The Champagne Society – December 2017 Selection: Raventós i Blanc

Manuel Raventós Negra (MRN) 2010
Price for The Champagne Society members: $93 (regular price $120)

The name Raventós has become synonymous with great sparkling wines. Raventós i Blanc is one of the few producers of Spanish sparkling wine that grows, tends and harvests their grapes from their own property, ferments and vinifies their wines, and then sells them under their label. To borrow a phrase from Champagne, one can truly consider them a Récoltant Manipulant (Grower Producer). Raventós i Blanc is Champagne know how and innovation imbued with Catalan spirit and terroir. Only cane sugar is used in the liqueur de tirage. A pneumatic press is used to gently extract the juice. The wines spend a disproportionate amount of time on the lees to add richness and complexity. Each of these techniques can be found in the very best of Champagne producers, but only a few in Spain.

The Raventós family, a leading, world-renowned winegrowing dynasty, has lived on their estate since 1497. Twenty one generations have worked the land comprised of 220 acres of vines, forest and water, with a specific microclimate influenced by a river, lake, two streams, and a hill known as the Turó del Serral. Their soils were formed over 16 million years ago. They are calcareous with marine fossils, and this provides the ideal conditions for producing wines with a potent mineral expression.

The personality and the style of their sparkling wines are determined by the soil, by the native varieties and by the biodynamic winemaking, which favors the biodiversity, energy and life of the estate as much as possible. It is the soils of marine origin that give their wines typicity, providing them with saline and mineral notes that make their sparkling wines different from those produced on other terroirs throughout the world.

The coupage “Manuel Raventós Negra (MRN) 2010” is a personal selection of the best wines from the vintage. It is their signature sparkling wine only bottled in the most exceptional vintages. The wines selected for this vintage were Xarel·lo (70%) from the Clos parcel, Macabeu (20%) from the Vinya dels Fòssils parcel, and Parellada (10%) from the La Creueta parcel. Six years of cellar aging give the wine a marvelous structure on the palate, as well as an enveloping silky texture with a long, bitter finish typical of wines from the cru Conca del Riu Anoia.

- - -
Posted on 2017.12.01 in Spain DO, The Champagne Society, Cava