Parés Baltà: Distinctive wines from Catalonia

There are more than 100,000 wineries around the world, so the way wines of a lesser-known producer end up in a small market like the Cayman Islands almost always centres around one thing: relationships.

Such is the case with the Spanish family-owned winery Parés Baltà, which has had a relationship with Jacques Scott for more than 20 years. That relationship started when representatives of Jacques Scott visited the Parés Baltà booth – one of several thousand such booths – at a wine expo in Paris, according to one of the winery’s owners, Joan Cusiné Carol, on a recent visit to Cayman.

To keep the relationship going, several Jacques Scott representatives have visited Parés Baltà, which is located in the Penedès wine region not far from Barcelona in northeast Spain, and representatives of the winery, including Cusiné himself on numerous occasions, come to Grand Cayman to talk about and present new wines to hospitality industry professionals and the public. Such was the case last week, when Cusiné presided over an industry lunch at Aria on 15 Oct. and then a masterclass tasting for wine enthusiasts at Pom Pom at Hotel Indigo Grand Cayman on 16 Oct.

For Cusiné, it’s a pleasure to come to Cayman for such a trip. “One of the things that I’m most thankful for in my career is for all the people I’ve met thanks to wine,” he said. “Wine brings people together who have different values and perspectives; wine unites people.”

Lunch with the professionals

Managers and sommeliers from numerous restaurants on Grand Cayman gathered for a four-course lunch at Aria during which eight different Parés Baltà wines were sampled. The welcome reception started with a glass of the winery’s cava, the sparkling wine that makes up more than 90% of production in Penedès.

“Penedès is the first wine region in the world where, starting with the 2025 vintage, all wines are at least certified organic,” Cusiné said, adding that Parés Baltà is also a biodynamic winery and that all of its wines are vegan, which means no animal products are used in the fining process of winemaking.

The non-vintage Parés Baltà Brut Nature is made from a blend of the three traditional white wine grapes from Penedès – Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel-lo. Made using the traditional method of having two fermentations with the second one taking place after bottling, this cava is dry with no sugar – or dosage – added before the second fermentation.

Other wines served over the course of lunch highlighted six of Parés Baltà’s high-quality, small-production microcuvées that help set the winery apart from other producers in the region. Owning vineyards throughout Penedès at elevations ranging from near sea level to more than 2,500 feet, Parés Baltà can grow a variety of grapes that can produce wine with preferred levels of acidity and sugars. These wines range from a single variety Xarel-lo to international red varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, as well as the Spanish mainstay Garnatxa, also known as Garnacha in other areas of Spain and Grenache in France and other places in the world.

Highlights of the microcuvées during lunch were ‘Ginesta’, a bone-dry single varietal Gewürztraminer; ‘Electio’, a low-alcohol but complex single varietal Xarel-lo that gets some oak ageing; ‘Marta de Balta’, a single variety Syrah; and Absis, a unique blend of Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah that can improve with age a decade or more.

All of the wines sampled, even those with low productions, are sold at Jacque Scott. In some cases, because of its strong relationship with Parés Baltà, Jacques Scott gets a larger allocation of some wines than large markets elsewhere in the world.

Masterclass at Pom Pom

The masterclass at Pom Pom was designed to be informative, but also fun, with the guests consisting of hotel guests as well as residents.

Cusiné spoke about the wines sampled, both to the group as a whole and then to individual tables, offering insights about Penedès, Catalonia and Spain. He also spoke about the 236-year history of Parés Baltà and the impact two women in particular had on its wines. Those women are Cusiné’s wife, Maria Elena, and his brother Josep’s wife, Marta.

“They helped us with a couple of harvests in the late ’90s and decided they wanted to study wine,” said Cusiné.

Both women had degrees in science-related fields already – Maria Elena was a chemical engineer and Marta a pharmacist – so studying oenology wasn’t a big stretch for them.  After completing their studies, they returned to work at Parés Baltà in 2002, with the first vintage of wines under their care coming in 2003.

“When the ladies came, they made a very big impact,” Cusiné said, noting that innovation became standard. “It was like a different winery.”

Although Maria Elena eventually stepped away from the day-to-day operations, Marta remains the Parés Baltà winemaker.

Guests at Pom Pom sampled the trendy ‘Pet-Nat’ naturally sparkling wine that has one in-bottle fermentation, and ‘Materia Prima’, an ‘orange’ wine made from Xarel-lo grapes that gets its colour from prolonged contact with the skins of two different kinds of white grapes.

Other wines sampled at Pom Pom included the same cava served at the industry lunch, as well as two other wines: a microcuvée made from Garnatxa called ‘Hasenda Miret’ and a late-harvest dessert wine called ‘Music’ that blends Tempranilla and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Ever the gracious and friendly presenter, Cusiné ended the evening by thanking everyone for coming and inviting them to visit Barcelona, Penedès and Parés Baltà winery.