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RAVENTÓS I BLANC DID NOT ACCEPT THE INVITATION TO BE A CORPINNAT FOUNDING PARTNER RAVENTÓS I BLANC BELIEVE IN THE FRENCH MODEL OF THE RIGOROUS AOC’S

At the beginning of the year, two winemakers who represent two of the founding wineries of
Corpinnat, and in the name of said association, invited Raventós i Blanc to become a founding member.

(Corpinnat is a collective European Union Brand created for some wineries inside the DO CAVA: Nadal, Castell Roig, Gramona, Recaredo and Llopart.)

Raventós i Blanc is a winery that sets a benchmark in the creation of sparkling wine in Spain and is a point of reference worldwide for its working methods which have reinstated the Wine Producing Farm of the 15th Century, committed to producing sparkling wine exclusively since 2015. The reasons why Raventós i Blanc has decided not to enter this “collective brand” are the following:


• We do not consider that there is a desire nor a clear and explicit vision to fight for and work towards a new Denomination of Origin. Corpinnat is presented as a collective brand; as such, its sole purpose is its brand, as can be seen in the Statutes of the Association and the Regulations regarding the Use of the Brand. In neither of these documents is the desire to create a DO mentioned.

• The association is formed by a group of wineries within the DO Cava. One of many similar
collaborations or groups that have been formed over the last few years – always within the DO itself – , we can recall “caves singulars” (unique caves) the Cava SME; or the very recent rating of “cava de paraje calificado” (cavas from a qualified location). And don’t also forget the UE Collective brand created 25 years ago called “vinya-celler-masia” (vineyard-cellar-house) which central element was and still is to have own vineyards – not required at Corpinnat.


• At Raventós i Blanc we are convinced of the potential of our region, and the importance of
defending it based on certain common requirements of viticulture; strict and firm requirements. Defending it and positioning it in the world: we have had to make sacrifices in order to achieve this.

For this reason, in November 2012, Raventós i Blanc decided to leave the DO CAVA, considering that such a designation of origin did not represent the interests nor the future dream of a denomination based on wine-growing criteria; and not on method. The first thing that Raventós i Blanc did was to abandon the word CAVA. With all the risks and the numerous unknowns that faced us. We had to start afresh. Conca de riu Anoia could not be a subsection within CAVA, because this would mean that it would never fulfil the dream for which it was created.

(Conca del Riu Anoia requires no need of vineyard on property, no need of being 100% organic vineyard during the first 3 years; no required vintage marking, etc.)

* * *

The new 2013 vintage of De la Finca is now being launched after aging 36 months on the lees.

De la Finca comes from one of our most historical vineyards, espalier-trained since 1964: Vinya dels Fòssils, located on the highest terraces of the Anoia River, where we find marine soils with a high concentration of fossils, characterizing our most mineral sparkling wine. Xarel lo comes from Clot de les Comes and del Coll, Macabeu from La Barbera and Parellada from La Vinya del Mingo.

 

The 2013 vintage was very special, a demanding, very fresh vintage, with a great ageing potential and a long growing cycle, reminiscent of those from 30 years ago, when we harvested the Macabeus after the Sant Sadurní fairs and the Xarel.los in late September. The fall was damp followed by a cool, dry winter with some sporadic rainfall. Spring started out cool and damp, with rain in March and May. A cool, dry end to the spring followed by a meteorologically short summer produced a slow vegetative development. We started the harvest on 19th of August. There were no heat waves during the months of August and September and summer temperatures were moderate, all of which contributed to a slow and good maturation of the different varieties of grape.

Every vintage of De la Finca has won many awards and received excellent tasting notes and recommendations from the most important wine magazines and wine writers. De la Finca has been slowly aged for an average of 36 months in contact with the lees and there are notes of toasted bread and mripe yellow plums with a hint of fennel, unmistakably Mediterranean.

