Interview with Xavier Gramona, vice-president and co-owner of Gramona

If there is one thing oozing from Xavier, it is calm and serenity. A true gentleman whose expertise have been developed over the course of a successful career. He knows the 65 hectares of vineyards he owns with his cousin Jaume inside out. And he proves it when he takes you for a ride around the estate in Sant Sadurní (Catalonia) in his 4X4. The architect of the Gramona brand’s national and international success, this king of wine undoubtedly has plenty to teach the wine industry. And it is clear that politeness and courage are not mutually exclusive...

- As the fifth generation of the Gramona family, you must have thousands of wine stories to tell us. What was your first memory of wine?

All the stories about wine run together from a happy childhood. I have no memories of the city, which is where we lived, but I do have memories of weekends, holidays and harvesting summers in the village, Sant Sadurní. Riding on horseback with my grandfather through the vineyard, stomping grapes with my feet in the Celler Batlle wine press, which had been the same since 1881, the harvest celebrations, and mostly, going down to the kitchens after the Gramona-Batlle Sunday lunch, with my brothers and cousins, to secretly finish the Xampán bottles that the grown ups had left behind, and then we all ended up napping in the attic of the family house. We weren’t even 10 years old.

- With a degree in Business Sciences and having gained experience in business and finance away from home, when and why did you decide to return to the Penedès and get fully involved in the family project?

At 35 years old I am trying to get my elderly retired father’s affairs in order, we lost my brother and the family needs support. I took a few months sabbatical from my work in the financial world and, among other things, I came back to the winery and its surroundings, which I had been away from for more than 20 years. Something must have stirred inside me, I reminisced and decided to hang up my tie and dedicate myself fully to wine and family.

- Your grandparents, Pilar Batlle and Bartomeu Gramona were encouraged to introduce the first sparkling wines onto the market in 1921. Their sons, Josep Lluís and Bartomeu, started a new era in Gramona in 1945. Now in your hands, along with your cousin Jaume, what is it that has most set you apart from your ancestors? 

Jaume and I inherited a taste for elegance in wine, a finesse that can only be achieved by working very close to the vineyard and using long aging, which is well understood. I mean working with artisan methods and in conversation with the wine. This has always led us to having the family involved in the production process, now 6 generations in a row, and to impart a style that is in our DNA. At home we say that the earth is the score, the vine is the instrument and we are the musicians. Soloists or an orchestra, we are in a way a family music school. This current generation is particularly dedicated to humbly recognising that growers in general had neglected the land or misunderstood its sustainability and with that the personality of what it produces. For 20 years we have been dedicated to recovering life on the land through organic or ecological agriculture and, now, using biodynamic methods, it is a much more ambitious project.

- In your commitment to long aging, perseverance and patience are two necessary qualities for bottling time. But it has also been said that Gramona is a reflection of the “Catalan seny” (common sense). Is this common sense the secret of your success?

In the family, generation after generation, there were always restrained, hard-working and frugal characters as well as others who were daring, adventurous, creative and capable of breaking established moulds. An alchemy that has been preserved up to the 6th generation ahead of us. In fact, this alchemy could be the same as the definition of Catalan Seny; Tradition, seriousness, work, and partying or going wild when the time is right.
   
- At the moment, you are gradually handing over the reins of the business to your sons Roc (winery and viticulture) and Leo (brand manager). Even though they are young, but very well prepared, where do you see the most generational differences?

I would definitely say that they are much more prepared than we were. They have grown up in a much faster world, exponential in the demands of wine lovers, technical knowledge, cultural sensitivity, complexity of what’s on offer... 30 years ago nobody knew the name of the winemaker, nor the name of the chef in a restaurant. Today, if wine wants to be the best, just like when it comes to food, the creators have to have a face. This requires developed, strong, controlled personalities who are resistant to criticism as well as to praise.

- You have often compared the age of a sparkling wine and when it is opened to the different human life cycles. What does a mature person have that a young person doesn’t?

Hahaha... Obviously there is a wine for every moment and person. A young sparkling wine has the joy of youth, a good carbonic and acidity that refresh and quench our thirst, the power of the fruit from a young body is perfect for a good time. Aging leads us to maturity, the complexity of wisdom, the elegance of a carbon dioxide turned into soft cream that doesn’t fill our stomach, of an acidity that gives freshness but never bothers us, all this in a sparkling wine leads us to enjoy it with food, for its nuances, its elegance, its finesse. These are wines for eating with or for long evenings.

- I suppose a tough but decisive moment for the company was leaving the D.O. Cava to create Corpinnat in 2017, a collective brand that brings together wineries that champion origin, sustainability and long aging. Five years later, Corpinnat is the benchmark brand for quality sparkling wines from the Penedès. What do you think is the next goal for collective branding?

The brand was born to show loudly and clearly that the Penedes can be a land of great sparkling wines. This should encourage the industry to improve their practices, do away with average quality and attract the attention of the market. And we wanted to do it from within the Cava brand. Cava didn’t accept our proposal and challenge, but we are seeing success in our first objective from outside and without the protection of a D.O. The proof it has worked is that as a result of our revolution, Cava has finally created zones and set regulations with more demanding quality standards and the Classic Penedés have done the same. In the future, with this aim achieved and out of responsibility to the area, we should join forces with every group here, if necessary sacrificing some of our Corpinnat values to be part of a wider range of sparkling wines that the consumer and wine lover can understand well. One territory, one sparkling wine. With regulations and zones that allow you to see the producers’ different ways of working. As founding President, I have always championed the importance of getting out of our Corpinnat bubble and sharing our knowledge with the industry.

