When I started looking for Cava for WineSpark, my Spanish winemaker friends talked me out of it. ‘Forget Cava’, they said, ‘It’s all about Penedes’. I heard it from enough people in the know to take notice.

Penedes is a pretty progressive place, as wine regions go. Since 2017 for example, all sparkling wine must be organic. They must also be aged for 15 months minimum - which gives the wine extra complexity and depth of flavour.

This is all compared to the vast Cava region, where wines range from 2 euro to 100 euro making it hard to give it a proper identity. 

Eva Ventura is the winemaker at Mas Bertran, one of Penedes’ leading producers. 

Like many great winemakers, she studied chemistry before getting into wine. But given her family were in the grape-growing business for years, it was inevitable she’d go back to wine.

You’ll find her wine at several Michelin-starred restaurants around the world.