 

Soils

The soils on the estate are calcareous and date back to the oldest period of the Penedès depression some 16 million years ago. The first layer comprises roots of up to 1 meter that live in the clay along with nutrients, organic matter and water. Second layer, from 1 meter down. This is where the plant meets the compact clays known locally as galera. Calcareous base rock encrusted with marine fossils. Marine fossils characterize the structure and composition of the soils of the Vinya dels Fòssils. It is the abundance of carbonated fossils that gives our sparkling wine its characteristic saline notes.

Viticulture

Biodynamic viticulture. A vineyard with spontaneous vegetation coverage which affords biodiversity, fertility and gives the soil alot of life. We add manure from our animals, composted in the winter. We perform a short goblet pruning. Use of plants and herbal infusions to minimize the use of copper and sulphur. Control of Lobesia Botrana by means of sexual confusion. Testing of fruit and maturation controls before the harvest. 

Winemaking

The grapes enter the winery by gravity. At each stage, the atmosphere is controlled by dry ice. Slow pressing at low pressures. Static sedimentation at low temperatures. First fermentation in stainless steel tanks at a controlled temperature, separating varieties and soil types. Assemblage and second fermentation in the bottle with a minimumageing period of three years in a horizontal position. No “liqueur d’expédition” added. Disgorging date stated on the back label.

 

 

 

NEW SPARKLING WINE LAUNCHED BY RAVENTÓS I BLANC

Textures de Pedra Blanc de Negres 2011

With “Textures de Pedra” Raventós i Blanc would like to share with you our dedication to making estate produced, terroir driven, vintage sparkling wines that have been slowly aged and always allow the terroir to take center stage.
 
The name is inspired by the vineyard where the wine is born: Vinya Més Alta, located at the top of the Serral hill, the highest point of our estate where the soils enjoy a stony texture. The geology of these plots force the roots of the vines to go deeper in search of water – these are warmer soils – and this produces grapes that allow for a more concentrated wine with great structure.


With this new sparkling wine Raventós i Blanc is exploring 3 local red varieties: Xarel·lo Vermell, Sumoll and Bastard Negre. Xarel·lo and Bastard Negre from the Vinya Més Alta; Sumoll and Parellada from a higher altitude, mixed vineyard in the West of Conca del Riu Anoia.

Xarel·lo – the great variety from Penedès allows us to age these wines slowly.

Bastard Negre – this local and old variety has high acidity and is very well suited to the area; it brings strength and dynamism to Textures de Pedra, as well as density and texture on the palate, giving it a slightly golden hue.

Sumoll – a native variety to Penedès, planted on the estate before Phylloxera that adds fantastic acidity to our sparkling wines.
 
Textures de Pedra is made using the “methode champenoise” and is aged for at least 42 months in our cellars.

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History

The Raventós i Blanc estate, 90 hectares of woodland and vineyards in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, has belonged to the Raventós family since 1497, and been passed on intact from generation to generation up to the present day. In 1872 Josep Raventós Fatjó made the first sparkling wine second fermentation in the bottle with grapes from our estate. Since then, every generation has dedicated itself to vine growing and to making fine sparkling wines. A unique new project was conceived to give meaning to this estate, this unrepeatable terroir: Raventós i Blanc. When Josep María Raventós i Blanc and his son Manuel Raventós decided to found this winery at the centre of their historic estate in 1984, their dream of creating a premier global brand became an obsession. There can be no doubt that it was the fruit of a great passion.

 

 

 

WINERY

Josep María Raventós and Manuel Raventós chose the oak as the symbol of Raventós i Blanc. The company logo and the architecture of the winery were to feature the oak. Our symbol, the old family oak tree, presides over our winery and our brand. It is the steadfast witness to a commitment to the land and to fidelity to ideas which have been refined over more than 500 years. The ideas of Josep Maria Raventós i Blanc. Up to the minute, ground-breaking architecture harmoniously brings together the functional design of the winery and cellar, the oak tree, the vineyards and the ecosystem of El Serral. The whole design of the building, the work of the architects Jaume Bach and Gabriel Mora, (winner of the FAD architecture award in 1989) is conceived to be a perfect combination of form and function.

