Cavas Codorniu

Founded in 1515, Cavas Codorniu is basically a grown up Disneyland — it even has a tram ride! I recently visited with a conference group to learn more about this family owned winery. Our tour guide was phenomenal, and I loved hearing about the loyalty that employees have to this business. Our tour guide has worked for the winery in various roles for over 20 years, and when I asked him if that was common amongst employees he said yes. Most started working for Codorniu because a family member also worked there. I love to see family businesses treat their employees like family, which is evident from their retention. We learned about the process of making cava and toured through the old production building. We even got a tram ride through the wine caves! It was so cool! Most of Codorniu’s grapes come from independent growers. We were lucky enough to get to have a tasting in the family’s previous private residence. Although the family has not lived in the home since the 80’s, it was wonderful to get a feel for the people who once resided here and those who continue the legacy of the winery. The winery grounds are beautiful and the wine is fairly inexpensive (think about 40 euros for a really nice bottle). Codorniu does ship wine to most of Europe, but sadly does not ship to the states.

Awesome tour. Alex was funny and knowledgable and was a great guide. The wine isn’t my thing but a great tasting in a cool Venue

Absolutely gorgeous venue; perfect for a banquet of 1,800 business partners to celebrate in Spain!
Of course the Cavas are top notch and all the other wines served were delicious. I was also happy with the food. We had a good salad, amuse broche, fancy meat loaf, and my absolute favorite… the sea bass. It was so tender it just melted in my mouth. I’m drooling just thinking about it.
The high vaulted ceilings and carved out tunnels make for some unique and beautiful scenery. With such a big space, our company was able to host a huge dance party that felt almost like a rave with spotlights, lasers, and loud blasting beats. What an awesome night. I didn’t want to leave!
The only thing I’d do is revisit and take a tour with plenty of wine tasting.
DATE TIP: This is such a romantic atmosphere your date will also not want to leave. But that’s okay, you can drink Cavas and dance the night away to your heart’s content.

I love Cava. Actually, I like prosecco too. And champagne. In fact, I like pretty much ALL sparkling wines (with some notable exceptions including that headache inducing sweet, cheap Asti Spumante). I’m a sparkling wine kind of guy! Guess you could say it matches my personality! But I especially like Codorniu cavas and almost always have some in my wine cellar at home. So when we planned our visit to Barcelona I made sure to book a trip to the Cava caves of Codorniu. It’s only a 30 minute train ride from Barcelona and it is SO WORTH IT! Yeah, I know, there’s a Freixenet right at the train station in Sant Sadurni but it’s not my favorite. So it was worth it to take the short cab ride up the hill to Codorniu. So glad I did.
What a great place! We got a tour of the spectacular grounds, of the extensive underground caves, learned about the history (18 generations of the same family since the 1500’s!), how its made, bottled, corked, and stored. The caves have over 80 million bottles in storage, aging to perfection. With dozens of kilometers of hand dug tunnels, its quite an impressive sight! And the tram ride through the dark tunnels was better than most amusement park rides. After about an hour of interesting info and touring, we arrived at the tasting room. And wow, what a fun time that was! We got to taste some cavas that you can’t get in the US including a Brut Natural (no sugar) and a pinot noir grape version that was awesome! You can buy some in their shop at the end and of course I did. Hey, I needed some for the hotel!
If you find yourself in Barcelona, make sure to visit. This was one of the highlights of our 2 weeks in Europe!

The tour & tastings at Codorniu ranks up there as one of the coolest things I’ve ever done on a vacation!
First of all, I love and regularly consume their Cavas. They produce a truly delightful product and as I discovered during our tour, they’ve been producing Cava since Michelangelo painted the Sistene Chapel. A long time!
Needing to control the temperatures of a sensitive product like Cava in a hot climate required the building of underground Cava Caves before climate control became possible. There are several kilometers of underground corridors and tunnels to tour to see how things were done in centuries past. The employees used to enter the caves back then carrying candles to light their way.
We even got to ride a tram at one point through the caves before our tasting. My husband and I said it was even more fun than something Disney could do!
And then the tastings! Sampling their Pinot Noir and Chardonnay Cavas was extraordinary! You can’t just walk into most stores in the US and get those. Amazing fun indeed!

Cuando vivía en Barcelona mi mamá vino a visitarme y decidí llevarla a sant Sadurní para que conociera la cava de la región. Pasamos una tarde estupenda! Nos enseñaron las bodegas, nos explicaron el proceso de la elaboración, la historia de Cordorniu, probamos varias cavas y todo fue de lo más organizado. Además que el tiempo en mayo estuvo perfecto para caminar por los viñedos! Ya que fui una vez no se sí volvería pero merece la pena ir por lo menos una vez para conocerlo.