The Proust Q&A: Xavier Gramona

Xavier Gramona is at the helm of family-owned, single estate Cava producer Gramona, which recently switched to biodynamics. The estate aims to compete with top-end Champagnes with a recently disgorged 14-year-old Gran Reserva – Gramona Enoteca Finca La Plana, priced at €125 a bottle. Xavier has long championed the ageing potential of white grape Xarel.lo due to its high resveratrol content. His estate is part of the Grandes Pagos de España and will be part of a new top-tier Cava classification reserved for single estate Cavas. He lives in Barcelona.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Lying in a hammock in my garden with a glass of Gramona in my hand on a sunny day with a Mediterranean breeze funnelling in, the sound of children playing nearby, classical music on in the background and my mind free to roam.

What is your greatest fear?
A lack of hope.

Which living person do you most admire?
All those who give help with no reward.

What is your greatest extravagance?
That’s too personal to say!

What is your current state of mind?
I am 57 in a few days… I have a whole life in front of me.

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Sensuality.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?
Any child smiling.

When and where were you happiest?
Every time I can say “I love you”.

Which talent would you most like to have?

To lead people to a better world.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I can change everything I need to.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

My son and daughter Leonard (26) and Paula (20). They are humble, curious, generous, tolerant and ambitious. and will fight for a better world.

Where would you most like to live?

I’m writing these words in Culebra in Puerto Rico. The world is amazing. I belong to my place, to my Mediterranean, to our wines

What is your most treasured possession?
I’m working on it. I would like to have no possessions.

What is your most marked characteristic?

I am a fighter.

Who are your favorite writers?

Too many to mention but to name a few: Jules Verne, Dumas, Homero, Hesse, K. Gibran, Marx, Bertrand Russell, Quevedo, Bequer, Neruda, Machado, Unamuno, Pla, Tolstoi, Jane Austen, Bukowski, Sartre, Camus, Bradbury, F. Scott Fitgerald, Eco, Le Carré.

Who is your hero of fiction?

I prefer real life heroes like philanthropist Padre Vicente Ferrer.

What is it that you most dislike?

A lack of ethics – you should treat everyone the way you would like to be treated.

What is your greatest regret?

With our Cavas we reach ten years of ageing or more, which brings about complexity, wisdom, elegance and balance – I’d like to be my Cava!

What is your motto?

I have none. Should I work on it?

Who would be your ideal dinner party guests and what three wines would you serve them?

Right now I’m having lunch with two sailors and the love of my life and I wouldn’t change a thing. We’re sailing and drinking Fino Alvear La Bota del Capataz (a Christmas gift from Fernando Alvear), Roda I 2007, the finest concept of Tempranillo I can think of, and during the long hot afternoons, Gramona III Lustros 2005, chilled, not to cold.