 

Manuel Raventós

President and oenologist at Raventós i Blanc. Manuel Raventós Negra is the oldest of the 11 children of Josep María Raventós i Blanc and Isabel Negra i Valls. He was brought up in the family home at Can Codorniu, in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia. He was educated at the Sant Josep school in Sant Sadurní before going to Barcelona to complete his upper high school studies. He holds a degree in agricultural engineering, specialising in agrarian industries, from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and holds a diploma in oenology from the Spanish science research council.

He began his career by helping to set up several pioneering ventures on the Ebro Delta (horticulture and seed rice, drainage and agricultural infrastructure, logistics and distribution of refrigerated and frozen produce). He is still linked to them today. In 1986, together with his father Josep María, he founded the firm of Raventós i Blanc. Shortly after setting up the company his father died and he was left alone with the winery. The early days were a time of great sadness, but at the same time filled with hopes and enthusiasm. With the support of his mother, brothers, sisters, relatives and friends all over Spain, he managed to bring onto the market the first coupage by its creator, Josep María Raventós i Blanc cava. Manuel Raventós created the first estate cava in the 90: Raventós i Blanc. During the 90's he had a hard struggle to keep the winery afloat; a difficult economic situation and internal problems forced Manuel to sell the property owned by Raventós i Blanc in Bordeaux, Chateau d'Aiguille, and the family home of Can Codorniu (which belonged to him as heir to the Raventós family). Today he remains at the head of the winery, true to his ideas, travelling all over Spain and the world to organise tastings and preparing each new vintage with the same enthusiasm as the first coupage.

 

Pepe Raventós

Manager, oenologist and wine grower at Raventós i Blanc. Dynamic, active and passionate about the world of wine and wine-growing. Pepe Raventós joined Raventós i Blanc in 2001. Pepe has been part of the world of cava from an early age, spending his summers picking grapes in Sant Sadurní, he also spent hours working on the land in Saint Emilion, learning to make red wines.

Trained as an oenologist at the Complutense university in Madrid, he gained experience in making terroir wines working alongside Didier Dagenau on Pouilly Fumé, Olivier Lamy at Saint Aubin, Harald Hexamer in the Nahe region; and Phillippe Blanc in Alsace. He is always eager to pursue excellence in every detail of his winery. His goal, to make his grandfather's dream come true: to make Raventós i Blanc a wine-growing brand of international standing. In 2012 Pepe Raventós decides to leave the DO Cava to start a new path: CONCA DEL RIU ANOIA. Conca del riu Anoia, the name of a small georaphical area, to help us to better understand and convey our viticultural traditions, the strength of our land, our unique grape varieties and the characteristics of our soils: in short, the way we make sparkling wines.Pepe Raventós believes that there is an opportunity for honest wines resulting from a single estate, a specific climate, native grape varieties and rigorous, well-defined and respectful from viticulture.

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Vineyards

In 1888, Manuel Raventós Doménech creates a sparkling wine from Penedés with the three native varieties: Xarel·lo, Macabeu and Parellada. When we created CAVA in 1872, we dreamed of a World Class sparkling wine. This is why Josep Raventós Fatjó innovated with Xarel.lo from the same vineyard where "de la Finca" comes from to this day. He understood the great potential of this grape, the mineral structure of our oldest soils and, most importantly, that to become a World Class you have to be AUTHENTIC. After 150 years CAVA has become a volume-oriented DO lacking geographical distinction in terms of climate and soils; it also suffers from low viticultural standards.

As you all know, Raventós i Blanc was created to give a "raison d'être" to an estate where vines have been grown since 1497, and to continue a family vine-growing tradition that stretches back over 20 generations. The founder, Josep María Raventós i Blanc, believed in the closest possible connection between man and nature, following the ideal of the Catalan country folk which is rooted deep in their land. With this philosophy he wanted to create a true alternative to champagne. We want to recover the long lost characteristics of that life based around the traditional farmhouse of the Penedès region and the local vine-growing culture in which the land, the vines, the animals and man all work together as ananted to create a true alternative to champagne. We want to recover the long lost characteristics of that life based around the traditional farmhouse of the Penedès region and the local vine-growing culture in which the land, the vines, the animals and man all work together as an agricultural whole - biosynergy.

