Spain · Penedès

Bodega Torelló Llopart SA

Torelló is a Corpinnat sparkling wine estate at Can Martí in Gelida, Alt Penedès, where the family has farmed the same land since 1395. Josefa Llopart and Francesc Torelló, the 20th generation, began bottling sparkling wine in 1951. The estate farms 80 hectares of 11 grape varieties organically and by hand, and left DO Cava in 2019 to co-found Corpinnat. The flagship Tradicional Brut Nature ages 48 months on lees from Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada.

The producer

Torelló makes a case worth following in Catalonia's sparkling wine debates. The Can Martí estate in Gelida occupies a single contiguous block of hillside in the Alt Penedès, documented in family archives across 117 records stretching back to 1395. For most of those six centuries the land fed a mixed agricultural operation; the sparkling wine tradition began in 1951 when Josefa Llopart and Francesc Torelló, the 20th generation, chose to bottle under the family name rather than sell harvested fruit and bulk wine as their predecessors had done. The estate went fully organic in 2014. In 2019 it formally left DO Cava to complete its transition to Corpinnat, the collective it helped register in April 2018 alongside Gramona, Llopart, Nadal, Recaredo and Sabaté i Coca.

Corpinnat's membership rules are stricter than anything DO Cava requires: 100% organic viticulture, fully manual harvesting, a minimum grape price of €0.70 per kilogram, at least 90% indigenous varieties, and a minimum 18 months on lees. Torelló's flagship Tradicional Brut Nature exceeds that floor by a wide margin, spending 48 months in bottle with poignettage before disgorgement and no added dosage. The blend is 48% Macabeo, 34% Xarel·lo and 18% Parellada, aged in 5,500 square metres of subterranean cellars beneath the property. The estate also produces Raimonda, a still red of 79% Merlot and 21% Cabernet Sauvignon from Can Martí parcels, under DO Penedès.

Known for

Corpinnat sparkling wines from indigenous Catalan varieties, organically farmed and hand-harvested at Can Martí in Gelida, Alt Penedès.

Notable facts

The story

The First Label

In 1951, Josefa Llopart and Francesc Torelló did something none of their predecessors across six centuries had done: they stopped selling the estate's grapes and bulk wine and began bottling under the family name. The land at Can Martí in Gelida had been in the family since 1395, documented across 117 archival records, and through all that time the property changed names, the family changed surnames through successive marriages, and the fruit went to market without a label. The 20th generation changed that. They needed a bottle, a label, and a name. They put Torelló on the glass. The estate is now in its 21st and 22nd generations, and the label on every Corpinnat it produces still carries that name.

From the atlas

Torelló

At A Glance

The Producer

Torelló holds one of the more durable ownership records in Catalan wine. The Can Martí estate in Gelida, in the inland hills of Alt Penedès, has been in the same family since 1395, when a Lord of Gelida transferred the land, then called Mas de la Torrevella, to ancestor Jaume Miquel. Over the following six centuries the family surname changed repeatedly through marriages before settling on Torelló in what are now the 21st and 22nd generations. A hundred and seventeen archival documents track that continuity.

For most of that span the estate was agricultural land. Josefa Llopart and Francesc Torelló, the 20th generation, changed that in 1951 when they began producing sparkling wine under the family name rather than selling harvested fruit and bulk wine as their predecessors had done. The sparkling tradition they started continues at the estate, built on the three classic Catalan white varieties and aged underground in 5,500 square metres of subterranean cellars carved beneath the property.

In 2019 Torelló left DO Cava to complete its transition to Corpinnat, the stricter collective it had helped found a year earlier. The Tradicional Brut Nature, which had been a Cava, became a Corpinnat.

Place

Gelida sits in the Alt Penedès, the inland plateau of Catalonia southwest of Barcelona. The Alt Penedès rises behind the coastal range at elevations that bring cooler nights and a longer growing season than the maritime lowlands. That temperature range lets the indigenous white grapes, Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada, ripen slowly and hold their acidity, which is the physical basis of the sparkling wine style here.

The Can Martí estate sits within this landscape as a single, contiguous property, which is relatively rare in a region where vineyard fragmentation is common. All 80 planted hectares are farmed organically and harvested by hand. The still red wines carry the Penedès denomination; the sparkling wines now carry Corpinnat.

Soil And Site

The Can Martí estate occupies hillside ground in the Gelida municipality. Specific soil composition data is not available in the verified record, but the Alt Penedès plateau generally presents calcareous soils over clay subsoil, which influences drainage and vine stress through the dry Catalan summer. Eleven grape varieties are planted across the 80 hectares, covering both the classic indigenous white varieties for sparkling wine and the international red varieties used in the Penedès still wine range.

Story

The Corpinnat exit is the defining decision of Torelló's recent history. DO Cava was built around volume and geographic spread, eventually covering production zones across much of Spain. By the mid-2010s a group of Alt Penedès producers had concluded that the DO's standards no longer reflected what they were doing in their vineyards and cellars. Torelló, already farming organically since 2014, was part of that group.

