The Torello name has meant Catalan sparkling wine for generations. In 2013 Agusti Torello Roca broke away to build something more personal, and pointedly outside the Cava DO.
Backstory
AT Roca was founded in 2013 by Agusti Torello Roca together with his father, Agusti Torello Sibill, and his aunt, Lali Torello Sibill. The family-run project sits in the Penedes, in the hamlet of Sant Sebastia dels Gorgs. From the start the goal was to join DO Classic Penedes, the quality-focused appellation created in 2012, rather than continue under the much larger Cava DO. That choice put AT Roca at the front of a wider movement of top Penedes growers seeking a closer link between bottle and place.
The Region
The vineyards lie in the eastern Penedes, near the Garraf massif and the foothills of the Ordal mountains. Most parcels are within 20 kilometers of the Mediterranean and face north, which keeps temperatures down and ripening slow. The soils are marine-derived, laid down when the area lay underwater some 20 million years ago, and lend the wines a chalky, saline edge.
Vineyards & Farming
The estate farms around 38 hectares. Membership in DO Classic Penedes requires organic certification, and the family follows organic and regenerative practices with traditional Mediterranean dry farming. Everything is harvested by hand. The late-ripening Macabeu is well suited to the cooler Ordal foothills, planted alongside Xarel-lo, including a high-elevation site at Cantallops used for a still white.
Winemaking
All wines are traditional-method and vintage-dated, with the second fermentation taking place in bottle. Fermentations rely on indigenous yeasts, and sulfur is used just once, to block the malolactic fermentation. The wines spend a minimum of 15 months on the lees and are bottled at zero dosage, so there is no added sugar to soften them. Single-vineyard cuvees ferment in used barrels and age on lees under natural cork.
The Wines
The core Reserva blends roughly 55% Macabeu with 45% Xarel-lo from the Costers d'Ordal, joined by a Rosat made in the same brut nature style. Single-vineyard sparkling cuvees and a still Xarel-lo from the high Cantallops site complete a precise, bone-dry, terroir-driven range.
