At the time of the 1994 grape harvest, Martí Albet i Esteve was a toddler just over two years old who had just started nursery school. His father, Josep Maria Albet i Noya, had set out 15 years earlier on the adventure of making organic wines and had founded the ALBET I NOYA winery. Up until then, they had only made single-variety wines using Xarel·lo, Ull de llebre, Macabeu, Chardonnay or Cabernet grapes, and these wines were basically exported to countries such as Germany, Switzerland, or Denmark. But in 1994 the time came to make the first blended wine, the Reserva Martí, made with Cabernet Sauvignon, Ull de Llebre, and Merlot grapes. “It was my first blended wine, and I dedicated it to my son, because in a way he was also the first blend that his mother and I had made together,” explains Josep Maria Albet, who took the small child’s handprints and put them on the wine labels.

Now, 25 years later, Martí Albet Esteve has a degree in oenology from Universitat Rovira i Virgili and he heads the vineyard department of the family business, after having spent some time at wine cellars in France and California. He says about his wine: “the Reserva Martí showed and continues to show us that the Penedès is not only a land of white and sparkling wines, but that it can also produce great red wines.”

About 4,000 bottles of Reserva Martí are made each year. The 2011 vintage is made with a selection of Cabernet, Tempranillo, Merlot, and Syrah grapes coming from the winery’s best vineyards. The wine has been aged for 24 months in new French oak casks, and then left to rest in the bottle for 4 years. A long period of refinement has rounded out the wine, rounding it out even more if one has the patience to keep it in good conditions. It’s one of the winery’s most highly prized wines.