From Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, Manuel Raventós i Negra, co-founder of Raventós i Blanc, has set out his family’s long winemaking history and his view of how the Cava Designation of Origin took shape. He says the family’s links to wine in the town go back to 1497.
Raventós i Negra, an agricultural engineer and former CaixaBank executive, founded Raventós i Blanc in 1986 with his father, Josep Maria Raventós i Blanc, after leaving the family’s historic Codorníu winery in 1982. His father died suddenly 20 days after the new winery was legally formed, leaving Raventós i Negra, then 38, to lead the business.
He says his father played a key role in the early discussions around the Cava DO as president of the Cava Regulatory Council. The original aim, he says, was a DO centred on the Penedès region and parts of Conca de Barberà. He argues that later political changes led to a broader, method-based DO that allowed Cava production in places such as La Rioja, Valencia and Extremadura. More Catalonia news
Raventós i Negra says that shift weakened the link between origin, growers and the final product. He also points to the so-called Cava War, a dispute over alleged irregularities in production, including releasing Cava before the required nine months of ageing. He says that period damaged the category’s reputation and made exporting harder for Raventós i Blanc.
The family story goes back much further. Raventós i Negra says his great-great-grandparents exported mistelles from Vilanova i la Geltrú to Spanish colonies in Central America. He also says a family member, after moving to Barcelona during the Carlist Wars, studied winemaking at the Agricultural Institute of Sant Isidre and learned the méthode champenoise, which was then applied to local Penedès white grapes, especially Xarel·lo.
He says his great-grandfather, Manuel Raventós Domènech, later replanted vines with American rootstock grafted with Xarel·lo after seeing the effects of phylloxera in France. Raventós Domènech also stopped making mistelles and red wines, and focused on sparkling wine. He commissioned architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch to design the Codorníu cellars, founded Codorníu S.A. in 1926, and after his death in 1930 the estate passed to his eldest son, Raventós i Negra’s grandfather. Today, Raventós i Negra says his son Pepe is working on a new sparkling wine DO with a more collaborative approach to grape growers. Catalonia news archive