Solà Raventós and its cooking channel
The little settlement near Barcelona, Sant Sadurní d’Anoia is undoubtedly the centre of the Spanish sparkling wine production with giants like Freixenet, with renowned houses like Gramona and besides the famous ones there are several more to discover. There are about 85 wineries in the tiny town of 12 500 inhabitants, hence you bet, nobody is left thirsty. Solà Raventós is one of the smallest wineries with about 20 million bottles of cava annually.
Relaxed visit, plenty of ideas
Right now I am not writing about the products of the winery, for that I need another, proper tasting. In my first visit I really liked the brut nature, long aged cavas and I was absolutely impressed by the way the visit was conducted. We had an appointment, we had to wait just one or two minutes and then the son of the owner took us around. His impeccable English is priceless in this place, plus he cleverly adjusts his presentation to the professional level of the audience. Some visits get incredibly long, however Guifre uses photos on his tablet to cut superficial speech, pictures can tell more in seconds. He also introduces the “staff”: Teresa, Ana and all the others, the important machines that help the production go smoothly. At the end of the visit the tasting includes 4 cavas with local bits to taste, for example ‘fuet’ (the Catalan salami), olives and goat cheese with honey from Muria, an award winning, local producer. The guided visit in the cellar costs 15 euros, but if you are short of time, you can book the tasting only for 10 euros. What’s more, at the end of the visit father Pere and his son Guifre handle a cute little memory to the guests and they take of photo of each visitor – certainly only if he or she agrees.
Book here
Calamar with almond and cava
So let’s get to the point. The reason for writing about Solà Raventós in the EAT section is that Pere, the owner is a passionate cook, what’s more, he is eager to share his recipes with his followers in YouTube videos and his son makes English subtitles so the recipes are accessible for a larger audience. I tried calamar with almond, even though the combination sounded weird for me. Yet I followed the instructions thoroughly, I even used Muria, the award winner honey I bought at the cellar, and the result was super delicious! Well, the only difference is that I mixed the calamars with some tagliatelle to make enough food for the kids…
Thank you, Pere, the almond, the honey, the cava and the calamars worked together perfectly! Below you can see my own plate.
Calamar & almond recipe
More recipes by Pere
And finally my own version of the meal:
