The Ship Captain's Daughter, the Artist's Inheritance & the Monastery Wine Bar
A Raventós descendant who trained in Bordeaux and Burgundy, inherited ten hectares of calcareous clay from her great-great-grandparents, and built a wine bar in the shadow of an 11th-century monastery — Blanca Ozcáriz makes bohemian natural wines that dance to the rhythm of the vineyard, with labels designed by her artist mother and total sulfur below 28mg/l.
Origin — The Raventós Legacy, the Captain, and the Artist
Blanca Ozcáriz Raventós was born into one of Catalonia's most storied wine families. Her great-great-grandparents were the Raventós of Lacrima Baccus — pioneers of Penedès sparkling wine. Her mother, the artist M. Assumpció Raventós, inherited the finest vineyards of the Cal Almirall de Lavern estate: ten hectares rooted in limestone rock and embraced by nature. Her father, Javier Ozcáriz, was a ship's captain who left the oceans but remained captivated by the vineyards, learning the craft of wine and cava from the Raventós grandparents and turning his passion into a profession.
Blanca, the youngest daughter, was sent to learn her trade at the source: oenology in Bordeaux and Dijon, Burgundy — the two greatest wine schools on earth. She returned to Lavern in 1998 to take over the family vineyard, bringing with her the rigour of French technique and the freedom of a family that had never followed convention. Two decades ago, she gave the project its name: El Jardí dels Sentits — The Garden of the Senses — a declaration that wine is not a product but an experience, and that the vineyard is not a factory but a garden.
The estate is certified organic since 2014, committed to biodynamic and regenerative agriculture. Blanca channels her mother's bohemian spirit through the dramatic design of her labels — each bottle carries the hand of the artist as much as the hand of the vigneron. "A love of nature, passion and creativity are the essence of our character."
The Place — Cal Almirall de Lavern, Between Limestone and Monastery
Lavern sits in the Subirats sub-zone of the Penedès, roughly halfway between Barcelona and Tarragona, where the coastal plain meets the first foothills of the interior. Blanca's ten hectares are divided into small plots ranging from 0.2 to 1 hectare, planted between 12 and 50 years ago, sitting at 25 to 75 metres elevation on deep calcareous clay soils. The vines are dry-farmed, their roots diving into limestone bedrock for water and minerals.
The Raventós Inheritance
The estate was founded by the Raventós great-grandparents, founders of Lacrima Baccus. Blanca's mother inherited the finest parcels; Blanca inherited the responsibility. The vineyard is not merely land — it is a family archive, written in vine rows and limestone.
Biodynamic and Regenerative
Certified organic since 2014, with biodynamic applications and regenerative practices: ground cover, phytotherapy, and compost laboriously matured on the estate itself. No synthetic chemicals. No shortcuts. The soil is fed from within, and the vines are allowed to struggle just enough to produce fruit of character.
Winter as Cellar Master
Blanca uses no artificial clarification or filtration. Only the natural cold of winter stabilises the wines, allowing sediment to settle and tartaric crystals to form naturally. The bottles may carry slight sediment or even natural crystallised salt — proof that the wine has not been stripped of its identity.
The Monastery of Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs
The estate's wine bar sits beneath the thousand-year-old Romanesque Monastery of Sant Sebastià dels Gorgs — an 11th-century cloister where tastings unfold in the shadow of ancient capitals and Romanesque bell towers. It is one of the most atmospheric cellar doors in Catalonia.
Winemaking — Long Aging, Minimal Intervention, Maximum Senses
Blanca's cellar philosophy is a marriage of Burgundian precision and Penedès freedom. All wines are 100% estate-grown, hand-harvested in small baskets, and made with minimal or zero intervention. Every wine is certified by analysis: total SO2 below 28mg/l, often sulfite-free. There are no added yeasts, no enzymes, no tartaric acid corrections, no fining agents, and no filtration beyond what gravity and winter cold provide.