On 12 April 2018, six producers registered Corpinnat as a collective EU brand: Gramona, Llopart, Nadal, Recaredo, Sabaté i Coca and Torelló. The rules they wrote for themselves were considerably stricter than Cava's. Every member must farm 100% organically, harvest entirely by hand, use at least 90% indigenous grape varieties, source at least 75% of grapes from owned or long-term-leased vineyards, pay a minimum of €0.70 per kilogram for grapes, and age sparkling wines on lees for a minimum of 18 months. Torelló's flagship Tradicional Brut Nature exceeds that floor by a considerable margin, aging 48 months.

By 2019 Torelló had formally left DO Cava and labelled its sparkling wines as Corpinnat. The practical consequence was visible on every bottle: a label change that signalled a choice about what kind of producer the estate intended to be.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 80 planted hectares at Can Martí are farmed without synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers, certified organic since 2014. Hand harvesting across all parcels is a Corpinnat requirement and an estate standard. The combination of manual selection and organic viticulture gives the harvest team direct control over fruit quality at picking, which matters particularly for long-aged sparkling wine, where damaged or underripe grapes cannot be corrected later.

Underground, 5,500 square metres of subterranean cellars maintain a stable, cool temperature through Gelida's warm summers. The Tradicional Brut Nature undergoes poignettage during its 48 months on lees. Poignettage is the manual turning and tilting of bottles to work the spent yeast toward the neck before disgorgement; it is slower and more labour-intensive than the gyropalette machines used in most Cava production. No dosage is added after disgorgement. Brut Nature means the wine carries whatever residual sugar the fermentation leaves, with none supplemented.

Wines

The range divides between Corpinnat sparkling wines and still wines under DO Penedès.

The Tradicional Brut Nature is the flagship. It blends 48% Macabeo, 34% Xarel·lo and 18% Parellada. Macabeo contributes floral character and roundness; Xarel·lo adds body and aromatic depth; Parellada brings freshness and a faint herbal note. The wine spends 48 months on lees, building autolytic complexity before disgorgement. The straw-yellow colour and persistent fine bead are visible in the glass before any aroma.

Raimonda is the estate's still red, a blend of 79% Merlot and 21% Cabernet Sauvignon from Can Martí parcels, aged 12 months in French oak. Plum colour with a purple edge, dense in the glass. The Cabernet Sauvignon is 21% of the blend, alongside the Merlot majority.

Beyond these two anchors, the estate's 11 planted varieties across 80 hectares suggest a range wider than the core bottles, with additional Corpinnat and Penedès labels built from the same organically farmed parcels.

In The Glass

The Tradicional Brut Nature opens with pear and white fruit, then pastry notes from the extended lees contact: candied fruit, pastry cream, white flower. In the mouth the bubbles are fine and the acidity is firm, cutting through the richness that 48 months on lees builds. The finish is dry, clean and long, without any sweetness from added dosage. The lees character is present but not dominant; the underlying Catalan variety character, particularly the herbal lift from Parellada and the density from Xarel·lo, stays readable beneath it.

Raimonda is darker in register. Black fruit, blackberries, blueberries and blackcurrant, with rosemary and a cinnamon-vanilla thread from the French oak. The palate is dense and the tannin is firm from the Cabernet Sauvignon proportion, softened by the Merlot majority. The finish carries a balsamic note and a light herbaceous edge. It is a warmer-climate red that develops over several years.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Torelló Tradicional Brut Nature. It is a Corpinnat sparkling wine built from 48% Macabeo, 34% Xarel·lo and 18% Parellada, aged 48 months on lees with no added dosage. The colour is straw-yellow with a fine, persistent bead. On the nose: pear, white fruit, pastry cream, candied fruit and a thread of white flower. In the mouth the acidity is firm and the mousse is delicate; the lees richness is balanced by the dry, clean finish. No sweetness is added, so what the glass shows is the direct result of the grape blend, the organic farming and the time in the cellar. Drink it alongside something simple, a plate of jamón or grilled fish.

Anecdote

In 1951, Josefa Llopart and Francesc Torelló did something none of their predecessors across six centuries had done: they decided to stop selling the estate's grapes and bulk wine and begin bottling under the family name instead. The land they farmed had been in the family since 1395, documented across 117 archival records, and through all that time the property had changed names, the family had changed surnames through successive marriages, and the fruit had gone to market without a label. The 20th generation changed that. They needed a bottle, a label, and a name. They put Torelló on the glass. That decision, taken in a farmhouse in Gelida while most of the Penedès was still selling in bulk, is what made the name on the bottle possible. The estate is now in its 21st and 22nd generations, and the label on every Corpinnat it produces still carries that name.

Final Word

Torelló is a sparkling wine producer whose most interesting credential is not its age but its choices. Six centuries of land ownership is a historical fact; the decision to leave DO Cava and help build Corpinnat from scratch is a producer argument, written into every bottle that carries the new label. The Tradicional Brut Nature is the clearest expression of that argument: indigenous varieties, organic farming, four years on lees, no added sugar. Drink it and you understand exactly what the estate is insisting on.

Sources

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