Ramon Canals Cava

by Oscar Garcia Moncada | 67 Wine

At the end of my tour of Spain during the 2022 harvest season, my final winery visit was to Cellars de Ramon Canals in the picturesque municipality of Castellvi de Rosanes, in the outskirts of the city of Barcelona. After a two-week tour of some of Spain’s major wine-producing regions, my taste buds were understandably a bit exhausted. However, ending the journey with a visit to Ramon Canals Cava and meeting the patriarch of the winery, Mr. Ramon Canals was a truly wonderful finale. That meeting reenergized me!

The tour began with a personal “show and tell” of Mr. Canals’ prized wine artifacts located on the top floor of his house. His personal collection includes wine artifacts, manuscripts, wine presses, and many items historically used in winemaking before the industrial wine revolution. It was truly astonishing to tour this carefully curated collection. Collecting has been a passion of Mr. Canals for over 40 years.

After this eye-opening tour, we moved down to the cellars, where thousands of bottles of Cava lay dormant before they are disgorged. Ramon Canals has the distinction of aging their Reserva Numerada Cavas in the bottle for 24 months. This extended aging process allows the wine to develop fine bubbles and an array of aromas and flavors found only in sparkling wines aged for two years or more.

Once the cellar tour culminated, we moved to a charming tasting room that made me feel as if I were in Mr. Canals’ living room. We tasted through an excellent selection of wines while sampling some of the most popular tapas: Jamon de Bellota, Ensaladilla Rusa, Tortilla de Patatas, and many other tapas that paired magically with the diverse wines produced by Ramon Canals, both sparkling and still.

At the very end, in classic Spanish tradition, we enjoyed cortados and the famous Crema Catalana (a Catalan version of Crème Brûlée). It was during this time that Mr. Canals gave me a personal lesson on “levadura” (yeast) and the intricacies of the Méthode Traditionnelle. I will never forget this lesson for as long as I live, as it went beyond anything I had learned in any classroom. Mr. Ramon Canals, in true Catalan fashion, made me feel like part of his family, and I truly felt a fatherly connection in the world of wine.

So please give these two Cavas a chance, as they are crafted with precision, care, and thoughtful aging.