Winemaking
Committed to environmental sustainability and the well-being of our consumers, the majority of our cavas are organic and reflect a strong commitment to quality and unique personality.
FROM MUST FLOWER
TO BASE WINE
All our products start with the single varietal ‘must flower’, the must from the first pressing of the grapes, which undergoes a first fermentation to obtain the base wine, with carefully selected strains of yeast in stainless steel vats at a temperature of between 15 and 18ºC, which allows us to preserve the different varietal aromas in our final cava.
THE MAGIC OF
THE COUPAGES
From this base wine, Ferran Gironés, Victor Centellas and Lluc Centellas, current winemakers of Monastell Cavas, make the different ‘Coupages’ depending on the aromatic profiles to be achieved in our future cavas.
Thus, a greater amount of Xarelo will provide us with a much more acidic base wine, perfect for long aging, which will make the final product remain alive after even five years of aging. While Macabeo and Parellada will provide freshness and varietal aromas ideal for younger cavas.
THE TIRAGE
The ‘tirage‘ is the process of bottling the cava to initiate its in-bottle fermentation, typically carried out during the first quarter of the year. At this stage, we fill the bottles with our base wine and add a mixture of yeast and sugar to begin the second fermentation — the natural process responsible for creating the cava’s bubbles.
Once filled, the bottles are sealed with either tin-plated steel crown caps or traditional cork stoppers, depending on the style of cava we wish to produce. They are then manually arranged in ‘rimas‘ — horizontal, grid-like stacks where the second fermentation and ageing take place.
THE SECOND
FERMENTATION IN 'RIMAS
Once the bottles are stacked in ‘rimas’, they will undergo the second fermentation where the cava will acquire the carbonic gas known as the characteristic bubbles that sparkling wines have and once this phase is finished, we will give way to the aging of the cava, which will be more or less long, depending on the cava to be elaborated.
THE AGEING
The ageing for the Montsant cavas will be a minimum of 12 months for the Montsant Artesà, while for the Montsant Enoteca, it will be a minimum of 60 months of ageing.
Once the ageing is finished, we will proceed to the ‘stirring’, so that all the yeasts move from the side of the bottle to the neck of the bottle and can be expelled during disgorgement.
To carry out the stirring, we tilt the bottle on itself in ‘giropalets’, where the bottle goes from a horizontal position with the yeasts along the bottle, to a vertical position with all the yeasts in the neck of the bottle.
THE DISGORGING
When the yeasts reach the neck, we proceed to the ‘disgorging’, which, depending on whether we have used a crown cork or cork stopper, will be carried out automatically or manually.
It is the pressure of the bottle itself that helps us to expel the yeasts and thus obtain a clean cava ready for bottling and corking, with a natural cork stopper of 2 layers, one of the highest quality, which will allow it to remain in an optimal state for longer for consumption and subsequent labeling.
