Spain · Penedès

AT Roca

Traditional-method sparkling wine from hand-harvested Macabeu and Xarel-lo on marine limestone in the d'Ordal foothills, produced with zero dosage and no concessions to scale.

The producer

In 2012, Agustí Torelló Sibill walked away from the family Cava house his predecessors had built across three generations and founded AT Roca in Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs, in the d'Ordal foothills of Catalonia. The estate works almost exclusively with Macabeu and Xarel-lo on limestone soils formed from marine sediment 18 million years ago, producing traditional-method sparkling wines under DO Clàssic Penedès, a designation that requires organic certification and limits membership to producers committed to terroir-specific, minimal-intervention winemaking.

Every grape at AT Roca is harvested by hand, each parcel vinified separately with indigenous yeasts, and every sparkling wine released with zero dosage. The Brut Reserva, a blend of 55% Macabeu and 45% Xarel-lo, spends twenty months on lees before hand disgorgement without neck-freezing. A small amount of still Xarel-lo from the high-elevation Cantallops vineyard completes the range. The wines carry the limestone and the grape, with nothing added to soften or adjust them.

Known for

Brut Nature sparkling wine from indigenous Catalan varieties under DO Clàssic Penedès

Notable facts

The story

From Cava to Classic

In 2012, Agustí Torelló Sibill closed his chapter at Agustí Torelló Mata, the Cava house his family had built across three generations, and moved to Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs to start again. His son, also Agustí, had spent time in Champagne apprenticing with Bruno Michel, one of the growers who had pushed organic farming into that region before it became fashionable. The son came home with notes on indigenous yeasts, on why you might not freeze the neck before disgorgement, on what happens when you leave sugar out entirely. The father had the land and the decision; the son had the model. The estate they founded together joined a designation with ten members and a requirement that would have disqualified most of their former colleagues. The first wines left the cellar with no dosage and an address on the label.

From Cava to Classic

In 2012, Agustí Torelló Sibill closed his chapter at Agustí Torelló Mata, the Cava house his family had built across three generations, and moved to Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs to start again. His son, also Agustí, had spent time in Champagne apprenticing with Bruno Michel, one of the growers who had pushed organic farming into that region before it became fashionable. The son came home with notes on indigenous yeasts, on why you might not freeze the neck before disgorgement, on what happens when you leave sugar out entirely. The father had the land and the decision; the son had the model. The estate they founded together joined a designation with ten members and a requirement that would have disqualified most of their former colleagues. The first wines left the cellar with no dosage and an address on the label.

From the atlas

AT Roca

At A Glance

Producer: AT Roca Village / Appellation: Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs, DO Clàssic Penedès, Catalonia Grapes: Macabeu (sparkling), Xarel-lo (still) Style: Traditional-method sparkling wine, Brut Nature; single-vineyard still white Core Wine: Brut Reserva

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The Producer

In 2012, Agustí Torelló Sibill walked away from the family Cava house his predecessors had built across three generations. He took his family to Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs, in the d'Ordal foothills of Catalonia, and founded AT Roca on a different premise: that Penedès sparkling wine could carry a precise address, farmed by hand, fermented on indigenous yeasts, and released without any added sugar.

The estate operates under DO Clàssic Penedès, a designation created by a small cohort of producers who separated from the sprawling Cava DO. Ten producers formed the original group. Membership requires organic certification, placing it among the first Spanish governing bodies to make that a condition of entry rather than an optional credential.

The range is small: sparkling wines built on Macabeu, a rosé sparkling from the same limestone parcels, and a still white from the high-elevation Cantallops vineyard planted to Xarel-lo. AT Roca does not make Cava.

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Place

Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs sits on the northern slope of the Serralada Litoral, the coastal mountain range that runs parallel to the Mediterranean northeast of Barcelona. The d'Ordal massif forms the ridge above the estate, and the elevation and aspect keep temperatures cooler than the sun-facing Penedès floor. Macabeu, a late-ripening white grape that needs time to accumulate flavour without losing acidity, suits this cooler pocket well.

The broader Penedès denomination covers a large and varied territory. DO Clàssic Penedès carves out a smaller, higher-altitude subset of it, with stricter farming requirements and a tighter interpretation of what counts as a qualifying site. The label distinction matters: a wine under DO Clàssic Penedès signals organic farming and a specific mountain-fringe geography, not just a Catalan origin.

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Soil And Site

The soils around Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs are limestone-based, formed from marine sediment deposited roughly 18 million years ago. Compressed marine fossils make up much of the substrate. Above that base, the parcels carry varying combinations of gravels, nodules, lutites and marls.

The Cantallops vineyard, where the Xarel-lo for the still wine is grown, lies at higher elevation than the sparkling parcels. The extra altitude extends the growing season, preserving aromatic freshness in a grape variety that can turn broad and waxy in warmer sites.

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Story

The Torelló name in Catalan wine runs back through Agustí Torelló Sibill's father and grandfather. The family business, Agustí Torelló Mata, was a Cava producer with established commercial reach. Sibill's decision to leave it in 2012 was not a gradual shift; it was a founding of something new, with a different model from the start.

