It was in January 2019 that Xavier Gramona and Ton Mata told Cava Denominación de Origen (DO) president Javier Pagés that they were leaving the group. “I remember the meeting as if it was yesterday,” says Gramona, president of the eponymous Cava producer. “Javier Pagés came to my house and Ton Mata and I broke the news. He was clearly very disappointed and troubled by our decision, but the meeting was civil enough. He could sense our resolve – we were not going to be dissuaded.”
The decision to leave the Cava framework in favour of a new designation – Corpinnat – was a last resort, an option that Gramona would not even consider for some time. “It was always my goal to change Cava from within, to forge a stronger quality image of Spanish sparkling wine,” he says. “The first meetings between the Corpinnat Board and the DO authorities began in February 2018.”
The background
Spain’s Cava DO is a powerhouse, producing more than 250m bottles of sparkling a year. But smaller Cava producers have struggled to distinguish themselves in the market from the giants that dominate production, including Freixenet and Codorníu. In 2015, a breakaway association was formed by nine producers, whose aim was to promote quality production. Called Corpinnat (which means “heart of Penedès”), the new association hoped the Cava DO would allow producers to add the new name to their labels.
“However, the former president, Pedro Bonet, was largely opposed to the idea of allowing Corpinnat and Cava on labels, as it would ‘confuse customers’,” says Gramona. “Yet the authorities in Penedès – remember that Corpinnat is open to all cellars in the Penedès zone – stated that using the name on labels would be permitted.”
There was renewed optimism when the current president, Javier Pagés, was appointed in the summer of 2018. But while Pagés said that Corpinnat could potentially appear on labels alongside Cava, he didn’t want the group to have its own protected designation of origin within Penedès, as this would exclude the region’s big three producers, Freixenet, Codorníu and García Carrión. Pagés, too, eventually decreed that Cava and Corpinnat could not coexist. In response, the Corpinnat producers left the Cava DO altogether in February 2019.
“That was the tipping point,” says Gramona. “The refusal to allow Cava and Corpinnat to appear on the same label, even though the Consejo Regulador of Penedès had agreed to its use, was a betrayal. So we left in January. I’m sure some producers are disappointed with us, but I felt this was the right thing to do.”
The nine members of Corpinnat came together on the expansive terrace adjoining Gramona’s winery on a tranquil, hazy July morning in the bucolic vineyards of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia – the centre of Cava production in Spain. Joining Gramona in the new association were Recaredo, Torelló, Llopart, Nadal, Sabaté i Coca, Mas Candí, Huguet Can Feixes and Júlia Bernet. The surrounding landscape, with its rolling hills, is reminiscent of Tuscany and Corpinnat’s members, like Tuscany’s pioneers of the 1970s, are determined to change the way their wines are perceived.
There are key differences between the situation in Tuscany and Spain, of course, but they have one important thing in common: dissatisfaction with regulations perceived to be focused on volume rather than quality. The situation is encouraging Spanish winemakers to challenge the inadequacies of their appellations through various means. Corpinnat’s succession from the Cava DO is just the latest chapter in the saga.
“I have no regrets,” says founding member Toni de la Rosa. “None whatsoever. The Cava DO needed a rebirth. Corpinnat was designed to promote a prestigious image of the best sparkling wines of Penedès – something we are achieving.”
The foundations for Corpinnat were laid in July 2012, when the five principal members – Gramona, Nadal, Recaredo, Sabaté i Coca and Torelló – decided to create a designation with a much more rigid set of rules. Gramona explains that when the Cava DO was created in 1972, it could be used by any Spanish sparkling wine made by the traditional method, regardless of the geographical origin. Yet historically, the vast majority of Spanish sparkling wine has always been made in Penedès, its birthplace in Spain. “There is no great wine appellation in the world that doesn ‘t protect its integrity of origin,” says Gramona. “However, for political reasons, the Spanish authorities simply drew boundaries around the municipalities in which all the Cava producers were located, including La Rioja, Zaragoza, Navarra and Valencia.” He says this has been a point of contention for the region’s artisan producers for decades.
The association (whose full name is the Association of Wine Producers and Growers Corpinnat, or AVEC) received formal recognition from the Catalan government in 2017, followed by the Intellectual Property Office of the European Union in December of that year. However, the group concedes that petitioning the Spanish government for a DO of their own may take at least five years.
As it stands, Corpinnat’s members must use grapes grown within a defined area inside the DO Penedès and at least 75% of the grapes used must be from estate vineyards. Moreover, the viticultural methods must be certified organic, and 90% of the grapes must be indigenous varieties: Xarel-lo, Parellada and Malvasia. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Trepat can make up only 10% of any final blend. According to Gramona, several additional wineries have asked to join Corpinnat. “I’m considering it,” he says. “They will have to prove themselves, as we did.”
The first bottles bearing the Corpinnat label appeared on the Spanish market in May 2019.
Is a reunion possible?
As is typical in divorce, the parties feel sorry about the way things turned out.
“I deeply regret losing some of Cava’s finest wineries,” says Javier Pagés. He acknowledges that their dissatisfaction over zoning and origin requirements had been boiling for some time. “There is no easy solution to these complex issues,” he says. “However, all the wineries and grape growers that make up the DO agree that these are challenges that we must face together. I maintain an open dialogue with the wineries and I hope that in the future they will agree to rejoin the DO.”
This is not the first time renowned Cava producers have left the DO. In 2012, Raventós – a sparkling-wine producer with a cult following – left the DO; owner Pepe Raventós has stated many times publicly that he will never rejoin.
But unlike Raventós and ex-Rioja producer Bodegas Artadi, Corpinnat’s co-president is keeping all his options open. This is unusual, if not unprecedented – it’s hard to imagine other breakaway groups returning to their appellations so quickly after departure. “Rejoining Cava is a distinct possibility,” says Gramona. “If we rejoined the DO, they would have to agree to allow Corpinnat to exist alongside Cava, which may not be possible. However, Javier Pagés has said he would like us to return. So let’s wait and see. In the meantime, we are simply going to promote our wines and consider our future.”
However, the image of Cava as a cheap substitute for Champagne is a pervasive and stubborn one. From that perspective, wouldn’t rejoining be self-defeating, especially as Prosecco continues to eat Cava’s market share in key markets?
“We believe that once the zoning and segmentation debate is resolved, there is no real reason for any producer to stay out of the DO. Cava is stronger if we all row together in the same direction. The doors are open for dialogue,” says Pagés. “As for conditions, we have not reached that point yet, but in the coming months the bases that are common to reach an agreement will be established. Of that I’m sure.”
It is clear that leaving Cava for good may be a step too far even for Gramona, despite his initial resolve back in January 2019. “I feel a great sense of loss, despite my determination to leave,” he admits. Other members, on the other hand, such as Ricard Zamora Isanda of Sabaté i Coca, and Toni de la Rosa, owner of Torelló, have stated their desire to go it alone and pursue an independent appellation. As Corpinnat is a democratic organisation, the will of the majority will rule.
But perhaps Gramona and Mata created Corpinnat as a way to jolt the Cava authorities out of their inertia. In many discussions, the need for “strong, but not permanent action” was repeatedly stated. Their succession, coming on top of Raventós’ 2012 decision to leave, has clearly worried Pagés; his desire for change appears to be sincere. Indeed, it may be necessary if he wants to stop a domino effect.
The departure of nine leading wineries from an established appellation such as Champagne is unthinkable – no wonder the Consejo Regulador is considering its long-term strategy in a changing world. Gramona and his colleagues may have fallen just short of starting a revolution, but they have certainly shaken things up a little. And that can only be a positive development in a category that has stagnated.
