Last Updated on February 19, 2025 by Christian Heide
History of the beautiful Barcelona wine producing region of Penedès
Catalonia, the most northwestern autonomous region of Spain, is a beautiful wine-producing region mostly famous for its D.O.Q. Priorat and D.O. Penedès wines. The latter region is situated only one hour away from Barcelona with a history of wine making going back as far as the 6th century BC, thus making the Penedès one of the most ancient wine regions in Europe.
Next to its superb white wines the region is famous for its Cava, the sparkling wine that is produced in the same method like Champagne from France. Actually, it used to be called Champagne, “Xampán”, in Catalonia as well but when the French wine region had protected its name in the 1980s by the forerunner of the European Union, Catalonia needed to change the name of their product. That is why the name Cava was born – a Catalan word meaning “cellar” – the place where the bottles are stored.
History of Cava
The origins of Catalan sparkling wine date back to as early as 1851. The cava industry, however, owes its beginnings to Josep Raventós’s European travels in the 1860s. During this time, while promoting the still wines of the Codorníu Winery, Raventós visited the Champagne region and became intrigued by the idea of creating a Spanish wine using the traditional method he observed there. In 1872, following the devastation of the Penedès vineyards by the phylloxera plague and the replacement of predominantly red vines with white grape varieties, Raventós produced his first sparkling wine.
Catalan cava producers played a pivotal role in advancing sparkling wine production through a significant technological innovation known as the gyropallet. This mechanized device, invented to replace the labor-intensive hand riddling process, consolidates the lees in the bottle neck before disgorgement and corking.
Today we have about 150 wineries making Cava – all situated in and around the sleepy village of Sant Sadurní d´Anonia. Often they are rather small family businesses.
Cava abroad
The wine maker, Freixenet, from Sant Sadurní d´Anonia has become one of the most famous foreign brands for this sparkling wine, especially in Germany, throughout the last decades. They have become the market leader producing approximately 250 million bottles per year. Other internationally well known wineries are Codorníu, Juve & Camps or Torres.
Cava Experiences
You can find all kind of experiences and tastings of Cava in the Penedès region. Especially Sant Sadurní d´Anoia with her 150 cava makers provides a large variety of tours such as Freixenet where you can learn about mass production of their Cava. However, smaller wineries can offer you much better local experiences. That is why we also offer our private tour “Intimate Champagne & Chocolate Getaway” , a visit to a small, family run Cava winery: Giró I Giró.
Another great experience is Adernats – Vinicola de Nulles (just outside of the Penedes) where you can enjoy a tour around the premises and a fantastic five course dinner. In the early 20th century – after that the phylloxera plague had devastated many grapevines – the wine making families of Nulles decided to join forces by unifying their resources and knowledge into the Sant Isidre´s trade union. Together they built a new wine cellar: the Nulles Wine Cathedral.
The beautiful Wine Cathedral designed by Cèsar Martinell (scholar of Gaudí) is one of the greatest exponents of the modernist movement. You can get a very lively tour around the cathedral just before dinner starts.
For the five course dinner you will be seated between the arches of the cathedral providing a very special ambience. The food comes from a local Nulles restaurant and is truly exquisite. During the evening you will have to compete in a wine tasting contest.
Things to do
Intimate Champagne & Chocolate Getaway, offered by The Barcelona Feeling: Spend a day with us tasting Cava and Chocolate. Visit a cava winery during your Barcelona trip and learn all about how Cava is produced and chocolate is made. Join this culinary experience!
Visit the Freixenet winery. They offer regular tours and you will discover the historic caves where the bottles were stored – many meters underground where the temperature was balanced all year long.
Another highlight is certainly a visit to Codorníu – their winery was designed by one of the top architects of Barcelona: Puig I Cadafalch in the style of Modernism.
