Castellroig Finca Sabaté ii Coca

The story

The Exit

On 10 April 2018, a group of Penedès producers signed the founding documents of Corpinnat. Sabaté i Coca was among them. The collective had been formed because the DO Cava framework covered too wide a geography, permitted bought-in grapes from outside Penedès, and required neither organic farming nor hand harvesting. Corpinnat's rules demanded the opposite: every grape organic, every bunch picked by hand, every litre vinified at the property where the grapes were grown, with ageing minimums that pushed well beyond the DO Cava standard. In early 2019, the founding members formally departed DO Cava. The bottles Sabaté i Coca had been making under the Cava designation now carried a different word on the label. The disgorgement date that had always appeared on the Sabaté i Coca cuvées remained. The sugar addition that DO Cava permitted had never been used. What changed was the name the estate chose to stand behind.

From the atlas

Castellroig Finca Sabaté ii Coca

At A Glance

Estate: Castellroig Finca Sabaté i Coca Region: Penedès, Catalonia, Spain Grapes: Macabeo, Xarel·lo, Parellada Style: Traditional-method sparkling wine, still wine Brands: Castellroig (entry range), Sabaté i Coca (premium, Corpinnat-certified) Farming: Organic, 40 hectares, 66 plots

The Producer

The Sabaté i Coca family has farmed the Bitlles valley for more than four generations. Brothers Josep and Marcel, the fourth generation, run the estate from the village of Subirats, in the Penedès appellation between Torrelavid and Sant Pere de Riudebitlles. What marks this estate is not only its longevity but the particular discipline the family brought to it: 40 hectares divided into 66 separate plots, each fermented individually, all grown on organic principles, every grape harvested by hand.

Their father Marcelino started as a sharecropper. He drove the construction of the modern winery and, later, turned the old winemaking rooms inside the family's 18th-century masía into a wine museum. The rooms that once pressed grapes under a sharecrop arrangement now hold the estate's history. Josep and Marcel run two distinct brands from the same land: Castellroig for entry-level Penedès blends, and Sabaté i Coca for their longer-aged, Corpinnat-certified cuvées.

Place

Penedès is Catalonia's most established sparkling wine country, a broad appellation south of Barcelona that supplies most of Spain's traditional-method fizz. The Bitlles valley, where this estate lies, runs through the interior of the appellation and away from the coastal lowlands. Subirats, the estate's municipality, sits at altitude, and the combination of cool nights and chalky soils gives the grapes the acidity and mineral character that long ageing on the lees demands.

Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada are the appellation's native trio, each contributing something different: Macabeo brings aromatic freshness; Xarel·lo, texture and grip; Parellada, floral lift and acidity. In a dosage-free sparkling wine aged for years before disgorgement, those structural qualities are not decorative. They are what keeps the wine from going flat or sharp.

Soil And Site

The estate's soils formed from ancient sediments laid over a chalky substratum, with abundant carbonate nodules throughout. Eighteen distinct soil types cross the 40 hectares, which is why the family treats the vineyard as 66 separate addresses. Chalk and carbonate influence the acid line in the finished wines: a mineral freshness that does not fade with long lees contact, and a mouthfeel that is fine rather than broad.

Organic farming across all 66 plots means no synthetic inputs in any part of the vineyard. The estate vinifies each plot separately, which preserves the soil-driven differences that would disappear in a single large vat.

Story

Marcelino Sabaté began as a sharecropper, working land he did not own under arrangements that gave him little claim on the fruit he grew. When he gained control of the family finca, he built a modern winery inside it and converted the old masía pressing rooms into a museum. Those two acts, constructing and memorialising, shaped what his sons inherited: a working estate and a clear sense of where it had come from.

The next significant decision came in 2018, when Sabaté i Coca joined Corpinnat at its founding on 10 April of that year. Corpinnat was formed by a group of Penedès producers who wanted tighter rules than DO Cava offered: organic grapes only, harvesting by hand, full vinification at the property, and extended ageing minimums. In early 2019, Sabaté i Coca formally left DO Cava alongside the other Corpinnat founders. The premium bottles no longer carry the Cava designation. They carry Corpinnat certification instead, along with a printed disgorgement date and no added sugar.

