Juvé & Camps: Taking long-aged sparkling wines to new heights

Wine, famously, is about capturing a sense of place. But it is also about time – the way a vintage reflects a growing season, and how the years themselves leave their mark on families, vineyards and, of course, what is in the bottle.

Balance and finesse

The passage of time is a large part of the story of Juvé & Camps. Since the company started, over 100 years ago, its traditional-method sparkling wines have become a byword for balance, finesse and longevity. The company pioneered the Brut Nature style – finely crafted, dry, pure sparkling wines with no dosage. Renowned among sparkling wine fans everywhere, they are particularly well suited to food pairing.

Meritxell Juvé, the fourth generation of the famed winemaking family, describes the organic Reserva de la Familia as ‘far more than a sparkling wine. It is part of our history, our shared memories, and the moments that give meaning to what we do.’

The vineyards – organically certified since 2015 – are tended without pesticides or chemical spraying. They are a source of quality grapes, but also a living ecosystem to be nurtured for future generations. The wines use traditional Catalan varieties – Xarel.lo, Parellada and Macabeo – all hand-harvested from the family’s own 252ha of vines.

Tending the organic vineyards at Juvé & Camps.

‘The silence of the cellars and the beauty of time’

Juvé & Camps are famous for their mastery of blending, and for the prolonged time the wines spend on lees in the cellar. This reaches new heights with the Juvé & Camps V36 Reserva de la Familia. The ultimate expression of their iconic range, V36 is a limited edition of just 1,297 hand-riddled bottles from the exceptional 2009 vintage – a slow-ripening year that provided fruit of brightness, freshness and concentration, perfect for long ageing.

The bottles have spent an extraordinary 15 years resting in the winery’s cellars before release, adding further complexity, depth and texture to an already great wine. ‘This V36 is the purest expression of time,’ says Juvé & Camps’ technical director, Pepe Hidalgo; ‘It is our homage to the silence of the cellars and to the beauty of time passing.’