The singularity of the geology of the Conca del Riu Anoia is what enables us to show off our wines just as they are: mineral and saline.

The history of the soils from the Raventós i Blanc estate – framed in the geographic area of the Conca del Riu Anoia – not only contain the characteristics of the land but are also unique and exceptional due to the presence of the Serral Hill and the proximity of the Anoia River.

Once we know that the entire valley was covered by the Mediterranean Sea for 3 million years, during the Miocene Epoch some 16 million years ago, it helps us understand this singularity. The Conca del Riu Anoia is a living witness of the geological events and tectonic movements that formed the Pyrenees and the Penedès depression, then the Mediterranean Sea covered this are. When the sea withdrew, it left the fossilized marine life in our soil; this explains why, today, the Conca del Riu Anoia soils are calcareous with large amounts of marine fossils.

The Raventós i Blanc estate is on a hill, a hill with multiple orientations that give rise to different plots and terraces, different soils, different types of grapes and different wines. It is precisely this hill which gives the entire estate, each plot and each wine their own personality.

Due to the erosion that the Anoia River has done during the last millions of years, the estate has a hill shape, which allows fossils to appear on the slopes of the hill and that we can find them at shallow in the lower areas of the estate.

In fact, we’ve always known that the estate was situated on a geological estuary, but it was one morning in February, less than half a year ago, when Lluís, one of the estate farmers was supervising the replanting of the Xarel·lo in La Plana 11 – a vineyard that is almost one hundred years old, uprooted about 6 years ago, – and from the centre of the Earth, he thought he saw the sea appear. “There are shells here,” he shouted. He was absolutely right!

On that day we found some 20 metres of marine rock from the Miocene Epoch with a high fossil content, covered by a thin layer of eroded Quaternary deposits. The abundant presence of marine fossils shows how the rock was formed in a marine environment; the type of fossils and plant remains found, indicate that the sea was shallow, that they were on sea shore. The ebb and flow of the waves is responsible for bringing everything together.

We had never found so much and such clear evidence. Our very own “fossilized sea” gives life to the plants, to the vines that produce the grapes and to our wines that convey all the energy that surrounds us. We are probably very lucky, situated as we are in the middle of a theme park of Penedès geology.

This is the origin of the strength of Raventós i Blanc and the saline and mineral characteristics of our sparkling wines.