The Penedès vineyard, in high tension: winegrowers foresee a nosedive in grape prices

Sant Sadurní d'AnoiaThe winegrowers of Penedès have not been as afraid of the future as they are today. They have several indicators to reinforce their fear: Freixenet (which is 100% owned by the German group Henkell) for the past two years is believed to have stopped producing forty million annual bottles within the DO Cava (a figure the winery neither confirms nor denies), last harvest there was a surplus of grapes and base wine, and the figures being released about wine and sparkling wine sales in general are not optimistic. For all these reasons, the president of the Penedès Viticulturists Association, Josep Anton Vendrell, states that they are experiencing “a very critical situation, in which 35% of the planted vineyards in Penedès would be superfluous, and in this upcoming harvest, the price of grapes could plummet; last year the DO Cava paid between 46 or 60 euro cents”. If there are superfluous vineyards, and if there is European Union aid to uproot them, it is clear that the territory could change in a few years, ceasing to be the green lung between Barcelona and Tarragona, and making way for industrial estates or fields with solar panels, historical threats stemming from urban pressure. To this situation, one certainty is added: the transfer of some wineries from the DO Cava to Corpinnat, a brand that works to ensure an agreement with the viticulturist with an increasing price each year.

Another consequence of the wine surplus in the region is that cooperatives have started selling base wine as table wine; they are declassifying the wines due to the drop in price and demand, because the base wine reserved for cava has not been sold. It has not been necessary because the region's major producer, Freixenet, does not need as much base wine as before. It did not need it in 2025, nor in 2024, when it acquired it in other regions and produced another product with bubbles, technically called gran vas. In 2024, it was forced to do so due to the drought, which affected Penedès and the country in general. As Freixenet wanted to continue responding to international demand, especially from the markets of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, it bought grapes from outside the region and launched another product on the market, which was not cava, but which the end consumer might even think it was due to the play on names it created. The new product is Freixenet Premium Sparkling Wine Cuvée, outside the DO Cava, of course. Last year, in 2025, it continued to do so with the curiosity that it was indeed a good harvest year then.

So, 2024 was due to the drought, but 2025 because another product with bubbles had already been invented and, therefore, it was no longer necessary to buy grapes in Penedès, has resulted in two years in which the main producer in the area has not bought grapes. Last year, there were vineyards that were not harvested, there were winegrowers who sold grapes without a price (without knowing what price they would be paid).

Vineyard in good condition

In summary, the forecast of the president of the Association of Winegrowers of Penedès is that the price of grapes could plummet this harvest because there will be little demand and a lot of supply. “It has rained, the vineyard is fine, and if there are no other meteorological changes, meaning no frost or hail, everything points to it being a good harvest, but if there is no demand, there will be too much,” says Josep Anton Vendrell. For their part, Freixenet has not wanted to respond to ARA's question about the number of cava bottles they have stopped producing, because they state that it is “confidential information”.

Regarding the harvested grapes, the price per kilo of grapes was paid last year between 46 and 60 euro cents. It could not be paid less than 46 cents, but it could be more than 60. “It is the price set by the DO Cava, which is based on the cost study done by the Institut Català del Vi, Incavi, which it usually publishes in July, and about which we do not agree,” says Vendrell. They do not agree because they consider that this cost study is not real, “items need to be updated for it to be real; moreover, it would be good if it were published earlier so that the winegrower could make forecasts”. Prices cannot be agreed upon because competition law prevails, which prohibits setting them. Be that as it may, “paying less than 60 cents per kilo of harvested grapes is a ruin for the winegrower”, says the president.

, that is to say 60 million less in two years.

Finally, the president of the Corpinnat brand, Pere Llopart, explains that 10% of the Penedès vineyards are cultivated by wineries affiliated or linked to Corpinnat, which agrees or sets a reference price “deserving of the viticulturist's work, and which at the same time offers protection for the territory”. They agree on minimum prices with the responsibility of increasing them year after year, and they have it written in their regulations, and this fact, in itself, "is an unheard-of fact in the territory and also with respect to many other wine-growing areas". This year, the minimum price they have agreed upon is €0.943/kg (or 943 euros/tonne) for varieties registered in their regulations, whether for making still wine or sparkling wine, and €0.82/kg for varieties not in their regulations (cabernet, merlot, muscat, and others), which can be purchased for making still wine if the wineries wish”, says Llopart, who emphasizes that the minimum prices agreed upon among Corpinnat members are unprecedented “and I would dare to say that they are unprecedented in the world”. Llopart considers that, with the volume of bottles they produce, they cannot be the only solution in Penedès, but they do want to explain that there is another way to work with the viticulturist and to make sparkling wines.

A dark future, with current figures

In two years, the DO Cava has sold 24% fewer bottles, specifically, from 250 million in 2023 to 190 in 2025, that is 60 million less in two years.

If there is a surplus of vineyards, grape prices will continue to fall, and this will mean that winegrowers will not make a living from cultivating the land. From here, other scenarios could open up that no one wants to imagine at the moment in Penedès.