The winery "Viñedos Raïmat" is located in the Spanish DO
Costers del Segre. The DO was only established or classified in 1938 at the instigation of the winery or its parent company
Codorníu. It was founded in 1914 by Manuel Raventós, who acquired a large, stony land area of 3,200 hectares in the province of Lleida (Lérida) with a dilapidated castillo. The name is derived from the Catalan words "Raïm" (grape) and "mà" (hand). For centuries, wine had been grown there, but it was abandoned at the end of the 19th century due to the
phylloxera catastrophe. Raventós realised that the Aragón Canal, built in 1910, would make vast stretches of land fertile again. In decades of arduous work, the formerly desert-like and salty soil was cultivated for viticulture. Hundreds of hectares of land with healthy soil have been filled up and a modern irrigation system has been created using the river Ebro and its tributaries. With the support of the
University of California at Davis, the ideal grape varieties were identified. At the same time a village with 100 farmhouses, reservoirs and roads was built and workers were settled. The bodega was opened in 1918 as the first building in Spain built of reinforced concrete. In 1930, some 300 hectares were planted with vines that produced 6,000 hectolitres of wine. Around 250 kilometres of canals and drainage systems provided good artificial
irrigation.
In 1988, an ultra-modern winery was built below a hill. The soil above this building was planted with Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyards now cover 2,245 hectares of vines. The main varieties cultivated are the indigenous Albariño, Macabeo, Xarel-Lo, Parellada and Tempranillo, as well as the international varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Colombard, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, Chardonnay, Malvasia, Pinot Noir, Moscatel Ruso, Merlot, Petite Shiraz and Muscat d'Alexandrie. The wines are aged in 15,000 French and American oak barrels. Besides the pure Crianzas, a sparkling wine from Chardonnay and the white wine Cuvée Albariño-Chardonnay, the site wines Abadía (Cuvée from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Tempranillo) and Vallcorba (pure from Cabernet Sauvignon) are worth mentioning. Every year 5.5 million bottles of still wine and 1.5 million bottles of
cava are produced. The winery is undoubtedly one of the most innovative centres for viticultural research in the world, thanks to its vast experience. The techniques used in the elaborate cultivation of the vineyards and the vinification process have required several years of experimentation and research.
