Gramona

The story

The Corpinnat Break

In 2019, Gramona removed its wines from the DO Cava category, giving up a name that appears on hundreds of millions of bottles sold around the world each year. The break had been in motion since 2017, when Gramona joined seven other Penedès producers to found Corpinnat, a private denomination built on rules that Cava would not adopt: 100% organic and sustainable farming, hand harvesting, geographic restriction to the Penedès heartland. The choice cost the estate immediate recognition on every shelf and wine list where Cava meant something and Corpinnat meant nothing. Gramona's name disappeared from the Cava category and reappeared only on bottles carrying the Corpinnat seal, a label that had existed for less than two years. The estate farmed on, ploughed with horses, and left III Lustros underground for another 80 months.

From the atlas

Gramona

At A Glance

The Producer

Gramona makes sparkling wine in Penedès, Catalonia, and the label on every bottle now reads Corpinnat rather than Cava. That change, completed in 2019, was not a marketing decision. Gramona was among the producers who founded Corpinnat in 2017, a private denomination built on rules the DO Cava category would not adopt: 100% organic and sustainable farming, grapes picked by hand, and geographic restriction to the Penedès heartland. When the denomination launched, Gramona walked away from one of Spain's most commercially visible wine names and staked the estate's visibility on a seal few people had heard of.

The house dates to 1881. In the early twentieth century, the Batlle and Gramona families merged when Pau Batlle's daughter married Bartolomé Gramona, uniting two of Penedès' oldest wine families under a single label, established in 1921. The combined estate has worked the same hillside parcels ever since. In 2001, the family carved an underground cellar into the mountain at Sant Sadurní d'Anoia. That cellar now holds the bottles that will become III Lustros, a Corpinnat aged for more than 80 months before release.

Place

Sant Sadurní d'Anoia sits in the Penedès basin, roughly forty kilometres southwest of Barcelona, at an elevation that moderates the coastal heat and allows the native Catalan grapes to ripen slowly. Penedès has long been Spain's primary sparkling wine zone, and for most of its modern history the Cava label covered everything from entry-level industrial fizz to serious extended-aged wines made in the same village. That single label created a problem for producers farming at a different standard: no label distinction, no price signal, no way for a buyer to separate 90-month lees-aged Xarel·lo from a bottle turned around in nine months.

Corpinnat solves that by geography and method. The denomination restricts production to a compact zone in Penedès, close to the Montserrat mountains, which means buyers can begin to understand where the wine comes from rather than simply that it is Spanish sparkling wine. Gramona's bottles now carry a place name, an appellation with enforceable farming rules, and a cellar commitment expressed in months rather than marketing copy.

Soil And Site

Gramona's estate vineyards cover 65 hectares, with a further 360 hectares farmed under supervision. Soils are clay, limestone, and alluvial deposits through most of the estate. As the parcels move toward the Montserrat mountains, slate content increases, bringing a mineral edge that registers differently in extended-aged sparkling wines than the rounder limestone base. All 65 estate hectares are farmed biodynamically, certified by Demeter. Gramona produces its biodynamic preparations internally, ploughs with horses, and prunes by hand.

Story

Gramona built its reputation inside the Cava DO and then chose to leave it. The decision crystallised in 2017, when Gramona joined seven other Penedès producers to found Corpinnat, and became final in 2019, when the estate formally exited the DO Cava category.

The farming change had been moving in this direction for years. Gramona shifted to biodynamic viticulture, obtained Demeter certification, and converted the entire estate to renewable energy. Horse ploughing and hand pruning are not symbolic gestures in this context; they are the physical expression of farming that treats soil health as the starting point rather than an afterthought. The underground cellar, carved into the mountain in 2001, extended the same logic into the winery: a natural environment of consistent cool and humidity, built for wines that spend six or seven years in bottle before disgorgement.

The consequence is that III Lustros takes roughly fifteen years from harvest to release. That kind of commitment changes what the producer is. Gramona is not structured around fast inventory and wide distribution. It is structured around what Xarel·lo, Macabeo, and Parellada become when they are left alone underground for 80 months.

Vineyards And Cellar

The vineyards are farmed without synthetic inputs. Biodynamic preparations are made on the estate and applied to the soil and vines to support root health and microbial activity, which in turn affects fruit concentration and skin integrity at harvest. Hand harvesting under Corpinnat rules means whole clusters arrive at the press with minimal oxidation and skin damage, a practical quality difference from mechanical picking that affects the base wine from which the sparkling wines are made.