- If Corpinnat stands out for one thing alongside the quality of its wines, it is for promoting the empowerment of the land. You are committed to honouring the work of the winegrower with long-term partnerships, sustainable viticulture and paying for grapes at a guaranteed minimum price. Are these the same premises the “Alianzas por la Tierra” (Alliances for the Earth) was set up with? What exactly does this involve?

Alianzas por la Tierra is an association that Gramona championed before Corpinnat was set up and it was an inspiration for the latter. Long-term contracts, including Life of Vineyard or minimum payment contracts, were established between Gramona and the 12 Alianzas winegrowers years earlier. And all the members, with more than 450Ha including ours, are certified biodynamic. By creating Alianzas Gramona we guaranteed the availability of biodynamic grapes, which are rare in the Penedés, we guaranteed a relationship with workers of the land that supported our philosophy of the land, which was more sustainable and unfamiliar to local agriculture, and at the same time we offered a dignified relationship to the growers.

- After decades of being undervalued for its poor aromas and tough structure, the Xarel·lo grape, the flagship variety of the Penedès, is enjoying a better era. If there is one thing this rustic, resistant grape with personality has, it is a great antioxidant character. Does this variety hold the key to long-aged sparkling wines?

Probably yes. In fact, there is no scientific evidence on how or why wine antioxidants affect longevity or even human health, but we do know that Xarel·lo is the white variety with the most antioxidants in the world, with even more than red varieties like Pinot Noir and some others. These studies were carried out by the Universities of Dijon in 1997 and Washington in 2006, as well as others.

- Now that you have 100 years of history behind you, your home must be a true sanctuary. What is the oldest bottle that Gramona still has?

We celebrated 100 years since the first wine was released onto the market with a Gramona sparkling wine. My grandparents started testing other brands as early as 1910 in the winery that our family had already built in 1881, the Celler Batlle. We keep bottles of sparkling wine from about 50 vintages, and the oldest one still racked today is from 1933. And so on from the 40s, 50s, etc. We also have labelled bottles of the first Dos Lustros vintage ‘39 and released in 1950. Probably the first long-aged sparkling wines produced in this country and perhaps outside of Champagne.

- Although we know that every wine is like a child, which one has given you the most trouble? And is that also the one you are most proud of?

At the time no one believed in the potential of such long aging like the Gramona Enotecas did. We were pioneers with a Dos Lustros and ten years of aging, challenging the assumption as early as the 50s that a sparkling wine outside of Champagne had to be young, fresh and fruity and nothing more. But we wanted to go further. Around 1995 we agreed with Jaume and against the market trends to keep the first 3000 bottles of Enoteca in racks. We started to enter them into blind and vertical tastings in Madrid and Barcelona, in front of more than 100 sommeliers in each city in 2008. It was a revolution. In the following ten years our Enotecas have scored more than five 99 points in at least three Spanish Wine Guides and many other awards. Very few wines of any kind have achieved this. I couldn’t be more proud, although the best recognition is the face of a wine lover who enjoys them.

- Iconic Gramona wines like Enoteca, Celler Batlle, Gramona Imperial and III Lustros, have showed the world that great sparkling wines can be made outside of Champagne. What does the Penedès have that other wine regions don’t?

We were a key area in the history of sparkling wine. We were close by and had white wine available in the 19th century when French sparkling wines needed it during their phylloxera outbreak, which was slow to reach us thanks to the Pyrenees, and we learned that you could make good sparkling wines with Xarel·lo, a variety that is unique to our area. Then other historical events happened like ten years of poor sales caused by the Spanish and world wars, which allowed us to see that the wine we had stacked because we had not been able to sell it, rather than being too oxidised, as people said it would be, had actually become excellent sparkling wine. Now we know that, next to the Mediterranean, we enjoy a combination of acidity and antioxidants in the Xarel·lo that allow us to maintain freshness for many years while the wine refines and gains elegance, and without the need to add sugar as a Champagne still needs.

- Work gives people dignity, but free time brings them joy. What do you like to spend yours doing? Have any of your hobbies helped you in your everyday work?

Well, I can’t be a very good man, because I think I’ve devoted myself almost exclusively to work. Hahaha... anyway, I wouldn’t recommend that. My hobbies, although with much less time spent on them than I would like, are the sea, sun and sailing, the mountains, snow, with music and a fire, or a bike ride to the market among spring fields, chess and crossword puzzles, also music, and collecting books that I don’t read. Obviously, thanks to my job, eating and drinking the very best is part of my life.

- Throughout your career you must have tasted some great wines, could you tell us the name of a wine that has recently stolen your heart?

Of course, a red wine made by my nephew Roc and my son Leonard, El Escorpins, a Grenache Noir from their winery L'Enclos de Peralba. Maybe family pride has something to do with it, but they gave me the bottle as a gift and... they are very sought after, hahaha.