Torelló, 630 years of vines and 75 years of sparkling wines
It is 630 years since the founding of our Can Martí country house and estate in Gelida-Alt Penedès as is demonstrated by the 117 documents that we conserve in the Torelló Family archives. From the first document dated 1395 (14th century), in which we receive the country house in emphyteusis from the Lord of Gelida, through the rest that continue up to the current date. These are Compilations of Documents whereby those beholden to a lord recognise their submission and detail their possessions, Confessions, Debts, Wills, Lawsuits, Inventories, Wedding Registers, Matrimonial Chapters, Letters of Payment, Powers, Humiliations, Donations, Descriptions of Goods, Certifications, Cessions, Recognitions, Conciliations, Deliveries of Goods, Formal Legal Petitions and Requests for the Cancellation of Land Contracts. In many of these there is mention of vines, grapes, cups, barrels, wine, contracts for cultivation, peasant farmers and so are a living testimony to the uninterrupted secular winegrowing tradition of our Can Martí country house and estate that has continued to this day. In all this time, our surname has been changing up until the current one, Torelló, which also gives the name to our brand of DO Penedès wines and Corpinnat sparkling wines.
Toni de la Rosa Torelló Ernestina Torelló and Paco de la Rosa Torelló
In this way wine has been made at Can Martí, what is now known as still wine, from times immemorial. That said, this year this next month of August-September 2025, we will celebrate the 75th harvest dedicated to the making of sparkling wine. It was my parents, Josefa Llopart and Francesc Torelló, 20th generation of Can Martí, who started to make it in 1951, and today, I myself, with my children Paco and Toni, continue this winegrowing tradition that we have been handed down by our forefathers.
In 1951 we were very few cellars that gave ourselves to the making of sparkling wine. In those days it was called ‘xampany’, and also ‘wine aged in cellar (cava)’ came to be used. Later there was mention of ‘methode champenoise’, which was used until the creation of the DO Cava, which was joined by Torelló in the decade of the 80s. In 2019, we decided to leave the DO and integrate ourselves into Corpinnat, an EU collective brand that we helped to found together with other Penedès family cellars.
At the beginning, Francesc Torelló in the decade of the 1950s, started to make sparkling wine for many other cellars in the region: a total of 30. That is to say he harvested the grapes on the Can Martí estate, he vinified it on the property, made the sparkling wine and sold it without a label. Some years later he started to commercialise it under the name of Torelló.
Today the Can Martí Estate has 135 hectares, 80 of which are planted with 11 varieties of grape following the precepts of ecological agriculture. Torelló makes Corpinnat sparkling wines, white, rosé and red DO Penedès wines, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the more than 500 olive trees that there are on the property.
Torelló 75th anniversary Brut 2018
A coupage of the xarel.lo (57%), macabeu (23%) and parellada (20%) varieties o ecological grapes from the Can Martí State of the 2018 vintage harvested by hand.
The 2018 harvest
The harvest started on 13th August and finished on 27th September, with some interruptions due to the storms and the wait of the maturing of some of the varieties. There was selection of the grapes both on the vine and on the cellar table before entering the press. The wines from the harvest were characterised by the balance between acidity and degree of alcohol, an essential aspect for long-aged sparkling wines like ours.
It has been aged 75 months in the bottle, one month for each of the 75 years of the anniversary we are celebrating. It is a brut, just as our grandfather Francesc Torelló conceived, with a little addition of liqueur d’expédition that makes it nice on the mouth, but it is still a dry Corpinnat.
Yellow or walnut in colour, with gilded grey reflexes, it is clean and transparent with the formation of a continuous string of bubbles. The nose brings delicious, green aromas that take us to the fields, like almond, dry clay and hedgerow flowers. Fresh notes of mint and fennel. Together with candied fruits, brioche and yeast, all above a subtle mineral aroma. It enters the mouth with nerve, freshness and a quick pace. Delicious notes, grand structure.
