Recaredo

Precision, purity and terroir.

In 1924, Mr Josep Mata Capellades, born into a potter family in the village of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, Catalonia's sparkling wine capital, became interested, as he himself described it, 'in matters of Champagne and other experiments.' Soon afterwards, he received the first orders for his 'cave champagnes' – as they were then called – by some acquaintances in the world of football, an area in which Mr Mata was then pursuing a career in parallel to his professional activity as a skilled disgorger for several Penedès wineries.

After the hiatus caused by the Spanish Civil War, Mr Josep Mata founded bodega Caves Recaredo and gave the company the first name of his father, Mr Recaredo Mata Figueras, born in 1878. The family winery, run by Mr Mata, his wife, Mrs Paquita Casanovas Via, and their siblings fills, Josep and Antoni Mata Casanovas, soon became of the most respected sparkling wine producers from Penedès.

From the 1960s onwards, the second generation ventured into new territory, producing single vineyard expressions and testing the suitability of the traditional varieties from Penedès for producing age-worthy sparkling wines. Already into the XXIth century, the third generation of the family, headed by Mr Ton Mata, went further in the winerys committment to quality, first completing the conversion of the estate vineyards to organic and biodynamic agriculture (becoming the first winery in Penedès to get a Demeter certification in 2010), and subsequently founding, together with five producers of quality sparkling wine from the same area, the Corpinnat association, recognized as a collective European Union brand since 2018.

Located in Alt Penedès, the vineyards of Recaredo winery cover a surface area of 100 hectares in the very heart of Territori Corpinnat, an area composed of clay soils with a high limestone content where, since 2014, the winery only grows traditional Penedès varieties. Interestingly, the Xarel·lo variety, Catalonia's flagship white grape, occupies 60% of the land, while the rest is planted with Macabeo, Parellada, Grenache, Monastrell and Sumoll. The winery uses cover crops to boost the microbial life of
the soil and to improve soil health, animal manure to provide soil nutrients, and decoctions of medicinal plants to prevent and treat vineyard diseases. The vines are always harvested by hand, and all the Corpinnat sparkling wines by Recaredo are estate bottled. All of the processes are audited and certified by an independent company, Bureau Veritas.

The portfolio of Corpinnat sparkling wines from Recaredo winery consists solely of Brut Nature vintage sparkling wines made following the traditional Champenoise method. The base wines are fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged at times in Austrian and Greman oak barrels and vats. Once in the bottle, secondary fermentation is kickstarted with an organic wine must concentrate instead of cane sugar, a process followed by no less than 30 months in the bottle – for the entry-level sparklers – and up to 12+ years for the mighty Corpinnat Recaredo Turó d'En Mota. Considered by many the best Spanish sparkling wine ever produced in the country, this single vineyard Xarel·lo sourced from a 85+-year-old parcel is unquestionably on a par with the world's most legendary Champagnes. The yearly production of the Recaredo winery is around 300,000 bottles.

As well as sparkling wine production, the Caves Recaredo winery also makes still wines under the Celler Credo label. Founded in 1991, the winemaking philosophy of bodega Celler Credo is inspired by the same tenets as the mother company: to craft terroir-driven wines sourced from organically and biodynamically farmed vineyards, planted with traditional Penedès varieties and vinified with a low intervention, hands-off approach.

Year of foundation: 1924
Address: Carrer Tamarit, 10
City: Sant Sadurní d’Anoia
Province: Barcelona
Zip code: 08770
Country: Spain
Phone number: 34 93 891 02 14
www.recaredo.com
Guided visits? Yes
Wine tourism services? No