The 2026 harvest arrived early in Penedès. At Rovellats, the team placed the advance at around 17 or 18 days compared with a usual season, after a year marked by good rainfall until May and a much drier spring and summer. The result was clear: lower volume, but a very healthy harvest, with hardly any pressure from fungi or disease.

But an early harvest, on its own, explains very little.

What matters is what happens when a winery decides what to pick, when to pick it and which wine those grapes are intended to become. During our visit to Rovellats, in Sant Martí Sarroca, we experienced that process from within: walking through an old Xarel·lo vineyard, tasting the grapes, and talking about acidity, ripeness, yield per vine and final destination. It was not only about whether the grapes were ready. It was about understanding what those grapes needed to preserve after fermentation, second fermentation and years of ageing.

Rovellats produces sparkling wines conceived in the vineyard and designed to evolve over time. That intention changes the way the harvest is read. Freshness, structure and precision need to be present from the very beginning, even if the consumer may not open the bottle until much later.

In the vineyard, Manel, the production manager, explained that the Xarel·lo we were tasting came from one of the most special plots of the estate. An old vineyard, destined for Rovellats’ finest products because of the quality of its grapes, its flavor and its acidity. This was not a decision taken lightly: he had been taking samples for weeks, analyzing sugar and acidity, first weekly and then day by day, until reaching the right moment.

That distinction helps explain harvest with more precision. Ripeness is not interpreted in isolation. It is read according to the variety, the plot and the journey planned for each wine. In a house devoted to long ageing, today’s work must preserve the tension and balance that the bottle will need for years.

The grapes we saw were healthy, expressive and still marked by a clear acidity. Josep, third generation and owner of the winery, later explained that those grapes could be around 10 or 10.5 degrees, and that they could even have been left to ripen further to make a great still white wine. But that was not what Rovellats was looking for at that moment. They were looking for grapes suited to sparkling wines, where freshness and acidity remain essential.

One of the most revealing moments of the visit was understanding that this Xarel·lo plot was not special only because of its age. Josep explained that it had been planted around 1959 or 1961, and that for years it had been one of the most difficult vineyards on the estate. Instead of abandoning it or accepting its limitations, Rovellats transformed it through a double trellising system, seeking to organize the plant, control its load and obtain a more balanced expression.

That explanation says a great deal about the winery’s philosophy. It is not only about having old vines. It is about knowing how to work them. Each plot has its own orientation, soil, behavior and role within the house style. Josep described it in a very visual way: a vine, in a sense, is educated. It is allowed to grow, observed, corrected and guided until it can give the best of itself.

During harvest, that relationship between vineyard and style becomes tangible. Vine age, acidity, skin, seed, yield per vine and the destination of each lot all form part of the same reading. Rovellats does not simply harvest grapes. It harvests decisions.

And perhaps that is why one of the most important sentences of the day was also one of the simplest. When I asked when a good grape becomes Rovellats, Josep replied:

“A good grape never becomes Rovellats. A good grape is Rovellats.”

For an importer, that idea has enormous value. It explains that Rovellats does not build its identity at the end of the process, nor on the label, nor only through ageing. Identity begins earlier, in the vineyard, in the way each plot is interpreted and in the decision to maintain a way of working generation after generation.

Harvest opens a much longer process. Winemaking, blending, second fermentation and ageing will follow. The market will see the result at the end, but its profile begins with these first decisions.

That idea became even clearer when we went down into La Cava, located 12 meters beneath the garden and naturally kept at around 14 degrees throughout the year. There, in an underground cellar with a radial architectural design, unique in the world, the second fermentation takes place and the ageing begins. At Rovellats, ageing is not understood as simple waiting. It is an essential part of the house style.

Josep explained it with precision: cava is a sparkling wine, but it is still wine. Ageing alone cannot improve a wine that did not have quality from the start. That is why each vineyard is worked with a specific purpose, each product is built with different varieties and each ageing period responds to a clear intention.

At Rovellats, this work is also supported by an integrated production model. The winery works around 50 hectares of its own vineyards and produces approximately 250,000 to 260,000 bottles of cava and 40,000 to 50,000 bottles of wine per year, within what Josep describes as a château-style approach: vineyards managed by the winery itself, located around the estate and focused on guaranteeing consistency.

For international professionals, this context makes the project easier to communicate. A buyer can understand that long ageing does not begin when the bottle enters the cellar. It begins with a choice in the vineyard. The same buyer can also explain why freshness, structure and consistency matter in a sparkling wine designed to evolve.

One especially interesting part of the conversation was the reflection on international markets. When I asked which part of Rovellats should never change, even if an importer or a market asked for it, Josep was very clear: Rovellats does not want to copy what others do. Its path is to work with what it has: Macabeo, Xarel·lo, Parellada, estate-grown grapes and long ageing.

That answer is important because it speaks about positioning. In a global market, many wineries feel the temptation to adapt their product too much in order to fit each country. Rovellats understands adaptation differently. There can be commercial adjustments, but not a renunciation of the way of making wine that has built its identity.

The winery works without dosage understood as an external formula to dress up the product. Josep explained that when sugar is added, it is sugar with wine; no spirits, no wines aged in barrel, no resources that would move the cava away from its own style.

For an importer, this provides clarity. Rovellats is not a brand that changes personality depending on the market. It is a winery with a recognizable philosophy, a stable way of working and a very specific idea of what it wants to deliver in the bottle.

The day ended with a glass of Masía Siglo XV 2016, a cava with 10 years of ageing. Nine of those years have been spent in the cellar, after a first year in the winery. It is not easy to produce a sparkling wine of that age while still preserving freshness, bubble and harmony.

Josep insisted on a fundamental idea: things are not better simply because they are old. A poor wine does not become a great cava by accumulating years of ageing. Time only makes sense when the base wine is able to sustain it.

Masía Siglo XV summarizes very well what Rovellats seeks to build: depth without losing freshness, complexity without losing balance and an integrated bubble that can accompany everything from an aperitif to a full meal. Gastronomy appeared several times during the conversation, not as an added argument, but as a natural consequence of the house style.

For international markets, this versatility is highly relevant. It helps explain that a long-aged sparkling wine does not need to be limited to toasts or celebrations. It can hold a real place at the table, accompany different dishes and form part of a complete gastronomic experience.

At E2G, we work with wineries that need to turn their identity into a relevant proposition for other markets. That work requires documents, data and knowledge of the portfolio. But it also requires being close to the place where decisions are made.

Our visit to Rovellats allowed us to observe, listen and understand the project more fully. We saw how an early season translates into attention, judgement and purpose. We understood more clearly the value of an old Xarel·lo plot, the importance of acidity, the patience required by long ageing and the coherence needed to preserve an identity without diluting it.

We also saw something that cannot always be explained through a technical sheet: the feeling behind a family winery. Josep expressed it clearly when speaking about why Rovellats could not be produced anywhere else. There is Penedès, there are the traditional varieties, there is Montserrat, there are the Mediterranean air currents, there is sun, rain and soil. But before all of that, there is feeling.

The next Rovellats vintage will take time to reach the market. Its story, however, has already begun in the vineyard.

Discover Rovellats and the story behind its wines.

Elena García