Target sensory profile

Target Sensory Profile: Cava — El Celestial Ouroboros Mark III

The Intention

What does "temporal engineering" mean for this wine?

We harvested the same vineyard twice, one week apart. The chemistry was identical (21.2 °Bx, pH 3.5, TA 4 g/L). The microbiology was not. The first harvest captured the purity of the variety before the full microbial consortia had assembled on the skins. The second harvest captured the wild complexity of a fully mature holobiont — diverse non-Saccharomyces, indigenous *Saccharomyces*, and a richer population of environmental bacteria.

We fermented them separately, then we assembled them with Garnatxa (for body and glycerol), and we gave the wine 36 months in contact with its own lees to forget that it was ever two things.

This Cava is the result of that forgetting.

Intended Sensory Expression

On the Nose

• Primary (T1 contribution, with 36 months of autolysis softening): wild strawberry, white flower, citrus zest
• Secondary (T2 contribution, amplified by lees aging): dried herbs, chamomile, white peach, a thread of honey
• Tertiary (36 months sur lattes): brioche, toasted almond, dried bread crust, a marine-edge lanolin
• Quaternary (Garnatxa, zero dosage): sun-ripeness, a faint suggestion of garrigue, the saline signature of limestone
• Background: chalk, flint, mineral. The 36 months has converted what was reductive into mineral nobility.

Word for the nose: *integrated, layered, patient.*

On the Palate

• Entry: Fine persistent perlage. Mousse is creamy from manoproteins — never aggressive.
• Acidity: Present and structural, but not aggressive. The assemblage balances the components.
• Texture: Medium-full. The Garnatxa contribution gives mid-palate weight; the 36-month lees contact adds creaminess.
• Fruit: Wild strawberry and white peach initially, evolving toward dried apricot and chamomile with air.
• Mineral: The finish is saline, flinty, long. The Trepat limestone signature dominates the exit.

Word for the palate: *tension held in suspension.*

The Finish

• Extraordinarily long — this is the wine's signature
• Saline and flinty, with dried herb and bitter orange peel
• The acidity and the mineral are the last things you taste
• No warmth from alcohol (11.3% in the base, slightly higher post-tirage — invisible)
• Brut Nature means nothing masks the integration. Every molecule is accountable to the protocol.

Word for the finish: *a long slow exhalation of limestone.*

What This Wine Is NOT

This is not a fruit-forward Cava. It is not a single-vintage Trepat pét-nat. It is not a Garnatxa still rosé pretending to be sparkling.

This wine is:

• Integrated — three components, fermented separately, united in bottle
• Mineral — the 36 months has converted what could have been reductive into nobility
• Patient — every decision was made to give the components time to forget they were three things
• Brut Nature — no dosage, no sugar to mask the integration

Emotional Target

When you open this bottle on a long evening, with a whole fish roasted in salt or a single hard cheese, the wine should feel like the moment a long conversation turns into silence — the silence is not empty, it is full.

The integration is the point: T1's precision + T2's complexity + Garnatxa's body, all in suspension.

Chemical Correlates

The Story Behind the Name

El Celestial Ouroboros Mark III. The ouroboros is the snake that consumes its own tail — the symbol of eternal return. Mark III is the third iteration of this protocol. Each iteration of the Crono-Varietal learns from the previous one. The snake that consumes its tail is the same wine at two different times, reconciled.

El Celestial for the mineral nobility that 36 months of lees delivers — the reductive signature of T1, evolved.

This is not branding. It is the protocol's name because the protocol is a temporal loop.

*Intention documented: November 2025* *Source: protocols/protocol_ES 3.pdf — Proyecto 1 (Nov 2025) + Trepat2_es.pdf + Analysis_Holobiont.pdf*