Cisteller was launched in Penedès in 2022 by Jessica Madigan and Sergi Canals, rooted in Sergi's family vineyards. Its name pays tribute to Sergi's great-grandfather, Josep, who at the age of 14 learned the craft of basket weaving in Badalona. In 1920, as the Catalan sparkling wine boom began, he moved to Sant Sadurní d'Anoia. Ramón, Sergi’s grandfather, went on to acquire vineyards and became a partner in the Canals & Domingo cava cellars. Together with his son Pere, he later founded Castell de Sant Antoni. Acting as négociants, they bought base wines, produced their own cava, and sold their own grapes.
Sergi studied at Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona alongside fellow producers from Penedès such as Roc Gramona. In 2013, he travelled to the US for the grape harvest, intending to continue his studies at the University of California Davis. It was there, in 2015, that he met Jessica. Over the following years, they travelled together and separately to gain experience in various wine regions worldwide. Their journey took them to Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Rioja, before bringing them back to Penedés, with a share determination to create their own terroir-driven venture. The pandemic delayed their plans to build a winery and start production in 2020, but the idea remained firmly in place. The Cisteller logo features a tile showing a basket weaver at work with two birds in the background, symbolising the couple's return home.
At present, Cisteller cultivates 12 hectares of the 20-hectare El Sot estate in Subirats while also purchasing grapes from local growers. The vineyards lie on the western edge of the Ordal mountains, the inland continuation of the Garraf massif within the Catalan coastal range. Sitting at an elevation of 250-300 metres, the soils are mainly loam at ground level, fossil-rich limestone rock and white clay, in contrast with the red clay of the valley. This results in wines with good acidity and low pH. Everything is farmed organically.
The couple’s initial plan was to focus on still wines, but after extensive microvinifications of Xarel.lo to better understand their flagship variety, they realised sparkling wines deserved equal attention. Today, sparkling accounts for just over half their production. Cisteller in fact was the first producer in Penedès to start operating within Corpinnat, applying for membership even before harvesting their first grapes. Their debut vintage in 2022 yielded 10,000 bottles of still wine and 15,000 bottles of sparkling, with the goal of eventually producing around 50,000 bottles.
The philosophy
Madigan and Canals bring a still wine mindset to their sparkling production. They press whole bunches (they do not own a destemmer), start fermentation with a pied de cuve and keep a generous amount of solids in the wine. Racking is minimised, while long lees ageing encourages autolysis, which they believe enhances and protects the wine. Malolactic fermentation is neither avoided nor induced. They regard the stability gained during this time as essential. They inject nitrogen to prevent oxidation, and the second fermentation takes place in July, just before the next harvest. For them, Xarel.lo is quintessentially Mediterranean variety offering salinity and concentration in dry years.
At Cisteller, texture is paramount. Despite their low-intervention approach, the wines are pure and precise. “To do very little on the outside, you have to look deep inside,” they say. This is why they invested in a well-equipped laboratory, where all the necessary analyses are carried out.
The wines
Their most widely known sparkling wine is Lucidity (€24), a blend of Xarel.lo and Macabeo aged with its lees for 24 months. Designed to convey the essence of their terroir, it is the perfect introduction to their philosophy: a bone-dry Corpinnat with body, integrated bubbles, and a chalky finish. In 2022, they also made a few bottles of Cisteller Courtship (€28), a Garnacha Blanc de Noirs that they intend to revive in the future with grapes picked halfway through veraison. The sparkling range will expand further with two wines aged for extended periods: one matured for 30 months and the other for 60. The latter is made by co-fermenting Xarel.lo and Sumoll grapes sourced from two different plots.
Their still wines include three Penedès wines and one from outside the DO. Chief among them is the Xarel.lo (€30), sourced from three different plots and vinified in three different containers: large wooden vats for a sun-drenched site, stainless steel for a shady hillside plot and concrete for a sea-facing plot at the top of the hill. The result is an interesting combination of sapidity, juiciness and concentration. The range also includes a spicy, vibrant Malvasia de Sitges (€35) with restrained aromatics and a zesty structure, and Cisteller Gris ( €22), a taut Xarel.lo Vermell harvested three weeks later than the standard Xarel.lo, fermented in stainless steel and aged on its lees. The name is a nod to vin gris. Outside the DO, Cisteller Verbena (€23) is a lively white made from the Italian variety Incrocio Manzoni. Previous examples of this variety can be found in the area, produced by Can Ràfols dels Caus. In contrast to the white-toned labels used for their DO wines, Verbena features a coloured background.