Manuel Moreno and Sara Bertani farm ancient Spanish apples and make cider from their base high in the Sierra Nevada in Spain's southern region of Andalucia.

The highest cellar in Europe, the property is at high enough altitude to see across to Morocco on a clear day, and the diurnal temperature shifts are drastic as a result. But despite the altitude and luminosity, the ciders are not characterised by intense concentration. Rather, and somewhat surprisingly, they are delicate, intricate and hydrating.

This hydrating, almost water-like character is more often than not found in white wines grown in schist and quartz soils — a roundness and suppleness that we don't really associate with limestone, for example. And as much as we've seen this quite gorgeous character in schist-based white wines, we've never seen it more so than in the exquisite ciders of Fuente Guijarro.

The soils here are made up of fine, friable sheets of schist and mica and to look at they resemble in many ways the soils found in Valais and Corbieres.

The production here is limited to around 10,000 bottles per year (this is miniscule) and the attention to detail is painstaking. Apples are picked during the cooler hours of the very early morning, when the concentration of yeast is at its lowest. Each apple is then washed multiple times in local source water, before being pressed. During fermentation, Manuel and Sara make frequent passes at the tanks to remove the lees from the top of the fermenting cider. All of this is done in pursuit of an ultra-pure style of cider, capturing fruit and minerality as opposed to more lees-derived elements.

In addition to apples, quinces are also used in certain cuvees. While some still cuvees are made, most are sparkling, with both ancestral- and traditional-method styles produced.