The Cava DO loses a winery with half a million bottles: Kripta, owned by the Torelló Mata family, is transferred to Corpinnat.

Saint Sadurní of AnoiaThe Kripta winery, owned by the Torelló Sibill family of San Sadurní de Anoia, has just announced that it is leaving the Cava DO to join the Corpinnat brand, adding its sixteenth producer to its ranks. "We were deeply rooted in Cava from the beginning, but in recent years the designation of origin has been drifting in a way that no longer identifies us, and Corpinnat is the natural path we want to follow," explained siblings Gemma and Àlex Torelló Sibill on the same morning they notified the Cava Regulatory Council of their departure. "We've timed it to coincide with the end of the quarter, when we've already filed our quarterly declarations, so we'll do this upcoming harvest as Corpinnat," they say.

Next, they show off the first Kripta they've just branded. It's a 2016 sparkling wine, set to be launched this summer with 1,935 bottles. The label is gold, featuring the iconic design designed by the much-admired Rafael Bartolozzi. The amphora bottle also debuts a new gold case, which will also serve as a base to support it, eliminating the need for any other support.

The decision has been well thought out and at Kripta, like all the latest wineries that have joined Corpinnat, it has required two rigorous audits, in two consecutive years, which have shown that they follow the regulations required by Corpinnat, which requires harvesting by hand. and from 2034 onwards, neither the Chardonnay nor the Pinot Noir varieties will be used.. In Kripta, from now on, they will have to change all internal and external paperwork because they will never be able to use the word again. diggingThey are Corpinado. And it's easy to write, but the work involved will be complicated. They are prepared, and they accept it, and they think it's an effort worth it because Corpinnat has demonstrated these years, since it split from the DO Cava in 2019, that "they are a solid group, that does their job, that loves the Penedès and that has a long way to go," says Gemma Torelló, who also believes that the other brand in the region, Clàssic Penedès, "doesn't work and they haven't known how to promote themselves either."

The fact is that currently In the same Penedès there are three overlapping names that explain the work of the sparkling wine makers: Cava, Corpinnat and Clàssic Penedès. "When the DO Cava was created in 1986, it was done quickly and routinely, and everything was so rigid that they did not accept that our elaborations be called made in Penedès, because they told us that the name had already been taken for still wines," recalls Gemma, who adds that "in recent years Cava understands, such as Valls del Anoia-Foix sub-zone;, comprehensive developer". So much so, that Gemma Torelló maintains that she cannot "go around the world with those names that no one understands." And she adds: "In practice, on the shelves of wine shops and on restaurant menus, they place us alongside Gramona, Recaredo, and the other Corpinnats." Why? "Because the world understands the world.

Regarding the Cava DO's derailed path, the two brothers also comment on the current state of the Cava Regulatory Council meetings: "They're diluted because there are three large companies, with foreign capital: Jaume Serra, Codorniu, and Freixenet, who send general secretaries who can't decide anything. Therefore, we end the meetings without having reached any agreement, because these people haven't reached any agreement; we, the same winemaking families, were the business owners who attended the meetings; in our case, it's still like that."

However, when the Cava Regulatory Council needs to make changes, it does, as happened last summer, and this approach is probably the one that has generated the most controversy in recent months. In July 2024, the Regulatory Council allowed wineries to use up to 15% of grapes from vineyards not registered. This measure was intended to address the drought, which had led to a lack of raw materials and primarily benefited Freixenet. "I called Javier Pagès, president of the DO Cava, when I found out, and I told him that cava wouldn't taste anything if they allowed it to be made. He replied that they had agreed to some requests from winegrowers," says Gemma Torelló, who adds, laughing: "The day Freixenet wants to make madeleines within the Cava DO, they'll also be allowed to." To continue the thread, Àlex Torelló believes that last year, with the grape harvest, prices would have been higher. A kilo of grapes in the Cava DO was paid as usual, between 0.70 and 0.80 euros.

All of this is now behind them because Kripta is now focused solely on the future. The winery, which opened in 1978, opened its new facilities in 2001 on the road to Igualada, near Sant Sadurní. It's now in its third generation, with the founding grandparents turning ninety this year. Therefore, the winery's first Corpinnat sparkling wine is released with 1,935 bottles, as it was the year they were born. "Their father, Agustí Torelló Mata, just turned ninety; and their mother, Carmen Sibill, will make them this coming November," the siblings say. Their eldest children, Marc (as winemaker) and Sofía (in charge of hospitality), are already working at the winery. "In this business, there has to be a generation that gets involved, that follows it, because if not, you can sell it," says Gemma Torelló, who compares the dedication everyone puts in together as a family with that of others in a restaurant.

Following the thread of the winery's origin, it is worth mentioning that until a year ago it was called Agustí Torelló Mata, the name of the father, of the first generation. "In February 2024, we decided to change it to Krypt, which is the flagship sparkling wine, our jewel in the crown," says Gemma. After her father had worked for several wineries, in 1978 he set out on his own and began winemaking in a cellar on Calle Industria in Sant Sadurní de Anoia and also in another in the town of Can Rossell. museum, which graphically explains the family's origins. "He didn't want to put the sparkling wine that my father started making on sale, but the brotherhood encouraged him, and he was secured because the designer Rafa Bartolozzi offered to make the label," says Gemma Torelló.

Everything was a success. The label, reminiscent of a Greco-Roman face, with a head of hair, an olive branch in the mouth, and the Cadaqués seascape, caused a sensation, as did the bottle's collar, which depicts some hair. "Even today, almost fifty years later, the label is modern," says Gemma as she shows off the new, gold label. The icing on the cake was the amphora, an obsession of her father, Agustí Torelló Mata, who was inspired by the amphoras the English had used to bottle the wine they received in casks from France, and which naturally underwent secondary fermentation inside the amphora. "The amphora shape prevented the bottles from bursting, which did happen in France, where they bottled that same wine, and since it underwent secondary fermentation in an unprepared bottle, it couldn't withstand the pressure," Gemma points out.

In fact, even today, sparkling wine bottles, without the end, are shaped like amphoras, but with the end added, they stand on the table and can be held in the hand to pour the bubbles into a glass. Another innovation of the father's was the color of the glass, which he chose amber, not green, as had been used until then. It was all very groundbreaking at a time, in 1978, when the Franco dictatorship had barely emerged.

Starting today, the Kripta winery begins a new chapter in its history. "Cava has its own reality, and we have ours, which links us to Corpinnat and the Penedès," conclude siblings Àlex and Gemma Torelló.