Raventós Codorníu is the oldest winegrowing business in Spain and one of the oldest of the world, in addition to being the creator of cava. With vineyards in our property since 1551, we are proud to say that we have more than 450 years of experience in the manufacture of quality wines and cavas. We currently have fifteen wineries, twelve of which are in Spain (Abadia de Poblet, Bach, Bodegas Bilbaínas, Codorníu, Legaris, Mont-Ferrant, Parxet, Portal del Montsant, Raimat, Raventós d’Alella, Scala Dei, and Tionio), one in Napa Valley in California (Artesa) and another in Mendoza, Argentina (Séptima).

THE HISTORY OF A FAMILY THAT HAS MANUFACTURED WINE FOR FIVE HUNDRED YEARS

Raventós Codorníu represents the history of a business-minded family over more than five hundred years. The first documental references on the existence of Codorníu date back to the 16th century when Jaume Codorníu, a vine owner, decided to start manufacturing wines. Since then, Codorníu has been intimately linked with the earth, the vine, and quality wines.

A century later, the young Anna Codorníu – the person who inherited the Can Codorníu estate, its lands and its vineyards – got married to the vinedresser Miquel Raventós. Since then, the Raventós family has been the owner of Codorníu; however, the surname of Anna has been kept as the name of a brand with renowned prestige.

These five centuries of existence have been marked by great milestones which have made this company grow and become stronger. One of these key moments was in 1872 when Josep Raventós Fatjó wrote the first lines of the history of cava. It was he who, after years of experiments, was able to become the first in manufacturing cava, a sparkling white wine which would soon compete with champagne. After his death, in 1885, his son Manuel Raventós inherited Can Codorníu and, following in the footsteps of his father, he changed the direction of the family business.

Manuel was a tireless visionary who saw the potential of cava and decided that the wineries should exclusively manufacture this beverage. In order to accomplish this, he travelled to France to broaden his winemaking knowledge. These were very hard years, and phylloxera decimated the vines leaving Penedès devastated. Like what happened in other regions, the hard decision was made to take out all the vineyards and plant an American variety of grapes immune to said insect plague. At that time, Manuel decided, despite the hardship, to build some large wineries in Sant Sadurní D’Anoia – wineries which would become leaders in the area and do honor to the cava aged within their walls.

The construction of the new winery was commissioned to the modernist architect Puig i Cadafalch. The result was a true work of art that, as time passed, would come to be known as the “Cava Cathedral.” In addition, Puig i Cadafalch constructed the Casa Pairal, which was the residence of the family for many years. Under this building, just like under the rest of the buildings and gardens of the estate, the peaceful, slow ageing of our cava takes place. The true value of Codorníu Wineries became clearer when, in 1976, the aforementioned buildings and gardens were declared National Artistic Historical Monuments. Today, the prominence of this location is still growing as is evidenced by the almost 80,000 visits it receives each year.

THE BIRTH OF RAVENTÓS CODORNÍU

If we had to set a date of birth for Raventós Codorníu as a company, we would probably choose 1914 when Manuel Raventós himself founded Raimat. At that time, Codorníu was a strong reality that worked perfectly, so Manuel left the management of Sant Sadurní Cavas and acquired around 3,000 hectares in the Costers del Segre region. The project was almost titanic. This was land which was almost desert-like and not very fertile at all; nevertheless, the passion and effort put in by the family to make quality wine overcame all the obstacles. Today, those barren lands have become the second pillar and the winemaking base of the Raventós Codorníu: the dream of a visionary come true. One hundred years later, Raimat is now the largest vineyard in Europe, with more than 2,000 hectares planted with different varieties of grape which are used to make Codorníu Cavas and Raimat Wines.

Beginning at that time, the expansion of Raventós Codorníu was continuous. In the 40s, when the company had grown a lot, the family began to consider creating a new winery to make sparkling wine. Rondel was born at that time. The next expansion to follow was the purchase of Bach, which had existed since 1914.

Passion for the wine world and for making Raventós Codorníu a leading company in the sector brought about a change in business strategy: to spread out. The company then began to create a presence in winemaking regions of great prestige. The first acquisition was Bilbaínas Wineries, in Haro (Rioja Qualified Region) which has 263 hectares of vineyards owned by the company. At this Rioja winery, some of the most prestigious wines of the region are manufactured like the classic Viña Pomal or La Vicalanda.

Later, in the 90s, the company made a leap outside of Spanish territory and founded the Californian Artesa Winery, located in the emblematic Napa Valley. There, high-quality still wines are manufactured. Just one year later, in 1999, Raventós Codorníu created the Séptima Winery in the rich Argentine wine region known as Mendoza.

Lastly, returning to its origins, the company entered in the year 2000 as a shareholder of Scala Dei, the oldest Priorat Winery.

With the turn of the century, the Raventós family finished up establishing Legaris, which has wines from the Ribera del Duero region, and recovered the winery and the vineyards located on monastic grounds at Abadía de Poblet.

In 2018, Raventós Codorníu merged with Gleva Cellars (Parxet, Mont-Ferrant, Titiana, Tionio, Basagoiti, Portal del Montsant, and Raventós de Alella), now holding 14 leading wineries in their respective designations of origin.

With all this –and after the effort that comes with almost 500 years of history making wines–Raventós Codorníu has become one of the most prestigious winemaking companies of the world. The company currently has seven sales offices abroad and it has strategic distribution agreements in place with key market countries. In fact, currently, almost half of our invoicing comes from sales abroad.

A great part of our success is due to our way of working: meticulous attention to details in all manufacturing processes.

The company is committed to applying the most advanced techniques to the manufacturing process and to adapting our wineries to new technological demands. In addition, we've placed our faith in innovative research and development programmers which serve as a starting point to optimize the quality of our wines and cavas. Thus, Raventós Codorníu has been able to combine the experience acquired over half a millennium with a drive to constantly update itself.

Our passion is the earth, its fruits and making sure that they are of utmost quality. Finally, opening to other markets, innovation and –to a large extent– learning from what surrounds us has helped us to become better. All of this is under a basic premise which has characterized Raventós Codorníu over these 500 years: respect.

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