Taïka

Taika is one of Raúl Bobet's latest creations in his spiritual retreat at Castell d'Encús. There he combines his meditation with viticulture and brings back to life historic techniques such as the use of vats hewn into the rock, a practice which the monks at the Encús monastery used to employ in the 12th Century for ageing some of their wines. His intention with Taika is to restore another ancient tradition, the manufacture of sparkling wines as it was done in ages past.

This very old process, which consists of obtaining bubbles from a single fermentation, was prior to the Champenoise method and successfully recalls aromas and sensations belonging to another era. Taika is made from grapes harvested by hand, emanating from an estate lying at 1,000 metres above sea level in the Catalan Pyrenees; it's bottled in the middle of fermentation so that the remaining sugar continues being expended in the bottle and the carbon dioxide released during this procedure can't escape. Thus, the little over 4000 bottles of this extraordinary sparkling wine see the light of day after 27 months of ageing in bottle, with no other sugar than that provided by the grapes in their vinification.