Catalan Wine Routes Adventure Continues: October 18 AT Roca at Sant Sadurni d'Anoia, the Sparkling Wine Capital of Spain

* * * * * 

October 18, 2016 Vilafranca del Penedès - Sant Sadurni d'Anoia 

 

We arrived at the Hotel Domo in the wine capital of Vilafranca del Penedès (Barcelona province), an hour southeast of Barcelona sometime after one a.m., but Hotel Domo was relatively quiet--no jackhammer machine like we experienced in Barcelona--and I could open my windows for fresh air, so I got a reasonably good night's sleep. 

Agustì Torellò Roca, winemaker at AT Roca and son of Agustí Torellò Sibill, shows us one of AT Roca´s free-standing old vines vineyards from which their exceptional Clàssic Penedès methode champenoise sparkling wines are made.

 

Agustí Torelló Roca came by to pick us up at 9:00 the next morning to show us some of the AT Roca vineyards, their fine vinification facility at Can Bonastre, which is also a wine resort hotel and restaurant, and then on to their production and facility where the Torellós age and bottle their exquisite Champagne-quality methode champenoise sparking wines, including their native varieties Brut Rosat in a complex at the edge of Sant Sadurni d'Anoia. Sant Sadurni is the sparkling wine capital of Catalunya, Spain and, in volume, the World.  The largest producers, Freixenet and Codorníu make enormous amounts of bubbly, more than any other single producer of methode champenoise wines in the world. 

Agustí Torelló Sibill in his Conca de Foix Plana de l'Urpi vineyard (Foix basin, l'Urpi plain), near Sant Sadurni D'Anoia in Catalunya, southwest of Barcelona.  Photo by Gerry Dawes.

 The Spanish Artisan Wine & Spirits Group´s Brad Haskel and Gerry Dawes with Agustí Torelló Roca and his aunt Lali Torelló Sibill at AT Roca Clàssic Penedés sparkling wine production facility at Sant Sadurni d'Anoia.

AT Roca, an artisan, family owned, viticulturally oriented winery, produces superb quality Clàssic Penedès Brut and Brut Rosado sparkling wines Agustí Torelló Sibill and his sister Lali were shut out of their father’s  family winery Agustí Torelló because of a family dispute.  Agustí, who was the face of the family’s wines, decided to begin anew.  Agustí, Lali and his son and winemaker Agustí Torelló Roca, set up shop on the outskirts of the Cava capital of San Sadurni D’Anoia, and named their wines AT Roca. 

 

 Xarel.lo grapes, AT Roca, July 2015. Conca de Foix Plana de l'Urpi vineyard (Foix basin, l'Urpi plain), near Sant Sadurni D'Anoia in Catalunya, southwest of Barcelona.  Photo by Gerry Dawes.

The Torellós also found three prime ecologically farmed vineyards, owned by eight dedicated viticulturists with mature vines in three different areas of Penedès at three different altitude levels, from which they source their grapes:  Their Macabeu (Viura) grapes come from L'Ordal (coastal Massís del Garraf), Finca Canta Llops (Howling Wolf) vineyard, 420 meters (nearly 1400 feet above sea level); Xarel·lo from the slate-laced vineyards of Conca del Foix, Plana de l'Urpí, 220 meters (more than 700 feet); Parellada from La Llacuna, La Ginestera, 725 meters (2400 feet).

 Agustí Torelló Sibill explaining the topography of his vineyards in Penedès at his finishing winery in San Sadurni d'Anoia, July 2015.

The exceptional Clàssic Penedès methode champenoise sparkling wines of AT Roca:

AT Roca Vi de Terrer (Wine of Terroir) Brut Reserva 2013  $28.99   12.0%

“AT Roca is a new winery that was started by the brother and sister team of Agustí and Lali Torelló Sibill, as well as Agustí’s son, Agustí Torelló Roca, who handles all the viticulture and winemaking for the new sparkling wine house. These are the same family members who ran the famed Agustí Torelló Mata Cava house, who were one of the driving forces in the formation of the prestige of the category in past generations and continue to make one of Spain’s greatest sparklers, which they call Kripta.  An internecine family argument led to the ouster of Agustí and Lali Torelló and they promptly set up on their own operation, contracting with eight small farmers to purchase grapes from 97 cooler, high altitude vineyards farmed in the proper, Six Percent Club manner.

The 2013s are the first releases from AT Roca and not surprisingly, they are exceptional in quality. The 2013 Brut Reserva is a blend of the Big Three grapes of Xarel-lo, Macabeu and Parellada and offers up a superb bouquet of tart apple, bread dough, wild fennel, lovely minerality and a top-note of ocean breeze. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and rock solid at the core, with frothy mousse, lovely focus and complexity and a long, perfectly balanced finish. 2016-2025+. 92+.” – John Gilman, View From The Cellar

AT Roca Vi de Terrer (Wine of Terroir) Brut Rosat 2013  $29.99   12.0%
     
The 2013 AT Roca Brut Rosat Reserva is comprised of a unique blend of fifty percent Macabeu (Viura), ten percent Garnatxa Negre and forty percent Monastrell. The wine is aged for fifteen months sur latte prior to disgorgement and is a lovely, pale salmon color. The bouquet is bright and classy, wafting from the glass in a mélange of blood orange, white cherries, salty soil tones, dried rose petals and a smoky top-note. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, crisp and complex, with outstanding mid-palate amplitude, elegant mousse and excellent cut and grip on the long and racy finish. This is terrific Rosat! 2016-2025. 92+. John Gilman, VFTC

After our visit to show a colleague of mine the AT Roca production facilities and introduce him to Agustí´s aunt, Lali Torelló, partner and operations manager at the winery,  Agustí then took us us to meet up at 10:30 a. m.  to meet up with the Spanish National Tourist group at the Cava Museum in Sant Sadurni d'Anoia. 

