The latest great novelty from Oriol Rossell is not a very long aging cava, but three. The Rossell family has kept, for years, hundreds of bottles of the best vintages of the DO Cava Reserva de la Propietat.
They are products that have not been slaughtered and that, for more than 12 years, have aged for a very long time with their lees in the shadows and stillness of these cellars in Sant Marçal, in Castellet i la Gornal (Alt Penedès). They are cavas that explore the beyond in terms of aging. Now they go on the market renamed as Gran Propietat.
The owner and managing director of these family cellars, Toni Rossell, affirms that “it is an extraordinary cava, a reflection of timeless work, and the family’s most secret pride.” There are three exclusive Brut Nature Gran Reserva from the 2008, 2009 and 2010 vintages. It is presented in an individual case or in a wooden box with the three bottles.
This is a maximum of 250 bottles per vintage that the family that owns it reserved for their enjoyment in celebrations and that now, after verifying its positive evolution, they have decided to share with their customers. The Reserva de la Propietat premiered on the market with the 1993 vintage. It was a project by Oriol Rossell Almirall and one of the founders of the cellars, Enric Roca Amat, with whom they were looking for “a cava with greater expression and aging”.
They are cavas made with 70% xarel lo son from the Les Cerveres vineyard (1.64 hectares planted in 1974 in calcareous soil with a clay-loam texture) and 30% Macabeo from the La SÃnia vineyard (two hectares planted in 1959 in sandy-loam calcareous soil). The Macabeo vineyard is the oldest on his property in Cal Cassanyes.
The harvest is manual, in boxes of 20 kilos, and the grapes are sorted on a selection table. The elaboration is artisan. After the first alcoholic fermentation, 10% of the base wine from the Xarel•lo grape is aged for six months in fine-grained French oak barrels. After the second fermentation and aging in the bottle, they are cleared on a desk and the throat is cut manually one by one.
Regarding the weather, 2008 was a cool and rainy year, a little more than normal, especially in spring. The intermittent rains in June and July caused some flower shifting in the Xarel·lo variety, with the consequent decrease in production (5% below normal). August was quite dry and this helped the quality to be very good, also with good acidity. The grape had a hard time ripening. 2009 was a vintage with little rain, which forced the harvest to move forward.
During the month of August it was very hot. The harvest was short, with less production than in 2008. But a good balance was achieved between acidity and sugars in the grapes. It was a good vintage for the long-aged cavas. The 2010 harvest was a normal harvest in terms of production. The winter was rainy and the spring humid. The harvest was later than usual, and the maturation was slow and balanced.
The three cavas have a beautiful straw yellow color with golden reflections, and with a slight amber hue in the case of the 2008. In all the vintages the bubbles are tiny and the carbon dioxide is highly integrated. The Gran Propietat of the 2008 vintage is the most evolved.
In the olfactory phase it exhibits aromas that transmit a great evolution, with notes of honey, jam, dried fruit and aromatic dried herbs, such as chamomile and rosemary. With a long and persistent finish. The 2009 vintage is fresher and shows more aromatic intensity and complexity. It exhibits notes reminiscent of dried apricots, and even cheese. It also shows dried aromatic herbs and a more integrated carbonic, which is expressed with a soft mousse.
It is a cava marked by a final note of slightly bitter almond. The 2010 vintage presents notes of spring stone fruit (peach and ripe apricot) as well as white fruit (apple), with hints of flowers and quince. It exhibits an empyreumatic note (coffee), toasted notes and hints of aromatic herbs from the Mediterranean garrigue and dried flowers.
With a carbonic still vivid, but very well integrated. It is subtle and round. Toni Rossell especially likes to pair these select cavas with a mute duck from Penedès with prunes and pine nuts.
The Rossell family has been a viticulturist since the 15th century. One generation after another has been cultivating the vineyards of the Cal Cassanyes estate, which has a manor house dating from 1638. The modernist winery was built in 1908. Pere Joan Rossell de la Costa is the first mentioned heir (1497). in family documents. 1810 was a key date for the family. That year the heir Damià Rossell de la Costa married Madrona Cassanyes, joining two lineages of agricultural owners from Penedès and unifying their farms.
In 1908, after overcoming the devastating phylloxera plague that devastated the vineyards, they built the winery where they still make their wines and cavas today. In 1979 they bottled the first bottles of sparkling wines, which they marketed under the O.R. They currently make some 250,000 bottles of cava and some 125,000 protected by the DO Penedès. They export 35% of the total (mainly cava). Japan, Sweden and the United States are its main international markets.
In recent years they have invested close to a million euros in the winery and have decidedly opened up to wine tourism and business tourism offering activities, tastings, walking tours, vintage experiences or gastronomic tastings harmonized with their wines and cavas. . They have a wine bar and a terrace in a large garden where there is no shortage of colorful peacocks. And they also show visitors the great family bond they have with the world of human towers.
In fact, Toni Rossell’s father, Oriol, was the founder of Castellers de Vilafranca. The first performance of the castellers of the capital of the Alt Penedès in Cal Cassanyes was in 1950. On June 17, 2018, Cal Cassanyes became a nine-story square with three of nine floors with lining that the Castellers of Vilafranca achieved in the frame of his 70th anniversary.
