Joan Huguet: "I have one year left to get Corpinnat into the DO Penedès"

I am interviewing the president of the DO Penedès, Joan Huguet, the day after they unanimously approved the creation of two independent chambers (commissions) within the appellation: one for sparkling wines and another for still wines. They say they will launch it in 2027, and that the objective is to build an appellation that unites all agents in the territory, winegrowers and producers. Joan has his own winery, Can Feixes, where he makes wines and also sparkling wines, affiliated with Corpinnat since almost its beginnings. With his presidency, the DO Penedès has become the first 100% organic appellation in the world, which is one of the great achievements.

You have approved the creation of two commissions within the Penedès designation of origin.

— Yes, each commission will make its own decisions. The DO Penedès includes still wines and Clàssic Penedès, and in the future, we'll see. The fact that we have two commissions will allow each one to have its own regulations, with the grape varieties they want to work with. If in the future sparkling wine producers say they only want to work with native varieties, then they can do so, without this decision affecting the regulations for still wines.

I understand you're saying you will grow in the future?

— First let me tell you how the DO Cava is. It has become depersonalized. Before we were all neighbors, we knew each other, we were friends, whether we were big or small producers. Now it's not like that anymore. There are foreign investors, whom we don't know. Furthermore, decisions about the DO Cava are made in Madrid, where they legislate. All this has caused the territory to become depersonalized. That's why Clàssic Penedès and Corpinnat were born, because the DO Cava was concentrating on mass production at low prices, which does not add value. We don't live in times of good, beautiful, and cheap like in our parents' time. So among sparkling wine producers there are those who want volume and those who want quality.

So, you have created the regulations to welcome the producers of sparkling wines who work for quality.

— We have created the regulations to give it space. However, to enter it, in the DO Penedès they can only have the combination of being producers of still wines, registered with the DO Penedès, and making bubbles. I mean they have to be integrated producers, they cannot buy still wine to make bubbles.

Does belonging to a designation of origin bring more benefits or security to producers?

— It is always better. Especially if you go out into the world, if you say you are a designation of origin, it has more substance. Otherwise, when you go out into the world, they tell you that you belong to a club of friends who make bubbles, which I don't think is a bad expression, because if everything is done well and with quality, what can I say? The fact is that the protection of a designation of origin always helps.

Therefore, work so that in the future in Penedès, bubble producers are protected by two designations of origin: DO Cava and DO Penedès.

— It will be easier to understand the territory. The DO Cava is very large, it includes three hundred wineries, with two hundred million bottles, which are concentrated in a few companies. Furthermore, the DO Cava is not ours, the owners are not neighbors of the territory but have interests far from our home: all this is slipping out of our hands. The DO Penedès is from the territory, many already belong to it as producers of still wines, so it is a natural step. And if not, sometimes I think why can't it be? Are we ashamed to belong to Penedès? It's as if we were ashamed of our hair color or our surname. We are from Penedès, why can't we put it on the label?

So if Corpinnat or other producers not affiliated with the DO Cava entered, would the Penedès brand be strengthened?

— Yes, and I think about the territory and the country, because I am proud of where I come from, the Penedès, and I think I live in the best country in the world, which is Catalonia. After all, I think it's what should have been from the beginning. The DO Cava should not have been created as it was created, it was all because of entry into the European market, when Champagne said that producers from the Penedès could not call their products champagne. That's where it all began. When I was little, every Sunday a bottle of champagne was opened, because it was Sunday and because that product was well made. Then it grew in volume, in size, and everything changed.

Do you think there is too much vineyard in Penedès?

— With the business movements that have occurred, with a brand like Freixenet that has stopped making forty million bottles of cava because what it now makes is prosecco, which they put on sale in twenty-one days, then yes, there will be surplus hectares. If we think that in one bottle there is a kilo of grapes, what will happen to those forty million kilos that Freixenet does not use? What has happened with Freixenet is that they have a brand under which they sell everything, and people don't know what they are buying.

Do we understand grapes, if we don't understand them in Penedès?

— Wherever it may be, from everywhere, but neither in Penedès nor in Catalonia. They only focus on their brand, which started with the champagne method, that is, with a second fermentation in the bottle, and now they do everything, and this confuses the consumer. As a Catalan, I also tell you that I am sorry. If the grandparents were to rise from their graves! These companies from Penedès that were the first great exporters from Penedès, look what they are doing! They do not promote Penedès, now they only have one brand, and they no longer care about anything more than making money. This is not working for the territory, there is no involvement in culture. I want figures that do not relocate, that do not abandon the territory.

So, what will happen to these 40 million kilos of surplus grapes?

— Walk between Barcelona and Tarragona, and observe the vineyards there. You will see many abandoned ones. Last year, vineyards were already left unharvested.

But this is a danger for the territory because the winegrower has to earn a living from the land, and if they don't, what will happen?

— So it will plant olive trees, pistachio trees.

Either solar panels or industrial estates.

— In the wine world, it has been said until now that the big problem is the drop in consumption, and no, no. The big problem is the delocalization of the product. For us specifically, that is what affects us most, not the drop in world consumption. They delocalize the product, put it on sale in less than a month, sell it at very cheap prices, they don't have to wait the minimum nine months that the champagne method requires. And they sell them as fresh product with four bubbles. Do you know that Freixenet sells bottles belonging to the DO Cava for four euros, and those made with the prosecco method for seven? They take zero risk with these products. Quality is not sought, but volume. It's a shame all in all.

The winegrower is the one who remains in a very weak position.

— There will be those who continue to work, but it is true that others will not. We are living in a very complicated time.

Complicated and dispersal for the consumer. I have seen menus in restaurants where under the word cava appear wineries that are attached to different places.

— On the street I know that not everything is known.

To finish, Joan, in the years you have been president of the DO Penedès, you have achieved the 100% organic certificate; it is the first designation of origin in the world to have achieved it. What challenges do you have left?

— We have achieved this thanks to the winegrowers; we have all gone in the same direction. I think other designations of origin could also have achieved it, especially the smaller ones. And what you ask me, well I have one year left to achieve Corpinnat entering the DO Penedès.