AT Roca Brut Rosat 2013.  Photo by John Sconzo, Docsconz LLC

It had all worked out much better than we could have imagined.  We had not had to catch a very early train from Barcelona to Sant Sadurni, dragging our luggage with us, and we had been given a ride to catch up with the group.  The rest of the group had just gotten off the cross-Atlantic redeye.  Life was treating us good today!

Next up: Continuing the Wine Trail through Catalunya on October 18

Old vines from which AT Roca sparkling wines are made with Monserrart, the Holy Mountain of Catalunya, in the background.  (Photo courtesy of AT Roca.)

The Cava Museum, Codorniu visit and tapas lunch, Bolets early dinner, Barcelona Golf Hotel.

 Phylloxera larvae figures, large enough to be carried by fiesta participants through the streets during the annual celebration of the demise of the devasting vine louse's effect 
on the vineyards of Catalunya (and most of the rest of Spain and France) at the Cava Museum, Sant Sadurni d'Anoia (Barcelona), Catalunya, Spain.

 October 18, 2016 Vilafranca del Penedès - Sant Sadurni d'Anoia - Castellví de la Marca - St. Esteve Sesrovires (Barcelona), Spain

_______________________________________________________________________________ 

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 
 

Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at  gerrydawes@gmail.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com

Continuing Our Tour of the Wine Routes of Catalunya: Oct. 18 The Cava Museum (Cava Interpretation Center), Cavas Codorniu visit and tapas lunch, an early dinner at Bolets Vins i Caves Castellers and Hotel Barcelona Golf.

* * * * *

Fascinating interactive photo displays at the CIC Fassina Cava Interpretation Centre Cava Center in the Cava capital of Sant Sadurni d'Anoia illustrate cava production at our first stop on the Catalunya Wine Routes tour, 
Oct. 18, 2017. All photos by Gerry Dawes©2017.

   

Spain’s Delightful Cava, Always a Reasonably Priced Alternative

to French Champagne, Has Reached New Levels of Quality

Text & Photographs by Gerry Dawes©2017

            Over the past decade or so of sipping Cavas in some of Spain’s top restaurants, it has become increasingly apparent that a number of the country’s smaller producers are bottling some absolutely superb sparkling wines. By contrast, not too long ago, Spanish sparkling wine was little more than quaffable, mass-market bubbly widely available at bargain prices. While that still holds true for a large percentage of the staggering 20 million-plus cases of Cava exported each year (another 9 ½ million-plus cases are consumed in Spain) — hand-in-hand with quality advances on the country’s wine and gastronomy fronts — a number of Champagne-quality Cavas from a wide range of producers have emerged. Some of these exceptional wines are vintage dated, prestige brut cuvées; bone-dry, palate-cleansing brut natures (great with shellfish); and an increasingly impressive group of sparkling rosados (rosats in Catalan), some made with pinot noir, others with indigenous varieties such as trepat, monastrell and garnacha.

            Though some of these noteworthy Cavas are being produced by the larger, well-known houses, such as Codorníu and Freixenet, it is the smaller, ultra-quality-oriented firms that are making their mark. Juve y Camps, a family venture that has long been appreciated in Spain among aficionados, is perhaps the best known.

Wine Routes of Catalunya
October 18, 2016 Vilafranca del Penedès - Sant Sadurni d'Anoia -  
Castellví de la Marca - St. Esteve Sesrovires (Barcelona), Spain

 Phylloxera larvae figures, large enough to be carried by fiesta participants through the streets during the annual celebration of the demise of the devasting vine louse's effect on the vineyards of Catalunya (and most of the rest of Spain and France) at the Cava Museum, Sant Sadurni d'Anoia (Barcelona), Catalunya, Spain. 

 Photo of a Cava cork stopper at the CIC Fassina Cava Interpretation Centre Cava Center in Sant Saduri d'Anoia (Barcelona), Catalunya, Spain.

 A glass of Cava on old wine press in the CIC Fassina Cava Interpretation Centre (Cava Center), Sant Sadurni d'Anoia (Barcelona), Catalunya, Spain on our Catalunya Wine Routes Tour.

