When three neighboring families who have farmed the Penedes for generations put their children together in a room, something uncommon happens: a shared language, inherited from different cellars, that speaks the same dialect. Raimones was born from exactly that convergence in 2021, when Montse Carbo, Jordi Jane, and Marti Sadurni -- the rising generation of the Mas Candi, La Salada, and RR Sadurni estates respectively -- launched a new project built on friendship, shared terroir, and a sense of urgency about what local viticulture still stands to lose.
Backstory
Raimones was founded in 2021 in Les Gunyoles, a village in the Alt Penedes subzone southwest of Barcelona. The three founders grew up on working wine farms and represent a new generation that came of age in a region where organic and biodynamic practices have steadily replaced conventional farming. Their families' combined history in the Penedes stretches back decades, giving Raimones a depth of local knowledge that a startup would otherwise take years to accumulate.
The Region
The Penedes sits on a broad limestone plateau between the coast and the pre-Pyrenean foothills, roughly 50 kilometres southwest of Barcelona. The Mediterranean climate delivers dry summers and mild winters, with cooling sea breezes and altitude gradients that give grapes freshness and tension. Xarel-lo is the dominant white variety, but the Penedes hosts dozens of traditional Catalan varieties, many of which have nearly vanished from commercial production.
Vineyards and Farming
Raimones works 10 hectares of dry-farmed vineyards planted to indigenous Catalan varieties. No irrigation is used. All fruit is hand-harvested, and the farming follows organic principles. Central to the project is the Marina grape -- an ancient Catalan white variety with fewer than 10 hectares planted worldwide -- which Raimones has made a priority to rescue from near-extinction. This work connects the project to a broader effort across the Penedes to preserve viticultural heritage before it is lost entirely.
Winemaking
In the cellar, Raimones works with spontaneous fermentation using native yeasts and avoids additives throughout the process. The team produces wines in a range of styles, including still whites and reds as well as ancestral-method sparkling wines, all unified by a commitment to transparency and minimal intervention. Wines are unfiltered and released with low or no added sulfur.
The Wines
The Engrescada range -- whose name translates roughly as "hooked" or "enthralled" -- includes sparkling ancestral-method whites, roses, and orange wines built on Marina and other local varieties. The wines are lively, textured, and direct, with the minerality and brightness that characterize the Penedes plateau. Small production and strong demand mean that bottles move quickly through the network of natural wine shops and importers that carry them.
