The Raventós family has been making wine at their estate since 1497. Twenty-one generations sunk their labors into the 90 hectares of soil. Pepe revolutionized the farming at the estate. He left the Cava appellation that his forbears championed in order to push the Raventós winery in its own direction. The estate has an amazing microclimate with forests, a river, and a lake. Pepe encourages ever greater biodiversity around the vineyards and carries out the farming entirely biodynamically. The vineyards are worked by horse. The idea is to form a system wherein the land, plants, animals, and man together make a single agriculture of health and vibrancy.
If Mas del Serral represents the pinnacle of Pepe Raventós’ lifelong commitment to place, Clos Petit feels like the next, almost inevitable step forward. Drawn from an even smaller parcel within the estate, this new rosé release carries all the identity and tension that have made Serral one of the world’s great sparkling wines, but with a slightly different hue and heartbeat. Xarel-lo forms the backbone, as it does at Serral, but here it is joined by sumoll, a native red variety that brings a gentle wildness and deeper register to the wine. The blend sits at 75 percent xarel-lo and 25 percent sumoll, harvested by hand and pressed whole cluster before fermentation in steel and concrete.
From there, Clos Petit follows the same extraordinary path that defines Pepe’s finest wines. After its first élevage, it is bottled for its second fermentation and left undisturbed for more than 100 months on the lees, slowly gaining texture, shape, and luminous detail. When finally disgorged, the wine feels both utterly immediate and profound. The rosé aspect adds a new dimension, giving the wine a redder slant, more texture across the mid-palate, and a savory depth that plays against the estate’s signature mineral precision. The aromas lean toward herbs, citrus skin, crushed flowers, and barely-ripe stone fruit, while the palate carries a straight line of acidity wrapped around subtle red tones.
Only 496 bottles were produced, and the wine offers something close to a once-in-a-generation glimpse into just how far Pepe Raventós can push the expression of his land. Linear, savory, mineral, and resonant, Clos Petit sits comfortably beside the very best sparkling wines of the world. It is unmistakably Raventós, and unmistakably something new.