Vineyards And Cellar

Each of the 66 plots is harvested by hand and fermented in a separate vessel. Plot-level vinification means the winemaker can track what each soil type delivers and decide at blending which parcels belong in which cuvée. Across 18 soil types, that decision matters: a parcel on deep chalk behaves differently from one on shallower sediment, and keeping them apart preserves those differences until a deliberate choice is made to combine them.

No dosage is added to the sparkling wines. Dosage, the small addition of sugar and wine made just before final sealing, is standard practice across most sparkling wine production. Leaving it out means the wine goes into bottle with nothing to soften the acid edge or round the finish. Every lees-ageing month becomes load-bearing: the wine develops breadth and complexity in the bottle because there is nothing else to add it. Most Sabaté i Coca cuvées carry the disgorgement date on the label.

Wines

The estate runs two distinct brands. Castellroig covers the entry range: blends of Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada made for earlier drinking, with shorter ageing on the lees and wider availability. These bottles carry the Penedès appellation and represent the straightforward, mineral-fresh character of the valley.

Sabaté i Coca is the premium tier, certified by Corpinnat. Listed wines include Josep Coca Brut Nature. The 2013 magnum format spent 119 months on its lees before disgorgement, nearly ten years inside the bottle. A 2017 Sabaté i Coca Corpinnat Reserva Brut Nature was reviewed by Wine Enthusiast, showing the estate's clean Penedès mineral character. The Josep Coca 2013 received 94 points from Wine Advocate. The premium bottles carry no dosage, show the disgorgement date, and are made entirely from estate-grown grapes harvested by hand.

In The Glass

The 2013 Josep Coca Brut Nature Magnum opens with a savoury, salinity-forward nose, layered with meat-broth depth, exotic spice and herbal notes. Nearly ten years on the lees has pushed the wine well past the fresh-fruit stage and into a richer, more oxidative register, but without the weight that dosage would add. The mousse is energetic, producing abundant froth when poured, which signals the wine still has lift and carbonation despite its age. In the mouth, there is breadth from the long lees contact and brightness from the natural acidity of the Penedès chalk soils. The finish is dry, mineral and long. The Reserva Brut Nature in its 2017 form shows an earlier version of the same mineral freshness, before the lees contact has pushed it toward the savoury complexity of the extended reserve.

A Bottle To Understand It

Sabaté i Coca Corpinnat Reserva Brut Nature is the bottle to start with. It is a Corpinnat-certified sparkling wine from Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada grown on the estate's chalky Bitlles valley plots, made without dosage and aged on the lees for longer than the DO Cava minimum. The 2017 vintage shows the estate's natural acid line without the savoury complexity that a decade on the lees produces in the Josep Coca magnum. The mousse is clean and fine, the palate is dry with mineral freshness, and the finish is precise without sweetness.

Anecdote

On 10 April 2018, a group of Penedès producers signed the founding documents of Corpinnat in a meeting that had been building for years. Sabaté i Coca was among them. The collective had been formed because the DO Cava framework covered too wide a geography, allowed bought-in grapes from outside Penedès, and did not require organic farming or hand harvesting. Corpinnat's own rules demanded the opposite: every grape organic, every bunch picked by hand, every litre vinified at the property where the grapes were grown, and ageing minimums that pushed beyond the DO Cava standard. In early 2019, the founding members formally left DO Cava. The bottles Sabaté i Coca had been making under the Cava designation now carried a different word on the label. The disgorgement date that had always appeared on the Sabaté i Coca cuvées remained. The sugar addition that DO Cava permitted had never been used. What changed was the name the estate chose to stand behind.

Final Word

Castellroig Finca Sabaté i Coca is a Penedès sparkling wine estate that has made a sequence of compounding decisions: organic farming across 66 individually fermented plots, no added dosage, a printed disgorgement date on the label, and membership of Corpinnat in place of DO Cava. Each decision points in the same direction. The Josep Coca Brut Nature Magnum spent 119 months on its lees before disgorgement.

Sources

• https://spanishwinelover.com/winerie/castellroig
• https://www.penedesturisme.cat/en/wine-route/wineries/sabate-i-coca
• https://www.corpinnat.com/en/news/news/537-corpinnat-incorporates-viader-as-the-new-member-of-the-collective
• https://www.regalwine.com/press/josep-coca-2013-94/
• https://www.wineenthusiast.com/buying-guide/castellroig-2017-sabate-i-coca-corpinnat-reserva-brut-nature-sparkling-spain/