Why it matters
The producer
The Sabaté i Coca family has farmed the Bitlles valley for more than four generations. Brothers Josep and Marcel, the fourth generation, run the estate from the village of Subirats, in the Penedès appellation between Torrelavid and Sant Pere de Riudebitlles. What marks this estate is not only its longevity but the particular discipline the family brought to it: 40 hectares divided into 66 separate plots, each fermented individually, all grown on organic principles, every grape harvested by hand.
Their father Marcelino started as a sharecropper. He drove the construction of the modern winery and, later, turned the old winemaking rooms inside the family's 18th-century masía into a wine museum. The rooms that once pressed grapes under a sharecrop arrangement now hold the estate's history. Josep and Marcel run two distinct brands from the same land: Castellroig for entry-level Penedès blends, and Sabaté i Coca for their longer-aged, Corpinnat-certified cuvées.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Penedès is Catalonia's most established sparkling wine country, a broad appellation south of Barcelona that supplies most of Spain's traditional-method fizz. The Bitlles valley, where this estate lies, runs through the interior of the appellation and away from the coastal lowlands. Subirats, the estate's municipality, sits at altitude, and the combination of cool nights and chalky soils gives the grapes the acidity and mineral character that long ageing on the lees demands.
Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada are the appellation's native trio, each contributing something different: Macabeo brings aromatic freshness; Xarel·lo, texture and grip; Parellada, floral lift and acidity. In a dosage-free sparkling wine aged for years before disgorgement, those structural qualities are not decorative. They are what keeps the wine from going flat or sharp.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Each of the 66 plots is harvested by hand and fermented in a separate vessel. Plot-level vinification means the winemaker can track what each soil type delivers and decide at blending which parcels belong in which cuvée. Across 18 soil types, that decision matters: a parcel on deep chalk behaves differently from one on shallower sediment, and keeping them apart preserves those differences until a deliberate choice is made to combine them.
No dosage is added to the sparkling wines. Dosage, the small addition of sugar and wine made just before final sealing, is standard practice across most sparkling wine production. Leaving it out means the wine goes into bottle with nothing to soften the acid edge or round the finish. Every lees-ageing month becomes load-bearing: the wine develops breadth and complexity in the bottle because there is nothing else to add it. Most Sabaté i Coca cuvées carry the disgorgement date on the label.
Wines to know
The range in view
The estate runs two distinct brands. Castellroig covers the entry range: blends of Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada made for earlier drinking, with shorter ageing on the lees and wider availability. These bottles carry the Penedès appellation and represent the straightforward, mineral-fresh character of the valley.
Sabaté i Coca is the premium tier, certified by Corpinnat. Listed wines include Josep Coca Brut Nature. The 2013 magnum format spent 119 months on its lees before disgorgement, nearly ten years inside the bottle. A 2017 Sabaté i Coca Corpinnat Reserva Brut Nature was reviewed by Wine Enthusiast, showing the estate's clean Penedès mineral character. The Josep Coca 2013 received 94 points from Wine Advocate. The premium bottles carry no dosage, show the disgorgement date, and are made entirely from estate-grown grapes harvested by hand.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Sabaté i Coca Corpinnat Reserva Brut Nature is the bottle to start with. It is a Corpinnat-certified sparkling wine from Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada grown on the estate's chalky Bitlles valley plots, made without dosage and aged on the lees for longer than the DO Cava minimum. The 2017 vintage shows the estate's natural acid line without the savoury complexity that a decade on the lees produces in the Josep Coca magnum. The mousse is clean and fine, the palate is dry with mineral freshness, and the finish is precise without sweetness.