Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019 - 75

O LD WO RLD

Top 100 Wineries

Pere Ventura

Do Ferreiro

SPAIN | CAVA
With a hands-on approach and some stellar vineyards, Pere
Ventura is elevating the Cava DO with elegant sparkling wines.

SPAIN | RIAS BAIXAS
Working with old vines in Val do Salnés, the Méndez family is
bottling some of Spain's most arresting albariños.

PERE VENTURA, FOUNDED BY ITS namesake in
1992, has grown into a company that includes
wineries in Penedès and Priorat, but the heart
of the brand remains devoted to Cava. It runs in
the family-Ventura's great-grandfather, Manuel Montserrat Font, helped produce the first
bottles of Cava at Codorníu in 1872. Today, Pere
Ventura has two lines of Cava: Tresor serves as
its house line, and the Vintage Collection Gran
Reservas come from Can Bas, an estate the company acquired in 2011. Located in Subirats, an
area with a history of vinegrowing going back
nearly 3,000 years, Can Bas was one of the first
vineyards to be deemed a Paraje Calificado, an
official designation introduced by the Cava DO
in 2017. The team takes special care with its fruit,
farming organically (certified in 2018) and picking by hand; in the winery, they vinify each variety separately, fermentating in stainless-steel
tanks with ambient yeasts. Their aging regimens
can last for more than five years. The result:
complex, elegant sparkling wines from the Catalan coast. -R.D.T.

PERE
VENTURA

FOUNDED:

1992

OWNER:

Pere Ventura
Family Wine
Estates
WINEMAKER:

Sebastià
Galimany
VITICULTURISTS:

Jordi Calvo,
Bet Palahí
ACRES OWNED:

209
CASES PRODUCED:

250,000
ESTATE GROWN:

65%
Palm
Bay Int'l, Port
Washington, NY

IMPORTER:

2014 Cava Gran Reserva Brut Rosé ($45, 94
points) This comes from 20-year-old pinot noir vineyards in the Massis del Garraf, at an altitude of 1,475
feet. In the winery, the grapes from each plot are
fermented separately; one part is used to make a
rosé wine, and the other a blanc de noirs. Blended
together and fermented a second time in bottle, the
result is a fresh and elegant sparkler, its raspberry
fruitiness touched with smoke and toasted almond
flavors.
2012 Cava Gran Reserva Brut ($45, 93 points)
This blend is made up of 60 percent xarello and 40
percent chardonnay from 20-year-old bush vines at
the Can Bas estate. Aged for 45 months before disgorgement, it's toasty and leesy, with fine bubbles
and a ghosting of fruit that underline its finesse.
2016 Cava Tresor Reserva Brut ($16, 91 points)
A traditional Cava blend of xarello, macabeo and
parellada aged for about two years on the lees, this
is brisk and refreshing, with delicate notes of white
peach and lemon.

WHEN GERARDO MÉNDEZ STARTED MAKING wines
in Pontevedra in 1973, the DO of Rías Baixas
didn't even exist. After phylloxera hit, most of
the region had been replanted to workhorse varieties, their grapes disappearing into innocuous
blends, but Méndez believed in the old vines his
father tended, and in the way they were trellised
high overhead to keep them well-ventilated in
Galicia's cool, damp climate. He named his winery after his father, known as Pepe o Ferreiro, or
Pepe the Blacksmith, and set about rehabilitating other old vineyards through organic farming and refining the high pergola systems. His
efforts played an integral part in the creation
of the Rías Baixas DO, established in 1988, and
contributed to the new global reputation of the
region. Since 2013, his son, Miguel, has taken
over winemaking, exploring the family's 31 acres
of vines through vinifications of parcels at various elevations and exposures. While the wines
of Do Ferreiro have long impressed us, the Méndez's current crop of releases have never been
better. -R.D.T.

GERARDO
MENDEZ

2017 Rías Baixas Cepas Vellas Albariño ($56, 95
points) Gerard Méndez pulls this wine from a 2.5acre plot of vines he estimates to be 200 years old,
the sandy granite soils keeping the roots safe from
phylloxera. Trellised high off the ground to allow sun
and wind to keep the grapes dry and healthy, these
old vines produced an astonishingly concentrated
albariño in 2017, notes of fennel, pear and sea salt
combining with dynamic energy. It's rare to find a
white wine with this much flavor intensity, as well as
sheer grace.
FOUNDED:

1973

OWNERS/
WINEMAKERS/
VITICULTURISTS:

The Méndez
family
ACRES OWNED:

2017 Rías Baixas Adina Albariño ($49, 93 points)
This comes from a parcel of 45-year-old vines planted
on a band of red slate soil. It's a very different take
on albariño than Cepas Vellas, more sumptuous in its
nectarine juiciness and marzipan richness, yet it still
holds a sense of Galicia's Atlantic chill in its cool, lasting salinity.

31
CASES PRODUCED:

10,000
IMPORTER:

De Maison
Selections,
Chapel Hill, NC

2017 Rías Baixas Lourido Albariño ($49, 93
points) Another facet of Val do Salnés, this comes
from 50-year-old vines rooted in decomposed granite.
While it's initially zesty with grapefruit flavor, a toasty
richness develops that creates a beguiling balance
and tension.
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Wine & Spirits - Winter 2019

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