 A guide at the CIC Fassina Cava Interpretation Centre Cava Center in the Cava production capital of Sant Sadurni d'Anoia explains cava production at our first stop on the Catalunya Wine Routes tour, Oct. 18, 2017

More to come for October 18, 2017

  Codorníu: Where Cava Began

Codorníu, makers of some 3.5 million cases per year, laid the foundation for quality Cava production. The founding Codorníu and Raventós families, who trace their winemaking history to 1551, when Jaume de Codorníu,  a vinegrower, began making wine, are said to be the first to have produced méthode champenoise sparkling wines outside of Champagne in 1872, when Josep Raventós Fatjó  began  making  a Champagne-style wine to sell in France, whose vineyards had been wiped out by the phylloxera louse (reference above, the Cava Museum).

When Anna de Codorníu, heiress to substantial vineyards of the Can Codorníu estate, married Miquel Raventós, a viticulturist, the union gave birth to a dynasty that has now been in the business of making wine for more than 450 years. Codorníu  is  Spain’s  oldest family business, it’s oldest winemaking operation and one of the most venerable businesses in the world.  Even though the company still carries the name of the original Codorníu, the Raventós have long been the owners.

Manuel Raventós, who took over as Director of Codorníu in 1885,  after his father Josep died, proved to be a visionary and is responsible for much of the image of Codorníu.  He travelled in France to increase his winemaking skills, then, despite the fact that the phylloxera louse had begun to devast Spain as well as France, he made some bold moves.  He knew that his own vineyards had to be ripped out and re-planted with phylloxera resistant American rootstock.   Despite the financial  hard times, in 1895 Manuel Raventós opted to commissioned the modernista architect Josep Puig i Cadalfach to build the “Cava Cathedral” and Casa Pairal, which was the Raventós family home for many years and is now used as a VIP entertainment space.  

Painting of a grape harvester from the 19th Century at Codornìu.

The elegant Puig i Cadalfach-designed tower of the Codornìu - Raventós family home, Casa Pairal, on the grounds of the winery.

Distinctive moderniste architecture at Codornìu, designed by Antoni Gaudì contemporary, Catalán architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch.  The buildings at Codornìu were declared a National Monument.

The great modernized reception hall at Codornìu with repeating Puig i Cadafalch arches.

Museum space at Codornìu.

Old barrel desplay in the museum space at Codornìu.

At Codornìu, there are many miles of underground caves lined with row after row of pupitres, riddling racks, full of bottles, which one suspects are just there as dummies, since their is no evidence finger marks showing that the bottles have been grasped and turned.  Visitors are taken through these spectacular cellars on a motorized rubber-wheeled train.

Deep in the cellars at Codornìu is a bust of Anna de Codornìu, whose inherited family vineyards were the foundation of one of the world's oldest contually operating wineries.

Plaque to Josep Raventós Fatjó, a family member who ran Codornìu from 1857 to 1885 and introduced the first Cava in 1872.  Note the bullet hole near the right temple, a souvenir from the Spanish Civil War. 

 Large dummy bottles of Codornìu.

Codornìu advertisement from the Belle Epoque.


Bolet. Vins i Cavas 

The Bolet family has cultivated vinyards and elaborated wine for over seven generations.At the beginning of the 20th century, Jaume Bolet Galofré faced the phylloxera plague by replanting all of the vines on our property with white and red varieties typical of the region.

Over the years he planted new vines and today we work 66 acres. The estates: Can Planes d’en Perull, Les Conilleres and Mas Lluet, each in different areas and at different altitudes, are located in Castellví de la Marca (Barcelona).

In the 1970s, Antoni Bolet Pascual began to modernize the winery by installing machinery and stainless steel tanks.

In 1982 we began bottling wines and cavas from our homegrown harvest under the Bolet brand, tribute to the family surname, from both branches "Mas Lluet" and “Can Planes”.

 Vino Blanco Ecológico Vinya Sota Bosc Muscat - Gewurtztraminer blend and Vino Blanco Ecológico Xarel·lo, both organic wines made practicing ecological agriculture in the vineyards.

Maria Tetas (Artista  i dissenyo), Emma Pascual (Departamento tècnico) and Xavier Bolet Tetas (Enòlogo y director comercial) look on as Jose Antoni Bolet Bolet (Gerente y agricultor) pours Bolet Rosat Pinot Noir Cava for our group at Finca Mas LLuet.  The family home is an impressive Catalan "chateau" building.  Photo by Gerry Dawes©2016 gerrydawes@gmail.com

My tasting note on Bolet wines at Finca Mas Lluet.

The Castellers - Human Tower - Builders Center

 Castellers (daredevil human tower pyramids, a Catalan tradition) at the Castellers Center in Vilafranca del Penedès. 

  Capella de Sant Joan, Vilafranca del Penedès.

Finally, after a long day (our fellow tour members flew in from the U. S. that morning), we reached our resting place for the night, the Hotel Barcelona Golf (Night Golf, anyone?)

Hotel Barcelona Golf, Carretera Martorell-Capellades, Km 19.5, 08635 Sant Esteve Sesrovires, Barcelona, Spain Phone: +34 937 75 68 00

_______________________________________________________________________________ 

About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià. 

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés. 

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009. 
 

Pilot for a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.
 

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Customized Culinary, Wine & Cultural Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain  

Gerry Dawes can be reached at  gerrydawes@gmail.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@spanishartisanwine.com