Gramona III Lustros is one of the great emblems of this producer from Sant Sadurní d’Anoia. In 2021, 70 years have passed since this sparkling wine was released on the market, in 1961. Its first printing was made 10 years earlier, in 1951. And the now III Lustros was born as II Lustros, as Brut (since 1962, which is Brut Nature) and with a decade of aging. A dispute with the Castellblanch cavas was resolved in a Solomonic manner: Gramona kept the III Lustros brand despite having now been aged for about eight years, and the Freixenet Group cavas kept the II Lustros brand. Gramona defines it as “the purest and most demanding expression of sparkling wines, with all the character of our lands.”
Xavier Gramona, a member of the fifth generation of the family that owns it along with his cousin Jaume, stated that the emergence of this product on the market protected by DO Cava, today marketed under the European collective brand Corpinnat, represented a paradigm shift. This businessman, who died on August 4 after suffering an accident, also pointed out that "the history of the III Lustros is linked to the recognition that has been given to the sparkling wines of this land as great products in the world."
The Gramona and Batlle families, winegrowers and winemakers, married at the beginning of the 20th century, giving rise to the birth of the house's first sparkling wines. It was 1921 when the couple formed by Pilar Batlle and Bartomeu Gramona presented their first sparkling wines on the market. From their ancestors, they say from this winery, they have learned “the perseverance required in that profession,” as well as “the patience necessary to bottle time.” From there, they add that long aging is in their DNA. It is a factor that “without a doubt, helped us make the first long-aged sparkling wine in the country: III Lustros.”
This Brut Nature with between seven and eight years of aging in the bottle on its lees was made for the first time in 1951 by the brothers Bartomeu and Josep Lluís Gramona, fourth generation of the family. Until the end of the 20th century, the two Gramona brothers directed the direction of a winery that later passed into the hands of cousins Jaume and Xavier (sons, respectively, of Josep Lluís and Bartomeu). And a few years ago Jaume and Xavier already began handing over the reins of the business to their sons Roc (winery and viticulture) and Leo (brand manager) respectively. As stated by the winery, the sixth generation continues the family legacy “exploring new ways of expressing the terroir, and the uniqueness of each plot, and enriching itself from its inherited history.”
Xavier Gramona affirmed that "excellence in a sparkling wine is reflected in the very long aging, which compares with the education of a person", and that "the difference with other sparkling wines is in genetics, which comes from the land, the climate, varieties and cultural practices. Even in the 1970s and 1980s, they explained to him that only the internationally renowned varieties Pinot Noir and Chardonnay could make long-aging sparkling wines. Xavier recalled that “it was a time when the best restoration was French and not their own. The same thing happened with wines.”
And why did Gramona decide to opt for the native white variety Xarel·lo? Well, as Xavier Gramona explained, “it was after discovering that it is especially suitable for long aging after exporting wine to France at the end of the 19th century and for decades.”
Xavier Gramona's great-great-grandfather, the rabassaire and butler-winery keeper Josep Batlle, already sold bulk wine destined for the then Spanish colonies after paying part of it to the vineyard owners. His great-grandfather Pau Batlle, who came to buy the La Plana estate that his father worked in the area known at that time as Ribera del Río Noya, in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, worked as a wine merchant who sold to France coinciding with the devastating plague of phylloxera in the French vineyards, until he discovered that it was more profitable to make his own wines. And he founded Celler Batlle in 1881. He sold to the French “a very fresh wine, not fortified, to carry out second fermentations in the bottle and some aging”. He adds that the Xarel·lo and Macabeo varieties turned out to be a good combination.
But after the French vineyard recovered, the Batlles lost this business. Pau Batlle married his only daughter to Bartomeu Gramona and commissioned them to “make champagne.” Bartomeu was the only son of the man who was president of the Barcelona Innkeepers Guild already in the year 1900. He had a fine nose, was very Latinist and had a good education. The English calligraphy of the Gramona brand is his, in his own handwriting.
Xavier Gramona explained that “in 1945 Europe wanted to celebrate its victory. Everyone wanted bubbles. Champagne merchants visited us and bought our stock between 1945 and 1950. The Gramonas had the vintages from the early 1930s that had not been sold due to consecutive Spanish and Second World Wars, at a time when the paradigm was that Only great long-aged sparkling wines could be made in Champagne. However, the buyers who now came from there - the war emptied France, Italy and Germany, the main producers of bubbles, of stocks - now preferred unsold xarel·los that were more than 10 years old due to this accident of fate."