 

We believe that there is an opportunity for honest wines resulting from a single estate, a specific climate, native grape varieties and a rigorous, well-defined and respectful form of viticulture. For this reason, in November 2012 we decided to leave the CAVA DO. We believe that we need to create a LOCAL, VITICULTURALLY ORIENTED and super exigent DO in order to frame our wines and help them to be better understood worldwide.

 

 

CONCA DEL RIU ANOIA

Means the following requirements and compromises

  1. The wine must be 100% estate produced and bottled. The winery may not buy finished wine or ageing bottles and cannot have done so in the three years prior to joining the new DO.
  2. The wine must be at Minimum 50% Estate grown. If grapes are purchased, a minimum price will be established at 1 euro/kg, and the following restrictions will be enforced:

    1. - The grower must demonstrate a 100% dedication to agriculture
    2. - There must be oversight and control of any third-party viticultural company employed.
    3. - The vineyard must be an average of at least 10 years old. At least 20 years old would be ideal.
    4. - The vines must be cropped to a maximum of 10,000 kg / ha
    5. - The date of harvest will be determined by the taste of the berries, the sugar/acid balance, the health of the vine and the weather forecast.
    6. - All grapes will be hand-picked and transported in containers weighing less than 2,000 lbs. "Whole Grape Winery"
  3. 100% organic and biodynamic viticulture.
  4. 100% Native Grape Varieties in all cuvees.
  5. Must age for at least 18 months.
  6. Always vintage, nature comes first.
  7. Origin Valley of the River Anoia. This area extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the Catalan Mountains and from the River Anoia to the River Foix. Everything will be determined based on geology.

 

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Winemaking

Our philosophy is one of maximum care for the balance of each plot and our obsession is to understand this balance in order to get the finest expression from each. There are factors, such as the clone of the grape variety or the rootstock (161-49, SO4, 41B and so on) which are decided once and for all at the time of planting but there are others such as pruning (number of buds), types of "green" work (disbudding, removing leaves and shoots, tipping, thinning out grapes and so on), vegetable cover (single, double or none) which we discuss every year depending on our observation of the vineyard over the year, the quality of the harvest and the annual analysis of petioles and musts.

We do not use herbicides; the soil is ploughed or we leave vegetable cover  depending on the possibilities of the plot. Since 2007 we have been registered with the Catalan council for integrated production and using pheromones to control cochylis. Since 2010 we have been in the process of gaining organic certification. We are the heirs to a historic estate which we aim to cultivate and keep up. This is why we are implementing a sustainable management plan throughout the estate. We have a rainwater collection system to replenish our lake. This waters our woods and riverside pastures, playing a role in our microclimate and boosting biodiversity on the estate. To keep up our woodlands on El Serral and in the stream bed we have taken up the old farming philosophy of combining cultivation with livestock, bringing in  traditional Albera cattle as well as sheep which graze on our vegetable cover in the winter months. On the field terraces on our southern slopes we grow almond trees and on the northern side oaks.


The vine cycle at Raventós i Blanc 

Falling of the leaves: With the first chill of autumn, the vines begin to change colour. The leaves lose their traditional green and autumnal yellow shades appear, turning the vineyards into an incomparable natural setting. Then the leaves fall off, leaving the vine bare. The winter rest period begins.

Winter rest: In the cold of winter, the vines remain dormant, without any movement. Sap does not circulate in their vascular tissues, and everything stops: they are resting. The days are cold and damp, with few hours of sunshine. Everything is quiet.

Pruning: The work of the wine grower begins anew during this winter rest. The last harvest has been analysed and it is time to decide on this year's pruning. Every vine is a work of art. Quality must be sought with every cut. The next harvest depends on it.

