Grape Varieties

Above all, we aim to create individual wines and we believe that one of the ways to achieve this is to work with traditional varieties: what other kinds could so faithfully reflect our environment?
These varieties are playing an increasingly important role in our winemaking. We do not rule out any varieties and are essentially experimenting with Macabeu, Xarel·lo, Subirat Parent, Garnatxa Blanca and Garnatxa Negra, Carinyena, Ull de Llebre and Sumoll. The Ull de Llebre is currently the base for three of the four reds we have on the market. The two white wines and the cavas are based entirely on traditional grape varieties.
Experience has shown us that you cannot say that a particular variety does not have the potential to make a great wine until you give it the chance to do so, from the vineyard right through to the cellar.
Other highly regarded varieties we use to make our wines are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah, all of which possess unquestionable potential.

The Harvest

When it comes to harvest-time we carry out an exhaustive monitoring process of each vineyard to determine the optimum point of ripeness. We take into consideration the characteristics of each plot and, if the ripening process has been irregular, make any necessary adjustments.
We effectively make the decision to harvest when the grape's skin has reached the point of maximum phenolic ripeness. This is determined by tasting the skin in addition to other standard controls (sugar, acidity, berry weight, etc.).
Initial grape selection takes place in the vineyard. If the ripening process has not been consistent in all the clusters, we initially harvest the ripest grapes, leaving the others to ripen fully. For example, at Mas Vilella, during the 2001 harvest, three of us worked for eight days to separate some 2,000 kilos, selecting them cluster by cluster.
We believe that the grapes can best be selected in the vineyard itself, where we can properly judge the vine's appearance.
All our grapes are picked by hand.

The winemaking process

The second grape selection process takes place at the unloading stage, also manually, and is carried out in a small grape-hopper. This allows us to inspect the whole cluster, separating any lower quality clusters and removing leaves. For example, during the 2001 harvest, three of us worked for two hours to unload 1,000 kilos of Subirat Parent, removing every grape that had been pecked by birds!

We believe it is fundamental to separate clusters with different characteristics and for this reason the batches of grapes we use for winemaking are very small, the average being 3,000 kilos. During the 2002 harvest, we made wine from seven 500-kilo batches.
The winemaking process is aimed at expressing the personality of our vines to the fullest. This is why we carry out cold pellicular maceration for our whites and a longer maceration period (25-40 days) for our reds to extract all the aromatic and phenolic elements from the grape.

Subsequently, in the phase prior to bottling, we filter the wines very gentle to remove any possible sediment whilst respecting its natural characteristics to the utmost.

The ageing process

We believe that barrel-ageing is a very important process as it has such an influence on the final profile of the wine. We have been experimenting with different kinds of barrel and have more than 20 varieties from 10 or 11 different coopers. We analyse the origin of the oak, the natural drying processes, the intensity of the toasting process, etc. The majority are of French oak (90%) and the remainder come from Hungary and the United States.

The vast majority of our barrels are either new or one year old and we keep them for a maximum of three years. We have proven that new casks are essential to better express the qualities of our estate wines. We can only achieve a combination of maximum complexity and maximum elegance in a wine by using new casks.

Cavas

Our philosophy with regard to our cavas is that they should be as natural as possible. This means that their personality should derive from the base wine and the ageing process. Some 95% of our cava production does not contain any final dosage (licor d'expedició). We only use a dosage in our Cava Brut, at 4 grams per litre. We do not believe in the dosage concept as a criteria of quality nor as a device to impart greater personality to the cava. We think that by using the dosage liquor, which is based on sugar, the cava is enriched with other flavours and aromas that do not naturally belong to it. We believe that the only differentiating elements should be the base wine and the yeast which give the cava a much more natural and honest taste.
We only use the three traditional grape varieties to make cava as we believe they impart a distinct personality which differentiates them from other sparkling wines around the world.
The minimum ageing period for our cavas is 20 - 24 months for Brut Nature and 30 - 42 for our Gran Reserva.