In your glass
Gemma Gran Reserva
Oliver Viticultors, Penedès
The longest-aged cava the Oliver Sivill family makes, named for Gemma, the mother of the family. Here is who made it, what you’re tasting, and what to cook with it at home.
Tasting notes
What’s in your glass
The family keeps this one for big occasions and serious food. Take a moment with it before the conversation pulls you away.
Pale gold, very bright
Pale yellow with golden glints, clear and shining. Watch the bead: after nearly four years in the cellar the bubbles are tiny and steady.
Ripe fruit, pastry, toasted nuts
Ripe orchard fruit first, then something from the bakery, then toast, hazelnut and walnut. Give the glass a gentle swirl and the nutty notes come forward.
Creamy, fresh, long
A fine, creamy mousse, bright acidity to keep it lively, and enough structure to stand up to a proper meal. The finish lingers.
Those toasty, nutty notes come from time. Cava is made the same way as Champagne, with its second fermentation in the bottle you’re drinking from, and Gemma then rests on the spent yeast for at least 45 months – the longest of any cava the family makes. Brut Nature means nothing sweet is added at the end, so what you taste is the grapes and the years.
Download the family’s tasting sheetFrom the family
A word from the Olivers
A short film from the family, recorded at the winery in Subirats, is on its way.
The family
The Oliver Sivill family
The Olivers are growers first. For generations the family has farmed the same land in the Penedès, about 30 km south of Barcelona, handing the vineyards on from parents to children.
Wine was made in the old cellar of their farmhouse, Cal Xic de l’Agustí in Subirats, until the mid-1960s. Then, like many Penedès families, they stopped and sold their grapes to larger wineries in the area.
In 2011, with the next generation joining, they decided to bottle their own again. They restored the farmhouse’s old cellars for ageing cava, released their first bottles at the end of 2013, and have been growing steadily ever since. Their guiding belief: the wine is made in the vineyard.
Gemma is the cava they named for the mother of the family – the bottle they open for real celebrations.
“A small piece of our land and our daily work inside each bottle.”
The Oliver Sivill family
The land
Two estates, farmed by the moon
The family works 55 hectares across the Penedès, growing 14 grape varieties. Every vineyard is organic and biodynamic: no synthetic chemicals, compost and biodynamic preparations to feed the soil, and farm and cellar work timed to the lunar calendar.
Cal Xic de l’Agustí
The home farm, 40 hectares with the winery in the middle of the vines. Clay and limestone soils, and the Mediterranean only 15 km away, so a sea breeze cools the grapes on summer afternoons.
Cal Pau Piu
Fifteen hectares higher up and further from the sea, near the La Llacuna mountains. Deeper limestone soils, colder winters and cooler summers – ideal for the freshness sparkling wine needs.
The vineyards are certified organic by the CCPAE and biodynamic by Demeter, and every wine and cava the family makes is vegan.
How it’s made
From the press to your glass
Three grapes, pressed apart
Xarel·lo, Macabeu and Chardonnay are pressed separately. Xarel·lo, the Penedès’ signature grape, gives the backbone and the ability to age.
A first, gentle fermentation
Xarel·lo and Macabeu ferment together in the same temperature-controlled tank to make the still base wine.
The blend and the bottle
The family settles the final blend and bottles it with a little yeast and sugar – the tirage.
Bubbles, made in the bottle
A second fermentation happens inside each bottle, the traditional method, trapping the bubbles.
At least 45 months of patience
The bottles rest on their lees in the family’s cellar for a minimum of 45 months, building the creamy texture and the toast-and-hazelnut character, before release as a Gran Reserva.
At the table
What to eat with it
The family pairs Gemma with Catalan cooking, grilled or slow-cooked red meat, and fish baked in the oven. That isn’t as surprising as it sounds: years on the lees give this cava the body of a white wine, and the bubbles and acidity cut through richness the way a squeeze of lemon would.
The Catalan table
The family’s first choice, and the food this wine grew up beside.
- Pa amb tomàquet with jamón ibérico. Bread rubbed with tomato, olive oil and salt. The bubbles lift the fat of the ham.
- Escalivada. Peppers, aubergine and onion roasted until smoky, dressed with olive oil, perhaps with anchovies.
