This month we'll raise a glass of Raventos i Blanc de Nit cava. This sparkler certainly qualifies for inclusion in our year of choosing wines associated with great memories and great people. We have a scrapbook of photos of this wine in some of our favorite places. Moreover, we are grateful to four wine mentors for sharing their knowledge of this cava and its history with us.
This is one of many wines we discovered thanks to recommendations from Thomas Fielding and Scott O’Connor, one time owners of Perry's Wine and Spirits in Provincetown. These former restaurateurs chose the selection at their shop like a well-curated wine list.
Perry's was always a stop on our initial shopping trip when we arrived for a week or two. We also loved their clever "OPEN" and "NOPE" signs. The last we heard, these gentlemen were headed for retirement in Mexico.
Thanks to them, we enjoyed many bottles of this great value wine as we made memories in one of our very special places. We'll think of those times with every sip this month.
Back in Boston
Penny ordered Raventos so often at Select Oyster Bar that the staff would often just ask, "The usual?" Select owner, and another wine mentor, Michael Serpa, told us more about the winery and its history.
On the other side of town, we learned even more from Alcove Boston owner and long-time wine educator Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli. He likes this wine so much that he offers it in half bottles, 750s, and magnums. We've followed Tom around since his early years as a bartender at Craigie on Main.
Raventos says, "Five centuries of winegrowing, tradition and family."
Raventós i Blanc is a winery with one of the longest documented winegrowing traditions in the world. The family farm where our wines are now produced has belonged to the Raventós family since 1497. Five centuries working 90 hectares of vines and forest, a dynasty closely associated with the land from one generation to the next. Today, Pepe Raventós, who represents the twenty-first generation of the family, farms 44 plots using biodynamic winegrowing methods and is committed to maintaining the estate of vines, wood and lake as a complete entity. Raventós i Blanc is faithful to tradition and upholds the relationship between man and nature at the very core of its production philosophy."
Trying wines from different places, made with different grapes and produced by different methods, adds spice to our monthly ritual. Since 2007 we have raised a glass of sparkling wine to greet each new month!
We purchase our bottle at Gordon's Wine and Spirits for $24.99.
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Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: © 2014-2023 Penny Cherubino
because you simply enjoy a bottle of wine more when someone gifted it to you!
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