Winemaker Notes
Blend: 70% Xarel·lo, 30% Macabeu
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2015 Manuel Raventós Negra, a blend of 70% Sumoll and 30% Xarel.lo, already carries the organic certification on the back label. It is a very classical pale-gold sparkling wine from a very complete vintage with a complex nose with notes of curry that transported me to the Jura, fine yeast, smoke and toast aromas and a combination of power, energy, freshness and elegance. It has a lively palate that combines the freshness from 2013 and the depth from a riper and more concentrated year when the grapes achieved full development of aromas and flavors.
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Wine Spectator
Rich with aromas and flavors of pastry cream, poached apricot, salted almond, lemon curd and anise, this vibrant sparkler is finely meshed and graceful, with a creamy mousse carrying the flavors on the long, lightly spiced finish. Lovely. Sumoll and Xarel-lo. Drink now through 2027.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
A superior source of white grapes for the production of Spain’s prized sparkling wine, Cava, the Penedes region is part of Catalunya and sits just south of Barcelona. Medio Penedès is the most productive source of the Cava grapes, Macabeo, Xarel-lo, and Parellada. Penedes also grows Garnacha and Tempranillo (here called Ull de Llebre in Catalan), for high quality reds and rosès.