- Fideuà or arròs negre with allioli. Seafood noodles or squid-ink rice; the acidity cuts the garlic mayonnaise.
- Botifarra amb mongetes. Grilled Catalan sausage with white beans.
Red meat, grilled or stewed
The pairing that surprises people, and the one worth trying.
- Lamb cutlets off the grill with allioli and a little sea salt.
- A rib-eye or entrecôte, cooked over fire and sliced to share.
- Fricandó. Veal braised with wild mushrooms – the recipe is below.
- Slow-braised beef or pork cheeks with buttery mashed potato.
Fish from the oven
Whole fish and baked fillets, where the wine’s creaminess meets the flesh.
- Sea bream or sea bass baked on sliced potatoes, onion and a splash of white wine.
- Turbot or hake roasted with olive oil, garlic and parsley.
- Salt cod (bacallà) baked with samfaina, Catalonia’s answer to ratatouille.
Autumn evenings and easy plates
For when you want a glass without cooking a full meal.
- Wild mushrooms sautéed with garlic and parsley on toast, or a mushroom risotto.
- Roast chicken with thyme, lemon and crisp skin.
- Aged hard cheeses such as Comté, aged Manchego or Parmigiano Reggiano.
- Marcona almonds and toasted hazelnuts, which pick up the nutty notes in the glass.
One to avoid: sweet desserts. With no added sugar, a Brut Nature will taste sharp and thin next to anything sweet. Finish the bottle with cheese instead.
Cook it at home
Fricandó: Catalan veal with wild mushrooms
A Sunday dish in Catalan homes, especially in autumn when wild mushrooms come in. Thin slices of veal are slowly braised in a deep onion and tomato base, then finished with a picada – a pounded paste of toasted almonds, hazelnuts, garlic and bread that thickens the sauce. Those toasted nuts echo the hazelnut and walnut notes in Gemma, and the cava’s acidity keeps the rich sauce in check.
For the stew
- 800 g veal topside or rump, sliced 5 mm thin (ask the butcher for a fricandó cut)
- 40 g plain flour, for dusting
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 2 ripe tomatoes, halved and grated, skins discarded
- 1 bay leaf and 2 sprigs of thyme
- 150 ml dry white wine, or vi ranci or dry oloroso sherry
- 500 ml beef or veal stock
- 30 g dried moixernons (fairy-ring mushrooms), or 300 g fresh wild mushrooms such as chanterelles or ceps
- Salt and black pepper
For the picada
- 10 almonds, blanched and toasted
- 10 hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 slice of bread, fried golden in olive oil
- A small handful of parsley
Method
- Soak the mushrooms. Cover dried mushrooms with 250 ml warm water for 30 minutes. Lift them out and strain the soaking liquid to keep. If using fresh mushrooms, clean and tear them into pieces.
- Brown the veal. Season the slices, dust lightly with flour and shake off the excess. Heat 4 tbsp of the oil in a wide casserole over a medium-high heat and brown the veal in batches, about a minute a side. Set aside.
- Make the sofregit. Lower the heat, add the rest of the oil, the onions and a pinch of salt. Cook slowly for 20–25 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and deep golden. Don’t rush this: it is where the flavour comes from.
- Add the tomato. Cook for about 10 minutes until jammy and the oil starts to separate.
- Braise. Pour in the wine, scrape up the base of the pan and let it bubble for 2 minutes. Return the veal and its juices with the bay, thyme, stock and mushroom liquid. Partly cover and simmer gently for 45–60 minutes, until the veal is tender.
- Add the mushrooms and cook for 15 minutes more.
- Make the picada. In a mortar, pound the garlic with a pinch of salt, then add the nuts, bread and parsley and pound to a coarse paste. Loosen with a spoonful of the sauce.
- Finish. Stir the picada into the stew and simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce thickens. Check the seasoning, rest for 10 minutes and serve with crusty bread or boiled potatoes.
Make it a day ahead if you can – like most stews, fricandó is better the next day. Chill the Gemma well (6–8°C) and pour it into a white-wine glass rather than a flute so the aromas have room.
Travel with Amble
Meet the families behind the bottle
Amble Journeys takes small groups and private guests into the Penedès to spend time with growers like the Olivers – in their vineyards, their cellars and at their tables.