‘This is the project of my dreams’ says Pepe Raventós of his eponymous garage wines. ‘They are the kind of wines that talk straight to your soul.’ Separate to the family business, Pepe experiments with micro-vinifications from four plots on the Raventós estate. Each vineyard is under 2 hectares in size and planted with old, indigenous varieties, Xarel·lo and Bastard Negre. His aim is to produce authentic wines, with a singular purity, using ancestral farming practices and traditional winemaking techniques. The objective is to harvest and vinify each vineyard separately with a minimal intervention approach to express each site in the most unmediated way possible.

The four vineyards are Vinya del Mas, Vinya del Noguer Alt, Terrasses del Serral and Clos del Serral. The soils are calcerous with varying degrees of limestone and clay. Each one is farmed biodynamically using Pepe’s own preparations and compost from the family farm. They are farmed with the help of horses wherever possible to reduce the impact on the soil.

The wines are produced in very small quantities and we are delighted to include Xarel·lo de la Vinya del Noguer and Bastard Negre de les Terrasses del Serral to our portfolio alongside the highly acclaimed sparkling Mas del Serral. The Xarel·lo is fermented in barrel, amphora and qveri while the Bastard Negre is fermented in open top barrel. The Mas del Serral is from the estate’s oldest Xarel·lo vineyard co-planted with Bastard Negre. There is very little clay, ‘the plant is almost living on the mother rock’, says Pepe, which helps give the wine its fine, distinctive imprint. It is aged for ten years prior to disgorgement and displays immense energy, with aromas of orange peel and a trademark saline edge. It is widely regarded as Spain’s most impressive sparkling wine.