Manuel Moreno and Sara Bertani farm ancient Spanish apples and make cider from their home high in the Sierra Nevada in Spain’s southern region of Andalucia.
Fuente Guijarro is the highest cellar in Europe, the property is at high enough altitude to see across to Morocco on a clear day, and the diurnal temperature shifts are drastic as a result. But despite the altitude and luminosity, the ciders are not characterised by intense concentration. Rather, and somewhat surprisingly, they are delicate, intricate and hydrating.
The production here is limited to around 10,000 bottles per year (this is miniscule) and the attention to detail is painstaking. Apples are picked during the cooler hours of the very early morning, when the concentration of yeast is at its lowest. Each apple is then washed multiple times in local source water, before being pressed. During fermentation, Manuel and Sara make frequent passes at the tanks to remove the lees from the top of the fermenting cider. All of this is done in pursuit of an ultra-pure style of cider, capturing fruit and minerality as opposed to more lees-derived elements.
This cuvee is a blend of apple and quince. Grown on schist and mica, with a single fermentation completed in bottle, resulting in sparkling cider. Rigorous removal of lees during ferment prior to bottling always yields a very pure expression of fruit.
