The day began in front of the main façade. Exposed stone, a large semicircular arched doorway — reminiscent of Catalan Romanesque porticos — and five windows crowned with blue ceramic tiles from 1916 that cost five pesetas each. All these details were explained by Judit Romeu, historian and resident of Aiguamúrcia, who led the visit with knowledge and affection that came from very close to home: her father and grandfather had been members of the cooperative.

But before going inside, attendees introduced themselves to one another. How long they had been Club members, how they had discovered Raventós i Blanc, which gathering they remembered most fondly, and so on. In that moment, standing before the façade of a building born from cooperation, the same energy was created once again: people who recognise themselves in shared values, who share a way of understanding wine and the land.

Couples had come, fathers and mothers with their children, siblings, friends… Because at the Club you can bring a guest, and many take the opportunity to share these experiences with someone close to them.

Various moments from the Club 1497 members’ visit to the Aiguamúrcia Cooperative.

The value of loving a place

Judit unfolded the visit with the cadence of someone who needs no notes. She explained how agrarian cooperativism was born out of a double adversity: the conflict of the rabassa morta — landowners who wanted to break contracts that tenant farmers, thanks to new agricultural techniques, managed to extend indefinitely — and phylloxera, which devastated the vineyards of half a continent. From that double crisis, the will to pull together was born. “Agrarian cooperativism acts as a mechanism for strength and for rising up in the face of adversity,” said Judit.

Inside, she showed how Martinell had divided the space into two zones — processing and fermentation — separated by an arcade built with two superimposed parabolic arches and bricks. A structure that is at once an exercise in engineering and a gesture of beauty.

Martinell believed that:

“The constant sight of a beautiful thing educates and ennobles the spirit.”

The architect was convinced that agricultural workers deserved dignified, welcoming and beautiful spaces, as well as functional ones.

Hearing all these details from Judit had an added value. She is probably the only person who has had access to the cooperative’s historical archive, faithfully preserved by its members and their families. She, a daughter of Aiguamúrcia, was able to carefully sift through those papers, sheet by sheet, to reconstruct the history of the building. The archive was intact: minutes from board meetings, Martinell’s original plans, decisions that members had put in writing over the course of decades. Collective memory.

When someone who deeply loves a place explains it to you with all that knowledge in their hands, every detail takes on a different dimension. That afternoon, the Aiguamúrcia cooperative was not a building to be restored. It was a family story told aloud.

The large vats where cooperative wines were fermented, and the Martinell arches

As if the doors had never closed

When the visit ended, the atmosphere had a different texture. The guests spoke to one another as if they had been friends for a long time — some, in fact, already knew each other from previous gatherings. The new members who joined this year found their place straight away: they introduced themselves, explained how they had come to the Club, and before the morning was over had already made plans to see each other at upcoming events.

The tasting inside the nave, beneath Martinell’s arches, with the light coming through the windows casting long shadows across the floor of the old winery. As if it had always been this way, as if the doors had never closed.

What is Club 1497?

Club 1497 is a meeting point for friends of our family of sparkling wines. It is a space where we want to share the passion we have at Raventós i Blanc for our land and for everything that makes our work possible.

It is the feeling of arriving at a place no one else has visited yet. Of knowing that the Aiguamúrcia cooperative, silent since 1985, once again has people inside talking about wine, land and the future. Of hearing a historian explain that her grandfather brought grapes there every autumn. Of sharing a glass beneath hundred-year-old arches with someone you have just met and with whom, nonetheless, you already have so much in common.

Judit closed the visit with the words of writer Jaume Siurana: cellars, throughout the year, live in a static quietude awaiting a new festival. We, on that 22nd of May, were able to feel that in Aiguamúrcia, the festival is about to begin.

In addition to experiences like this one, Club 1497 members enjoy three exclusive shipments per year and access to limited editions. If you would like to know more, all the details are here.