Macabeu

The variety that provides the aromatic capacity and the structure to our cavas.

Vegetative and physiological characteristics:

macabeu

Type: White variety, also called "Subirats", "Viura" or "Alcañon".

The Vine: Vigorous vine with an upright posture, with good production capacity (from 4 to 7 kg /vine).

Grapes: Very large and compct bunches (25 cm). They are ramified, winged and pyramidal.
Round white berry of a medium to large size and a thin skin.

A variety of middle-late budding and medium maturation.

This is the first white variety we begin to harvest in Sarral.

Cultural characteristics:

Sensitive to drought and less sensitive to frost. As regards to soil, it fears a lot the drought but it does not suit a lot of very fertile soils.
The most appropriate climate should be a dry autumn to avoid problems of grey rot at the harvest time.
Very susceptible to grey rot and mildew. Moderately sensitive to the grape worm and grape powdery mildew.
The most appropriate rootstock are 41-B, and 161-49 C. In dry and poor soils,
the 110-R.

Enological characteristics:

The wines: Gives fine wines with moderate alcohol content (10°-11° ). They are fruity, straw colour, low acidic or very acidic if maturation has not been in good conditions. It is used as base wine for Cava. It responds good to the fermentation and to the oak aging, because of its slow oxidation.