Before AT Roca opened, Agustí Torelló Roca, Sibill's son, had studied winemaking in Tarragona and then gone north to Champagne to apprentice with Bruno Michel, one of that region's early advocates for organic farming in sparkling wine production. The apprenticeship ran before the estate was founded, and the practices Michel had developed in Champagne, including indigenous yeast fermentation and minimal intervention in the cellar, came back to Penedès with him.

The timing placed AT Roca at the formation of DO Clàssic Penedès. Joining a designation with ten founding members in a region defined by high-volume industrial Cava production was a deliberate positioning: smaller, slower, and tied to a specific patch of limestone.

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Vineyards And Cellar

The vineyards are farmed organically and under regenerative dryland principles, without irrigation. Every grape is harvested by hand, a distinction worth noting in a region where machine harvesting is the near-universal norm across both Cava and Clàssic Penedès producers.

Each parcel is vinified separately. Fermentation runs spontaneously using the indigenous yeasts from each individual parcel, in a combination of stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels. The base wines age for at least seven months before the second fermentation in bottle. Once in bottle, the wines spend a minimum of twenty months on lees before disgorgement. Riddling is done by hand on traditional pupitres. The neck is not frozen before disgorgement, removing one of the standard shortcuts of industrial méthode traditionnelle. Zero dosage is applied to every sparkling wine in the range.

For the Cantallops still wine, the approach differs in one key respect: fermentation happens in used barrels rather than new oak, and the wine ages under natural cork rather than crown cap. Sulfur is applied once, post-malolactic fermentation, to preserve acidity. The wine is released unfiltered.

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Wines

The range has three wines.

Brut Reserva is the estate's main production. The blend is 55% Macabeu and 45% Xarel-lo from limestone parcels in the d'Ordal foothills. Seven months in base wine ageing precede twenty months on lees in bottle. Residual sugar at disgorgement sits at 4.5 g/l, carried in from the grapes alone; no dosage is added. The nose shows white flowers, fresh pear, green apple and fennel alongside a quieter brioche note that develops from the extended lees contact. The mousse is creamy and persistent. Acidity runs fresh and direct, with a mineral close.

Rosat Reserva is a rosé sparkling wine made by the same traditional method from limestone parcels. Sensory detail is not available from verified sources.

Cantallops Xarel-lo is the sole still wine. It comes from a single high-elevation vineyard where Xarel-lo grown on the cool upper slopes takes on aniseed, confectionery and faintly smoky aromatic qualities. Spontaneous fermentation in used barrels, unfiltered bottling, and a single post-malolactic sulfur addition give it a wine that is textured and mineral, and that sources describe as age-worthy.

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In The Glass

The Brut Reserva opens with white flowers and green fruit: pear, green apple, a citrus edge. Fennel is distinct rather than faint. The brioche note sits underneath, quiet and yeasty from twenty months on lees. In the mouth, the mousse is creamy without being heavy, and the acidity is direct, lifting the wine through the mid-palate rather than ceding to roundness. The finish is mineral, clean, and dry. With no dosage to soften the close, the limestone comes through as a flinty, faintly chalky note that lingers after the fruit has faded.

The Cantallops Xarel-lo behaves differently. The aniseed note is the first thing, followed by a confectionery sweetness and a smoky undercurrent. Unfiltered and aged under cork, it carries more texture than the sparkling wines, and the single sulfur addition means natural acidity is intact and driving.

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A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Brut Reserva. It is 55% Macabeu and 45% Xarel-lo, aged twenty months on lees in bottle, disgorged by hand, and released with no added sugar. The mousse is creamy, the acidity direct, and the aromatics run to pear, green apple, fennel, and a understated brioche that comes from the extended lees contact rather than from winemaking additions. The finish is dry and mineral. Nothing is softened at the end; what the limestone and the grapes produce is what lands in the glass. It is a clear statement of what AT Roca is making and why the long, careful production is worth it.

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Anecdote

In 2012, Agustí Torelló Sibill closed his chapter at Agustí Torelló Mata, the Cava house his family had built across three generations, and moved to Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs to start again. His son, also Agustí, had spent time in Champagne apprenticing with Bruno Michel, one of the growers who had pushed organic farming into that region's mainstream long before it was fashionable. The son came home with notes on indigenous yeasts, on why you might not freeze the neck before disgorgement, on what happens when you leave sugar out entirely. The father had the land and the decision; the son had the model. The estate they founded together joined a designation with ten members and a requirement that would have disqualified most of their former colleagues. The first wines left the cellar with no dosage and an address on the label.

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Final Word

AT Roca is a small producer making a quiet argument in a region historically dominated by volume. The argument is in the farming, the cellar work, and the zero-dosage choice: that the limestone of the d'Ordal foothills is interesting enough to put in a glass without adjusting it. The Brut Reserva is the clearest version of that position.

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Sources

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