{"id":8671,"date":"2025-07-06T10:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T09:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sommelieredit.com\/?p=8671"},"modified":"2025-08-06T10:48:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T09:48:30","slug":"i-am-pere-ventura-and-the-gospel-according-to-cava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sommelieredit.com\/nz\/i-am-pere-ventura-and-the-gospel-according-to-cava\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am: Pere Ventura and the Gospel According to Cava"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Wine Room of the Savoy Grill – carved out of an old chef\u2019s office and now a polished sanctum of serious wine intent – a small, spirited group gathers around gleaming stemware and foie gras bonbons. It is, ostensibly, a tasting. But from the moment Pere Ventura hands over a business card which reads only \u2018I am\u2019, it is clear we are also being asked to bear witness…<\/em><\/h3>\n

Helping to guide the experience: sommelier, Piedad Fernandez and self-titled \u2018salesman of pleasure,\u2019 Thierry Tomasin MCA, a former Chairman Sommelier of Great Britain.<\/p>\n

Ventura, philosopher-winemaker, patriarch, and self-styled prophet of Spanish sparkling wine is here with his co-founder, and partner in life, Mireia Juv\u00e9, and international director, Nicolas Bertino. Together, they represent Pere Ventura Family Wine Estates (PVFWE), a company whose roots run deep into Catalan soil, and whose ambitions now stretch from Sant Sadurn\u00ed d\u2019Anoia to the steep slate of Priorat.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Man Who Says \u2018I Am\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u2018To talk about Cava today is not easy,\u2019 Ventura says. \u2018Many reasons not to believe in it.\u2019 He has the air of a man who has had this conversation before – too many times. He is one of eight children, the designated heir after his father suffered two heart attacks. At 30, he took over the business. In 1991, he founded his own winery in honour of Cava consumers and three generations of family – including his great-grandfather, Manuel Montserrat Font, who is credited with making the first bottles of cava using the traditional method in 1872 at Codorn\u00edu. \u2018I accepted the responsibility because I believe in the spirit of wine, not only the wine itself.\u2019<\/p>\n

He prefers Shakespeare to spreadsheets; he read the New Testament as a child, and it shows. At times, he does not speak so much as preach. The line, \u2018The best prophet of the future is the past\u2019 is often laid at Byron\u2019s feet, but in Ventura\u2019s mouth, it rings like scripture. He believes in legacy as others believe in liturgy, and in land as others believe in God.<\/p>\n

Pere Ventura wines are, at core, wines of place. The company now works across four Catalan appellations, but Cava remains its soul. The brand was among the first to achieve the coveted Paraje Calificado status – a kind of Spanish Grand Cru – and produces only wines from first press juice, harvested by hand from eighty-nine growers.<\/p>\n

Those growers matter. \u2018Some have 27 generations on their land,\u2019 Ventura says. He calls the approach \u2018organic with a small o\u2019 and insists that social sustainability – not just low yield – guides their farming. The result? Wines with tension, structure, and clarity, many of them far better than they have any right to be for the price.<\/p>\n

Ventura is also sceptical of the CORPINNAT movement, which broke away from DO Cava<\/a> to establish stricter production standards and reclaim prestige. \u2018Help us with social sustainability,\u2019 he urges instead. \u2018I believe sense of place needs to be explicit. Everybody needs to defend sense of place – nothing more.\u2019<\/p>\n