Why it matters
The producer
Jordi Aixalà grew up in Torroja del Priorat, went straight from high school into the family vineyards in 1995, and eventually became mayor of the village. His wife Sussi Alcait and their daughter Alzina work with him across every part of the operation: vineyard, cellar, marketing, and the design of the labels and boxes. The family has been cultivating vines on llicorella slate since the 1980s. The winery, Celler Aixalà-Alcait, was founded when Jordi and Sussi bottled their first wine in 2005.
The estate farms 13.5 hectares of certified-organic vineyards, alongside certified-organic olive groves. Production runs to approximately 15,000 bottles a year. Against Priorat's overwhelmingly red-wine production, the family deliberately produces two white wines and at least two rosés each year alongside their reds.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
DOQ Priorat is a small, steep appellation in inland Catalonia, south of Barcelona, built around old Garnacha and Cariñena vines on soils that are more fractured rock than conventional earth. The appellation commands some of the highest land prices in Spain, driven by decades of critical attention and the scarcity of mature, deep-rooted vines. Torroja del Priorat is one of the hilltop villages at the appellation's centre.
The DOQ designation, one of only two in Spain with the highest regulatory classification, sets minimum yields, grape varieties, and farming standards. Wines labelled DOQ Priorat carry the appellation's full requirements on the label. The steep terrain and thin soils mean yields are low by default, and most serious estates farm organically because chemical inputs are difficult to justify on such fragile ground.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
All 13.5 hectares are certified organic, as are the olive groves farmed alongside the vines. Organic certification in Priorat means no synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilisers on soils that are already nutrient-poor and fragile. The combination of llicorella's natural drainage and the absence of chemical intervention keeps yields low and fruit concentration high.
For Pardelasses white, the cellar choice is acacia barrel. Acacia is a neutral wood: it adds no vanilla or toast character to the wine, unlike new oak, but it does soften the wine's texture during the three months of ageing. White Grenache carries natural weight and ripe stone-fruit character; acacia ageing rounds the palate without masking the grape's own flavour.
Wines to know
The range in view
Pardelasses is the founding wine and the clearest expression of what the estate does with white Grenache. It is made from 100 per cent Garnacha Blanca and aged for three months in acacia barrel. White Grenache at this address gives a wine with body and ripe fruit rather than the lean, angular profile of a cooler-climate white; the acacia ageing adds textural softness without imposing any wood flavour.
The range also includes a second white wine, at least two rosé cuvées each year, and a set of reds. Les Clivelles de l'Alzina is a red cuvée named after the family's daughter. The range is deliberately broader than most Priorat estates, which tend to concentrate almost entirely on red wine. Two whites and multiple rosés alongside the reds is an unusual commitment in an appellation where powerful Garnacha and Cariñena reds have historically absorbed most of the winemaking attention.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Pardelasses white is the right first bottle. It is made from 100 per cent Garnacha Blanca, aged three months in acacia barrel, and comes from certified-organic llicorella parcels in Torroja del Priorat. The wine is fuller and more textural than most white wines at this price point: white Grenache gives ripe stone fruit and body, and the acacia ageing adds a rounded, creamy quality to the palate without masking the grape's flavour. It is also the wine with which the estate began, bottled first for a wedding in 2005 and still the bottle that most clearly represents what the family does with white fruit on Priorat's slate.