Pepe Raventós released the fifth vintage of Mas del Serral in May 2023; a tasting note for this single-estate, single-parcel sparkling wine is given below, together with those for the preceding four vintages (all tasted in Languedoc in early March 2023). First, though, here’s a little background to this remarkable, consistent, and beautifully packaged wine, crafted by one of Catalonia’s most unconventional and far-sighted winemakers.
Like the Chave family in Mauves (Pepe was planning a visit to Jean-Louis Chave when we met last March), the Raventós family has 15th-century roots. Pepe’s forebears arrived at Mas del Serral in the Anoia Valley in 1497. The family came to guide Codorníu, one of Spain’s oldest companies, following the 1551 marriage of Anna Codorníu to Miquel Raventós. (Cervantes was just four at the time.) Pepe’s great-great-great-grandfather Josep Raventós i Fatjó created the first traditional-method sparkling wine in Spain in 1872, using grapes from the estate. His son Manuel Raventós i Domènech perfected the Xarel.lo/Macabeo/Parellada blend that worked so well for the region prior to the arrival of northern interlopers like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as well as commissioning Catalan Josep Puig i Cadafalch to build the new Codorníu winery, now a National Monument. Pepe’s own grandfather, Josep Raventós i Blanc, created and promoted the Cava DO.
In 1982, though, his grandfather parted ways with Codorníu over future vision: industrial or agricultural? It’s a question of some delicacy for any major sparkling-wine region, as those who study Champagne will know. This is a
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
