is the living history of Cava. Today, MESTRES Cavas all have very high ratings. One hundred percent of the sparkling wines from Mestres are aged in the bottle under cork. Mestres is a very traditional Cava producer and is compared in style to the "López de Heredia & Tondonia" among the Cavas. MESTRES has always printed the date of disgorgement on the label.