Recaredo

Recaredo is the leading producer of sparkling wine in Spain. It’s a family-owned winery that started working organically in 2004 and later in biodynamics in 2006, for which they obtained the full Demeter certification in 2010, the first in their region. More than that, they only use autochthonous grape varieties, harvest the grapes by hand and age their wines for a minimum of 30 months with the lees in bottle using a natural cork for that. Their production method follows these strict principles: • 100% grapes from their own vineyards in the Alt Penedès • 100% organic and biodynamic viticulture • 100% manual harvest • 100% aging in bottle with lees under natural cork • 100% minimum aging of 30 months 'sur lie' • 100% hand turning (remuage) of the bottles • 100% manual disgorgement without freezing the lees Furthermore, they do not produce wines for any other winery, and they have audited yields. For example, in 2015 the average yield from their vineyards was 4,900 kilograms of grapes per hectare, when the maximum permitted yield from the Cava appellation of origin was 12,600 kilograms per hectare. In fact, all of the above points have been certified yearly by Bureau Veritas… since 2003! How about that as a quality promise? But not only do they work in a sustainable way, to me it’s even more important that they produce the best wines in the style in their region of Penedès. They fight for their territory; after years of disappointment with the direction the Cava appellation of origin was going in (cutting corners and damaging the image of the appellation with cheap and unsubstantial wines), they left the appellation along with the rest of the Corpinnat group in pursuit of more freedom and focus on quality. What is remarkable is that they were doing all of this even when they were in the Cava appellation, which unfortunately has been made a synonym for cheap, industrial wine. They are relentlessly looking for ways to improve. They are committed to their land and the quality of their wines, and the wine names have moved from process to place; for example, the Brut de Brut has been renamed to Serral del Vell, which is the name of the vineyard where the grapes that produce it are sourced. The last time I visited them, they were working to produce wines with the second fermentation in bottle without adding cane sugar, using must from their own vines and with indigenous yeasts.

The company laid its foundations in 1924, when Josep Mata Capellades himself built a wine cave underneath his house in the village of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia. His father’s first name was Recaredo, and that’s what he used as a brand name. The third generation, led by Ton Mata, arrived at the business in 1990, and I think he’s the one who has taken quality to a different, higher level. He converted everything to organic, to start. They only make wines from autochthonous grape varieties from their own vineyards, and every single bottle label carries the vintage, disgorgement date and the time the wine has been in bottle in contact with the lees. They work 50 hectares of their own vineyards located on the banks of the Bitlles River in Alt Penedés close to their cellars in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia. Their flagship wine is a single-vineyard Xarello named after a small slope, Turó d’en Mota, where the vines were planted in 1940. The north-facing vineyard is only 0.97 hectares on limestone-rich soils (14% active limestone), where the vines are head-pruned and each guided with the help of a stick. They have produced and sold this wine as a separate label since the 1999 harvest. Not all vintages are produced, and they are not necessarily released following a chronological order. For example, the 2005 was released before the 2004, which they held back as they consider it to be a superb vintage in need of a longer time in bottle. As a side note, they also have a still-wine cellar that operates under the same standards, Celler Credo, and winemaker Ton Mata started a small family project in 2013 to produce natural sparkling wines with his wife.