Freixenet

Freixenet is a Spanish, family owned company whose roots stretch back to 1861, and arose from a great love story.

In 1889, Dolores Sala Vivé, heiress to the Sala wine emporium, married Pedro Ferrer Bosch, a boy from the neighboring vineyard of La Freixeneda (meaning “ash-tree grove” in Catalan) in the wine region of Penedès, just south of Barcelona.

Dolores and Pedro went into business together, producing traditionally crafted, bottle-fermented sparkling wines and, in 1914, began selling their products with the Freixenet name as a nod to the nickname El Freixenet given to Pedro by the locals.

By the 1920s, the family's flagship sparkling wines were experiencing great success domestically and internationally.

Business was booming until the start of Spain’s Civil War, during which time the family suffered the loss of both Pedro Ferrer and his oldest son. 

With great determination the widowed Dolores Sala Vivé took over Freixenet to provide for her four young children.

In the 1920’s, their son, José Ferrer took over the family business and by the 1980’s grew Freixenet into a world leading producer of sparkling wine.

When José Ferrer took over the reins in the 1980’s, he not only grew the company to become the world leading producer of sparkling wines, he also changed the way the Spanish cava industry operated.