Awakening: With the first warmth of spring, the vine begins to feel the stimulus of the new season. The first drops begin to ooze from the fresh wounds caused by pruning. The sap has started to flow. This is the spring awakening. The vine "weeps".

Green pruning: Obsessed with growing, the vine develops new leaves which cover the fruit of its efforts: the bunches of grapes. It is the grower who determines the amount of leaves needed for balanced growth. Green pruning is an important part of vine-growing, and essential to the quality of the harvest. Sun, air and man determine it.

Flowering: Spring is a time of aromas. The vineyards give off the soft perfume of the vines in flower. This unmistakeable, penetrating smell tells us it is the beginning of the last stage in the vegetative cycle.

Selection: In July, when the bunches have appeared and the grapes are the size  of peas, it is time to decide the amount to be left on each vine to ensure a balanced harvest. It is the wine grower who must decide this. Expert hands select the bunches to be removed and thrown away in order to assure maximum quality in the others.

Ripening: The fruit, with the heat and sunshine of August, begins its final change. The white grape berries become transparent: they are starting to ripen. Acidity diminishes and sugar increases day by day. A similar process also takes place in the red varieties: Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir.

Monitoring ripeness: Grape samples are taken from each of our plots to determine the best time to begin picking. Only in this way can we achieve the  right balance between acidity and sugar in our musts.

Harvesting: The crucial time for the wine grower has arrived. We are about to reap the fruits of all our work over the past year. The final exam on the job done. The grape pickers come to the vineyard early in the morning and carefully cut off the fruit, treating it gently, to obtain the must we need, of the quality for which we strive.

 

WINEMAKING

At the winery our job is to preserve all the work we have done in the vineyard as much as possible. The first 48 hours after the grapes come in are vital, and we are highly demanding during these first hours. The grapes are all picked by hand and transported as quickly and carefully as possible. From the moment when the grapes go into the press we start to add dry ice to protect them from oxygen. We only use the "mosto flor" for our wines and sparkling wines, the must from the first pressings. We carry out static racking, leaving the particles to settle. Once the must is clear we remove it, making sure of the exact amount of cloudiness to leave in the must to be fermented. Alcoholic fermentation is in stainless steel vats at a controlled temperature of 18ºC.

Once alcoholic fermentation is complete our base wines are left to stand until it is time for blending and tirage. Our sparkling wines are at least 15 months old in the case of l'Hereu and De Nit, 3 years for the de la Finca, 4 years for Elisabet and a maximum of 7 years for our longest-aged sparkling wine. Over all these months the sparkling wines change their aromatic profile and gain in complexity. Once ageing on the lees is complete, we move on to the clarification and disgorging of our sparkling wines. The expedition liqueur, determined depending on the conditions of each vintage, must make the most of the job done by nature and the vine, the stamp of the personality of Raventos i Blanc sparkling wines.

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Inside information

Our estate has its geological origins in the late tertiary (Miocene) and early quaternary periods, and is calcareous in nature. How and when the sediments were deposited and subsequent tectonic shifts have shaped our landscape. In the Miocene period we lay beneath a shallow sea which exercised little pressure. From this period we have different types of soils: clay over the

material known locally as galera (compact clays with a polyhedral structure), sand over galera, clay over a limey, sandy subsoil with large numbers of calcareous nodules, and finally silty clay soil over a highly compact calcareous subsoil with large numbers of fossil remains of seashells. In the quaternary period the sea began to retreat. From this time we find silty/sandy soils over molasse (soft, calcareous clayey bedrock), soils of fluvial origin with large numbers of rounded pebbles and colluvial soils formed by erosion. The texture (proportions of clay, silt and sand) of our soils is essential to determining the potential water reserves of each plot: clays increase them, while sands and stones reduce them, but we always depend on the depth of the soil and the

ability of the roots to exploit this soil. At Raventós i Blanc, all the plots on the estate have good water reserves thanks to the depth of the soils and their clay content. Our studies have confirmed our ancestors' choice: we are on ideal ground for producing white wines.

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