Albert Bassols was an economist and journalist before he became a novelist, but it is clear that one thing can perfectly lead to another. As an economic journalist, he was closely acquainted with what was baptized as the cava war, the extreme disagreements between the two large companies in the sector, Codorniu and Freixenet.
As every novelist knows, in this profession everything is taken advantage of, so that, properly fictionalized, that war of the cava has served him to write his first novel, The families of the cava, the Ravells and the French, who do not live in Sant Sadurní, but in Sant Marçal.
“As a journalist, I lived through the conflict between the two large cava companies in the eighties and nineties –recalls Bassols–, and now I have written a novel. The background is historical, with the old enmity between the two families, as the residents of Penedès will remember, but the facts are made up. You couldn't put what comes out in some movies that says it's based on real events."
“But it is not the only story: like the Russian dolls, there are other more positive plots. Above all, that the youngest part of the families want to overcome these disagreements and even talk about reconciliation”, says the writer. And for that purpose, he establishes "a personal relationship between the heir and the heiress of each family", a kind of Romeo and Juliet in the Penedès.
Bassols reflects on "the historical importance of family businesses, already in the 19th century, but some did not realize that they had to modernize and did not want to invest." The novel is set in the years when Spain entered the European Economic Community, so that "globalization also affects these companies."
The author also plays in Les famílies del cava with intergenerational differences: “Young people want to break the inertia in the face of some immobile old men who are not willing to reconcile with each other or invest in their own wineries. In the story, the townspeople function as a third character.”
The novel begins with a secret meeting between the two great families. When they finish, outside, the patriarch of one of the families is wounded by gunshots from who knows who. To the police plot that arises here, we must add the conflict with the peasants over the price of grapes, a situation that continues, and the legal conflict with France over the appellation of the méthode champenoise.
With all these ingredients, in Les famílies del cava Albert Bassols has managed to build a novel with all the ingredients to spend a very entertaining time.
Catalan version, here
