Gramona

The family built its first winery, Celler Batlle, in 1881, and was to make wine there for 120 years.  Gramona “reinvented itself” in 2001, with the construction of a new winery, where it has since been exploring various eco-sustainable development-related themes.  The family’s first step was to design and build a winery respecting the norms of bioclimatic architecture, ensuring that it integrated harmoniously within the landscape.  Most of the building sits 8 metres underground, providing the winery with thermal insulation along with the associated savings in energy consumption.

Story

In 1850, our great-great-grandfather, Josep Batlle, was working as a winemaker and grower for a family who owned the vineyards in La Plana, in the Anoia River valley. When phylloxera was ravaging the vineyards of France and much of Europe, Josep Batlle’s son, Pau, set about selling wine to the French sparkling wine producers, who knew the Catalonia region well, as it was their main cork supplier at the time. Using the Xarel·lo as a base, Pau learnt how to refine his own wines for this purpose.

This led to him setting up his own winery, Celler Batlle, in 1881, and enabled him to buy the vineyards that his father used to work.

The next generation, Pau’s daughter, Pilar, married Bartolomé Gramona, the son of Josep Gramona, the then president of the Barcelona Taverners Guild, and founder of La Vid Catalana newspaper of the Catalan Association of Wine Producers, and from San Sadurní.

This united two old wine families who started producing sparkling wine, already under the Gramona brand name, in the early 20th century.

1945 was the start of a new era for Gramona, under the stewardship of Bartomeu y Josep Lluis, the ‘hard working’ generation. They were the visionaries and pioneers behind long-aged cavas. The first Gramona III Lustros was created in 1951 and was a pioneering cava in that it was designed for long ageing (It was released on the market in 1961). Up until the late 20th century, the two brothers were at the helm of a small winery, highly regarded for the quality of its cavas.

The soul of this generation, Josep Lluis Gramona, is still out and about on our land every day, ensuring that the Gramona ship sails smoothly.

Today the destiny of our wines is shaped by the personality of a new generation of Gramonas, made up of Jaume Gramona, a hard working, highly skilled and uncompromising oenologist with the spirit of an explorer; and another Gramona, Xavier, a visionary and a thinker with a strong analytical mind.  Both men are committed to the excellence of cava. Above them stands the figure of Josep Lluis, the Gramona father and uncle.  To both men, this canny and seasoned businessman, with an eternally youthful spirit, has passed on the values of common sense, typical of the Catalan entrepreneur.  They interpret and transform the wealth of wisdom inherited from the generations who have gone before.

The Gramonas are joined by an energetic team, all passionate about wine and who work tirelessly to add value to the Gramona proposition: transforming the fruit of the land and terroir into the best possible cava, a world-class sparkling wine.
More recently the Gramonas decided to apply their generations of knowledge and toil to the production of other types of wine. We believe that the richness of our land will also allow us to produce attractive still and sweet wines. The latest generation of Gramonas has therefore humbly embarked on this new venture, reviving a family custom from the turn of the 20th century. We are guided by our curiosity and creativity, and we hope to express all the beauty of our terroir, bound by no limits other than those imposed by the human being and the history.

Manual picking ensures that the fruit is handled with greater care.  The bunches are individually cut by hand so that they reach the winery intact.  A first sorting of the grapes is carried out in the vineyards. We use small 20 kg crates to ensure that the grapes do not burst and are not crushed before their arrival at the winery. It is important that we pick the grapes at their optimum point of maturity depending on the varietal and the wine being made.  Good planning of the reception of the harvested grapes at the winery  is also vital, which is why we employ specialized staff.

Once the grapes are picked, the process of vinification in Celler Batlle begins.  At Gramona we assume responsibility for each and every step involved in the winemaking process, from the vine to the bottle.  The grapes are picked by hand, go onto a sorting belt, are transferred by gravity, and pressed whole.  These were innovative practices in cava production, and sparkling wine production in general, when they were first introduced at Gramona.

Sorting is an important step in the process of quality wine production.  The grapes are spread over a moving belt, where a team of up to six people carries out another quality check, making sure that any stones, stems, leaves, unripe grapes or insects – earwigs, bees, ladybirds, etc – that may have been brought in from the vineyards, are removed.  The goal is to ensure that there are no unwanted herbaceous flavours in the wine.

We rely on a basic law of nature when receiving the harvested grapes at the winery: that of gravity.  We use gravity to ensure that the grapes are treated gently.  As a result, there is no organoleptic loss to the grapes and we improve the quality of the musts.  We also use non-contaminating and environmentally-friendly equipment.

Pressing

We press whole bunches* to very low extraction and we separate the must into different portions.

We were the first winery in Spain to acquire a Coquard press, for the 2014 vintage. This press enables the pressing of the whole grapes and the subsequent classification of the musts, innovative processes in cava production. We take into account the grape  varieties, their maturity and their burst point (elasticity of their skins).

Pressing the grapes whole prevents premature oxidation and contamination of the must. We obtain clean musts without having to employ any filtration or settling techniques, and we preserve the “heart” of the pressing through this natural filter. As a consequence, we use less sulphites and no antioxidants, because there is no oxidation and no contamination of the must.