Codorniu set the bar very high for Forum-Nexus professional visits during the summer program. Codorniu was the very first professional visit I went to in Barcelona, Spain. From the moment we arrived to the winery, I was fascinated with the look of the property. You could tell that the grounds had a history and that it was not just built to look antique. Earlier this summer, I went on a wine tasting tour in the Basque countries in northern Spain, so it was particularly interesting for me to compare Codorniu to the the smaller companies I visited.
When we entered we waited in a gorgeous room until we all accumulated in a small movie theater room where we watched a 3D video of a tour of some of the vineyards. At first it seemed cheesy. But reflecting upon it more, I thought it was a refreshing difference from other professional visits and it was cool to see the grounds since we did not visit all of them later on in the tour. From there we took two trains, similar to those in Disneyland, and received a small tour of the grounds and learned some of the significances of the buildings. I continued to see the age of the buildings and the history of the company. We then went into another interesting room where we lined up and smelt the different types of grapes used to produce different wines. I know that scent has a lot to do with enjoying a glass of wine, so it was cool to directly smell the differences between the grapes. There were clearly ones that I liked more than others.
Then we hopped back on the train and were taken to another building. This building contained a tunnel that took you down 60 feet into the wine cellar. It was amazing to see that these tunnels were dug out so many years ago but were still used today. The best part about making this descent was that the air naturally cooled as we went deeper.. It felt like the tunnels went on for miles. Our tour guide explained the process it takes to make a bottle of wine, which appeared to be the same as the process I learned about on my Basque country tour. We hopped on another train where were zoomed down the tunnel to a wine tasting area. The company was very generous in their tasting samples. We got to try two different types of cava. It was a fantastic moment since that was the first thing I remember doing as an entire Forum-Nexus group.
There were two things I learned that I found most interesting about the Codorniu visit. One, that the word “champagne” is owned by the French and therefore the Spaniards have to call their version of the drink “cava.” Cava is what we tested in the bottom of the cellars. It tasted just like the French champagne but it was kind of fun to call the drink cava. The second thing I learned was that this relatively large company is family-owned. I idolize this trait. I think it is amazing that this company has expanded in the way that it has and has managed to keep the company management within one family. I hope that one day I can achieve similar success. It was also interesting that the family used to live on the grounds of the vineyards but not anymore. Overall, I think it was great to see such a successful family-owned company within its industry. The tour was by far the most entertaining professional visit of the program and I felt that I learned the most because of it.
By: Gianna Meservey, 2015 Forum-Nexus alumnae