In 1951, when the French had already replenished their stocks, Bartomeu Gramona, already an agronomist at the age of 26, and his brother Josep Lluís, at the age of 21 and in the winery since he was a child, decided to make II Lustros. The product had to fight for decades against Spanish critics who did not understand long-aged sparkling wines and who resisted what Xavier Gramona coined as a “paradigm change.” But gourmets and writers such as Néstor Luján, Luis Bettonica or Manuel Vázquez Montalbán saw that it was an “out of the ordinary” product.
In fact, the fictional detective Pepe Carvalho, created by Montalbán, used to drink III Lustros. Then, when they only sold in Catalonia and in a few restaurants in the Basque Country, Valencia and Madrid, the boom in Spanish gastronomy arrived and with it the first school sommeliers, highly prepared young people “who finally understood the value of wine.” And the prestige was cemented with the recognition of the international press, as was the case with criticism from the Wall Street Journal or The New York Times.
The winter and early spring of 2014 were dry, followed by a few weeks of rain and high temperatures that caused fungi such as powdery mildew in the vineyard, forcing them to work intensely to control the damage. The harvest yield was 15% lower than the average of recent years, but the forecasts for the long-aged sparkling wines were excellent. The production process is 100% artisanal. During the rest time in the silence, stillness and darkness of the cellar, they use a natural cork stopper. The stirring at the desks and the disgorging of the bottles are carried out manually. Even wrapping with plant-based and 100% compostable cellophane is a process that is done by hand.
As a consequence of the commitment to biodynamic agriculture and with the repeated years of drought, the production of its La Plana estate fell drastically, which forced Gramona to provide grapes from the Font de Jui estate for the production of III Lustros. In the surroundings of Celler Batlle, the Font de Jui estate consists of 22.5 hectares, of which 15 contain its plots with xarel·lo and macabeo. They extend between the Anoia River (La Plana, 100 meters above sea level) to the Mas Escorpí hill (350 meters above sea level), which dominates the town of Sant Sadurní, with slopes of different orientation. The soil is clayey-calcareous, with sandy patches next to the river and a profusion of rock in the highest and driest area.
Straw yellow in color with golden reflections. It has small bubbles and carbon dioxide well integrated into the wine. Initially it forms a perfect crown in the glass. It exhibits notes of somewhat ripe stone spring fruits, on a bed of brioche, lightly toasted bread and dried fruits (almond). It also shows wilted flowers and infused aromatic herbs, such as chamomile and rosemary. In the taste phase it stands out for its very good acidity and a saline touch, which makes you salivate, compensated with a creamy tactile sensation. It has notes reminiscent of lemon yogurt or British lemon curd. It is sapid and elegant. Vivacity despite the long aging (more than 84 months). In this upcoming Christmas campaign, the first bottles of the III Lustros in a liter and a half format, which presents a special expressiveness, will be released on the market, also with the 2014 vintage.
Gramona III Lustros is a purely gastronomic Brut Nature. Thanks to the balance between structure, creaminess and freshness, from this family winery they affirm that it pairs with an infinity of raw materials and preparations, among which Iberian ham, foie, cold meats, seafood, rice dishes or spoon dishes stand out. like marmitako. Xavier Gramona liked its pairing with Japanese cuisine: “it respects sashimi and when the wasabi comes it rises to the top.” He also loved it with some sea urchins with Hollandaise sauce, since "its clean fine carbonic acid, and the strength and body of an eight-year-old sparkling wine is very versatile gastronomically speaking."
Gramona sommelier Linda Díaz believes that this sparkling wine works especially well with spoon dishes, since “it has enough structure to withstand substantial preparations.” She explains that the bubble cleanses and the acidity refreshes. She puts, for example, a soupy sea (lobster) and mountain (pork rib) rice. They suggest serving it between 8 and 10 °C and drinking it in a wide glass to promote oxygenation and expressiveness. Gramona III Lustro, according to its makers, “can be drunk now or, preserved in appropriate conditions, it can continue a magnificent evolution to be enjoyed in the future.”
Gramona currently produces around 700,000 bottles of sparkling wines, of which 20% of the total is exported. The United States and countries in central and northern Europe are its main international strongholds. They also produce some 700,000 bottles of still wines protected by the DO Penedès, and have a project with mountain vineyards in Cerdanya. In 2022 they celebrated their centenary as sparkling wine makers. They have opted for biodynamic agriculture, sustainability and long-aging sparkling wines.