In the cellar, the sparkling wines undergo secondary fermentation in bottle, as with all traditional-method sparkling wines, and then remain on the lees under natural cork closures. III Lustros ages for more than 80 months before disgorgement. Disgorgement is carried out by hand, at a speed thirty times slower than mechanised methods, to preserve the mousse built during those years of slow autolysis. Autolysis, the process by which spent yeast cells break down and contribute flavour and texture to the wine, is the physical reason extended-aged sparkling wines develop their characteristic baked fruit, toasted nut, and pastry character. At 80 months, the process runs deep.

Wines

III Lustros is a Corpinnat. The blend is 41% Xarel·lo, 39% Macabeo, and 20% Parellada, all from estate or supervised Penedès parcels. It spends more than 80 months on lees before hand disgorgement. The wine is brut, dry in style, and shows the depth of extended autolysis: baked orchard fruit, toasted hazelnut, pastry, and a long saline line that comes partly from the limestone and slate soils and partly from years of yeast contact.

Gessami is the house's still white wine, a blend of Muscat, Sauvignon Blanc, and Gewürztraminer. Fermentation is arrested by cold at approximately 6 g/L of residual sugar, which gives the wine a gentle off-dry weight. The aromatics are immediately expressive: jasmine, orange blossom, and rose petal at the front, with anise and chamomile tea underneath. Where the sparkling wines are aged and layered with yeast-derived complexity, Gessami is fresh, floral, and quick.

Xarel·lo Vermell is a single-varietal wine made from a rare pink-skinned Catalan mutation of Xarel·lo. Cold maceration for 48 hours extracts a pale-onion colour without heavy tannin, producing a rosé that carries the mineral character of the grape without the weight of extended skin contact.

In The Glass

III Lustros opens with a deep straw colour and golden highlights, and the mousse is very fine and persistent, built from years of secondary fermentation rather than pressure manipulation. From the glass, baked apple and lemon curd rise first, then toasted hazelnut, brioche, a trace of smoke, and a hint of fennel and wet stone underneath. On the palate, the wine is broad and creamy in texture, the autolytic richness held in check by vibrant acidity that keeps the weight from becoming heavy. Ripe citrus and orchard fruit sit alongside savoury pastry and nut tones. The finish is long and saline, with a mouth-coating quality that comes from the limestone and slate soils and the extended lees ageing combined.

Gessami behaves differently in every register. The glass fills with jasmine, orange blossom, rose petal, anise, and chamomile tea. On the palate, the 6 g/L residual sugar rounds the edges without making the wine sweet; the acidity from grapes picked at full ripeness keeps it lifted and fresh.

A Bottle To Understand It

III Lustros is the bottle. It is a traditional-method sparkling wine from 41% Xarel·lo, 39% Macabeo, and 20% Parellada, aged for more than 80 months on lees in the underground cellar and disgorged by hand. The wine is brut, dry, and carries the full depth of extended autolysis: baked apple, hazelnut, brioche, and a saline finish with real length. The mousse is fine and persistent, the acidity holds everything upright, and the texture is broader and creamier than almost any other sparkling wine at this price level. Start here to understand what slow ageing in Penedès slate and limestone can produce.

Anecdote

In 2019, Gramona removed its wines from the DO Cava category, giving up a name that appears on hundreds of millions of bottles sold around the world each year. The break had been in motion since 2017, when Gramona joined seven other Penedès producers to found Corpinnat, a private denomination built on rules that Cava would not adopt: 100% organic and sustainable farming, hand harvesting, geographic restriction to the Penedès heartland. The choice cost the estate immediate recognition on every shelf and wine list where Cava meant something and Corpinnat meant nothing. Gramona's name disappeared from the Cava category and reappeared only on bottles carrying the Corpinnat seal, a label that had existed for less than two years. The estate farmed on, ploughed with horses, and left III Lustros underground for another 80 months.

Final Word

Gramona is a sparkling wine producer that chose a harder denomination over a more visible one, and built its farming, cellar, and range around that choice. The Corpinnat seal is specific about what the grapes are, where they are grown, and how they are farmed. III Lustros is the physical result: seven years in an underground cellar, disgorged by hand, and finished with baked fruit, hazelnut, and a long saline line from Penedès limestone and slate. The name on the bottle is unfamiliar to most buyers. The wine is not.

Sources

• https://gramona.com/en/
• http://www.internationalwinechallenge.com/iwc-insight/winemaker-interviews/producer-profile-gramona.html
• https://www.enterwine.com/en/world-of-wine/wineries/gramona
• https://www.alcoholprofessor.com/blog-posts/gramona-corpinnat-cava
• https://gramona.com/en/coleccion/iii-lustros/
• https://peak-wines.com/products/bodegagramonagramonalustros2016
• https://theliquorbarn.com/products/gramona-gessami