Pepe Raventós: "The Penedès has a historic opportunity to build a sparkling wine DO for its future grandchildren"

Pepe Raventós (Barcelona, 1974) left the Cava Designation of Origin (DO) in 2012 due to his dissatisfaction with a model that, in his words, "has confused counting bottles as a measure of success" and has sidelined the "creation of value" for the farmer, the consumer, and the territory. Over the past few years, the general director of Raventós i Blanc has worked to create a new DO for sparkling wines that groups together the wineries of Penedès that wish to commit to quality and compete with other prestigious regions such as Champagne or French Burgundy. Coinciding with the start of the harvest, Pepe Reventós vindicates the history and properties of the Penedès terroir for producing highly recognized grapes and believes that the region is facing a unique opportunity to take the definitive step forward.After a few years of drought, he maintains that the sparkling wines of Penedès are facing a great opportunity to build their future wine-growing model. For what reasons?

— Penedès wine has already made its history, being the first ecological designation of origin in the world. And now it is the time for sparkling Penedès. The Cava crisis has exploded, it is irreversible. What do I mean by the Cava crisis? The crisis as a model of prestige to promote sparkling Penedès. Cava has remained as the low-priced sparkling wine of the State and competes with low-priced sparkling wines in the world like prosecco. But now there is a historic opportunity to join forces between winegrowers, cultural agents, municipalities, schools, restaurants, and sparkling wine producers to build a designation of origin for our future grandchildren.

What should be the formula to rebuild this value?

— The essence of Penedès must be recovered, with quality vineyards of xarel·lo and sumoll, which are the native queen varieties. Also protecting the price paid for the work. We must bet on local varieties, on well-done vineyard work, on limited yields, and on ecological work. Instead of being at the 40-50 cents [per kilogram of grapes] that cava has historically paid, we must aim for two euros per kilo for well-worked vineyard grapes.

In a context of price pressure and falling consumption, is this solution viable?

— We should not look at the model that has destroyed us, but rather at the model that works. And the model that works is called Burgundy, it is called Champagne, and it is called Barolo. In these models, the farmer receives between three and six dollars per kilo (between 2.6 and 5.2 euros). If we have a territory that can produce world-class grapes – which I believe we do – and we don't know how to create a profitable model by paying two euros per kilo, it means we are very bad.

Is there market space for Penedès to compete with these territories?

— Our terroir is superior to the Champagne terroir, the natural conditions are superior. At the same time, the sparkling wine market is tired of being polarized. Either you pay a lot of money for a bottle of champagne, which is not worth it, or you pay very little money for a bottle that rarely excites. Therefore, the opportunity is immense. Because between 15 and 30 euros of RRP there is a gap, not only in Catalonia, but in the world. If we don't get our act together to fill it, we are irresponsible.

Under what umbrella should these sparkling wines be? A brand, a DO?

— The great brands in the wine world are appellations of origin. Why? Because they are official, because they transcend. Companies are born, some disappear, but territories do not. The appellation of origin is the brand of everyone: it is the brand of the winegrowers, of the municipalities that are part of the appellation of origin, their schools, their centers, their restaurants. [...] What makes us great is the origin, it is not marketing.

What name should I take?

— A term should be sought that reflects the Penedès, although we are now defining the technical bases. We need to work as a team to be strict, but at the same time very inclusive with different agents in the territory, defining a model that is very intimate, but that can also accommodate many different working styles. If we do things well, I would say we can have it in the short term.

Would there be room for everyone in this designation?

— It is fundamental that this new designation of origin includes the work done by cava producers who want to take a step forward, independent producers, producers of Clàssic Penedès, producers of Corpinnat. It is very important that it is inclusive, because otherwise it will not be successful.

Also from the large industrial producers of the DO Cava?

— I believe that the large industrial producers will be cava makers, and their struggle will be to make cava a little better each year. The fact that there is a designation of origin that pulls upwards is good for them, because it can also help them defend a higher retail price. [...] But I think that thinking that these large industrial producers can be part of a new DO that has to rival Champagne or Burgundy would be a bit utopian.

There is the DO Cava, Corpinnat, Clàssic Penedès, you with Conca del Riu Anoia. Is fragmentation a problem?

— The fragmentation is a result of the crisis of the cava. There is this Japanese tradition that, when a ceramic piece breaks, the pieces are joined and then that piece is considered even more beautiful than before it was broken. It seems to me a very good simile to explain the power that this new future model has, this new designation of origin that we must create together.

And the Catalan consumer, what role do they play here?

— It makes me laugh when we ask the Catalan consumer to drink more Catalan wines. The Catalan consumer has done enough. We producers are the ones who need to get our act together and build a model that will captivate the major markets of the world and that our Catalan consumers, when their friends from abroad visit, will open bottles with all the enthusiasm and pride that we do things well here. [...] Making territory means going out to sell, and this closed view that some have, that we don't believe in ourselves, angers me. [...] The Penedès is one of the best terroirs in the world for making white wines. And we have to say this with humility, but also with confidence and with arguments.