Penedès: beyond Cava
The designation that gave birth to modern winemaking in Spain hides, in the shadow of Cava, a handful of small producers rediscovering their own varieties and their own landscape.
A designation born from Cava's success
Spanish designations of origin aren't always drawn following history, terroir or climate: they're often administrative borders designed to protect big brands' image. The Penedès is a clear example. Vine growing is documented since the 4th century BC —the Romans developed it via the Via Augusta— but historically the vine had been concentrated more in the areas near Tarraco than in the designation's current territory.
The Penedès as we know it today is, above all, a 19th-century product: the boom in local Cava brought international reach and an injection of capital that lasted decades. It was here that the country's first temperature-control systems and first stainless-steel tanks were installed —the cradle of modern winemaking in Spain.
Three different Penedès: Garraf, the Plana and the Penedès Superior
Behind the designation's single name lie three areas each with their own character. The Garraf, on Cretaceous materials —limestones, marls and dolomites— very rich in carbonates, with 550–600 litres of annual rainfall. The Plana, a former basin where sediment washed down from the Gaià massif accumulated, today a broad depression of deep soils. And the Penedès Superior, the coldest, wettest area (650 litres a year), with thin, marly soils on gently sloping hillsides surrounded by forest —the territory where Parellada reigns.
The return to native varieties, twenty-five years late
For decades, the Penedès bet on international varieties —Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir— all accepted by the designation. Just over twenty-five years ago some producers began looking back and giving real value to Xarel·lo, Malvasía or Macabeo: varieties that had always been there, but relegated to a supporting role. The producers we work with at Terroir Radical are part of that second wave, the one seeking its own terroir rather than a formula that already works elsewhere.
Five producers, one shared drive
Celler els Mecanismes, Òscar Soneira's personal project, makes wine nomadically between Terra Alta and the Penedès with native yeasts and minimal intervention —the 'Som' line is its most direct expression. Lavinaventura, by Emiliano Gómez Ventura, works between Torrelles de Foix and Sant Martí Sarroca organically and biodynamically, with Chenin Blanc, Muscat, Parellada and Cabernet Sauvignon. Lucy Chilvers Wine is the project of a British winemaker with classical European training turned to natural wine, seeking technical precision and authenticity in equal measure. And Clot de les Soleres, by Carles and Montse, makes single-varietal minimal-intervention wines in the Vall de Piera (Anoia): Malvasía, Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé, Macabeu Ancestral.
Alongside them, Sans Domaine —by Lambert Perera— works from the neighbouring Alt Camp with regenerative farming and little-known varieties such as Moneu, although much of its wine is classed under the broad umbrella of the Penedès. Five very different outlooks on the same territory, sharing the same distrust of the easy formula.
Garraf, the Plana and the Penedès Superior: three soils and three climates under one designation.
The native varieties the designation left in the background for decades, now recovered.
Twenty-one different wines, from the Garraf to the Anoia, all minimal-intervention.
Producers of the Penedès at Terroir Radical
All the producers we work with who have their vineyards or their project in this territory:
Wines from Penedès
Minimal-intervention Xarel·lo, Malvasía, Macabeo and Parellada, beyond Cava.
See the wines of the Penedès See all the producers