The wines enjoy very long aging — in the pure style of her grandfather Raventós. Sparkling wines rest far longer than the appellation demands; still whites and reds are given time in tank and bottle to find their equilibrium. Blanca believes that patience is the only additive worth using, and that a wine released too early is a wine robbed of its voice.
The Misteriós series is the summit of her approach: single-vineyard wines from plots of 0.5 to 1 hectare, produced in lots of roughly 2,000 bottles, each one an interpretation of how a specific grape variety expresses itself in a specific piece of land. The rest of the range — sparkling, rosé, and ancestral — is blended from across the estate, imbued with what Blanca calls "the freshness that the Mediterranean air brings us every summer evening."
The Wines — Bohemian, Natural, and Dancing to the Vineyard's Rhythm
The range is deliberately eclectic — sparkling and still, white and red and rosé — all naturally made, all certified organic, all bearing the artistic hand of Blanca's mother. The Misteriós wines are single-vineyard; the rest are estate blends that capture the Mediterranean freshness of the Penedès.
Misteriós Xarel·lo
Single-vineyard white100% Xarel·lo from a single plot of 50-year-old vines on calcareous clay. Fresh, mineral, and elegant — citrus, acacia flower, and a subtle saline note from the limestone bedrock. One of the estate's flagship expressions of Penedès' signature grape.
Misteriós Syrah
Single-vineyard redA juicy, silky Syrah from a single parcel — firm but mature tannins, a velvety texture, and a well-structured bouquet. Dark berry, violet, and a flick of Mediterranean scrub. Proof that the Penedès can produce reds of depth as well as whites of clarity.
Ancestral Baby Bubbles
Ancestral sparkling100% Xarel·lo — 50% from 50-year-old vines, 50% from 10–15 year vines — bottled during fermentation with 20–22 grams of residual grape sugar to capture natural bubbles. Acacia flower, lemon peel, and delicate foam. No clarification, no filtration. ~4,500 bottles.
Baby Bubbles Rosé Ancestral
Ancestral rosé sparklingThe pink sibling of Baby Bubbles — a rosé pét-nat made in the same ancestral method, capturing the red-fruit freshness of the Penedès with the same natural effervescence. Wild strawberry, rose petal, and a dry, mineral finish.
Quintessence
Traditional method sparklingA deep, creamy traditional-method sparkling wine that channels the long-aging spirit of Blanca's grandfather Raventós. Xarel·lo-based, with extended time on lees and zero dosage. Structured, saline, and unmistakably Penedès — a wine that proves cava's ancestry can be both natural and profound.
A d'Artemisa / Artemisa Rosé
Estate roséAn estate rosé named for the Greek goddess of the hunt and the moon — a nod to the biodynamic calendar and the feminine lineage of the winery. Light, herbaceous, and mineral; a wine that tastes of the Mediterranean evenings Blanca describes in her tasting notes.
Legacy — The Garden That Refused to Become a Factory
El Jardí dels Sentits matters because it resisted the industrialisation of the Penedès. In a region famous for vast cava houses and bulk production, Blanca Ozcáriz Raventós has kept ten hectares of small, scattered plots in the hands of one family, farmed biodynamically, and vinified with sulfur levels that barely register on a lab report. The Raventós name could have opened doors to corporate partnerships and scaled production. Blanca chose the garden instead.
Her legacy is threefold. First, the fusion of art and agriculture: her mother's labels turn every bottle into a canvas, and the monastery wine bar turns every tasting into a theatrical experience. Second, the proof that natural wine can be deeply traditional: the long aging, the calcareous clay, the ancestral method — these are not innovations but resurrections of how the Raventós family made wine before industrialisation. Third, the woman-owned model: in a region where wine is still largely a masculine inheritance, Blanca runs the vineyard, the cellar, the wine bar, and the export strategy alone.
Through the Dinner of the Senses — a unique experience beneath the Romanesque cloister — and through wines that speak before the cork is drawn, Blanca has built something that is not merely a winery but a jardí: a cultivated space where nature, art, history, and taste grow together. "Every drink in the Garden of the Senses makes you live the Penedès in a leisurely and authentic way."