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Man
Throughout time, man has converted the vine and wine into culture.
On the other hand the vine and wine have transformed human culture.
Culture
And so that you wonder less at my words, consider the heat of the sun, which becomes wine when joined to the juice of the grape Dante. The Divine Comedy: Purgatory Canto XXV, 14th Century
At Can Bas we believe that wine is culture and we believe in the culture of wine.
At Can Bas we are the guardians of the knowledge and the legacy of the generations that preceded us. We wish to preserve this knowledge and use it to care for our vines and improve the quality and excellence of our wines.
At Can Bas we are committed to the present. A commitment that we express through our work, our respect for the farmers and constant vigilence of every vine, every grape and every bottle of wine that lies resting in our cellar.
At Can Bas we are inspired by a dream that motivates us and makes us believe in the value of our work. You are part of this dream. I am convinced that you also believe that wine is culture and that it is culture behind the wines of Can Bas.
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The legacy
The vine is a humanised plant. Tim Unwin. Wine and vine, 1996
At Can Bas we like to have our feet firmly on the ground. We know that countless generations before us have handed down their knowledge of the vine. Men and women have been domesticating the wine for nearly 8,000 years. Through observation, experiment and hard work, they have transformed a wild species – vitis silvestrii – into the much appreciated fruiting plant known as vitis vinifera. In time, we learned how to look after the vines. We trained them on trellises to stop them from creeping along the ground; we thought about how best to distribute them across the land; we planted them to grow according to the method most suited to them; we thought about how best to prune them so that they would produce healthier, better grapes; and we also learned that by grafting them onto American rootstock we could avoid phylloxera and have the right grape variety for each vineyard... All this goes hand in hand with constant work on the land, care taken to avoid diseases and ongoing improvements in the way we make and age our wines. Here at Can Bas we recognise that the wine-growing landscape that surrounds us today is the legacy of the people who came before us. From them we've learnt ways of doing things, but also a way of being. We've learnt to care for the land and work the vines with the respect and love they deserve. -
The work
Man thinks because he has hands Anaxàgores
At Can Bas there isn't a single day of the year when we sit idle. Our hands are our capital, our primary tool. With our hands we work, we think, we decide... Here at Can Bas we don't believe that wine-growing and wine-making are exact sciences. Instead, we see them as a practice guided by intuition, experience, sacrifice, perseverance, obstinacy, common sense and a desire to innovate driven by curiosity. All of them sustained by the work we do with our own hands, both in the vineyards and in the winery. At Can Bas we do all we can to adapt the calendar of jobs in the vineyard to the needs of each plot and each individual vine, in line with a scrupulous set of good practices. And in wine-making we're even more meticulous. Work in the winery calls for all our care and attention. For Can Bas, offering you our wines - whether you come here to visit us or whether you've chosen to buy them - is always a privilege and a responsibility.
(cited by Aristotle in Περὶ ζώων μορίων, IV century BC) -
The dream
I am a cultivator of dreams,
At Can Bas we do our work with our head high, always looking ahead, even though we feel we are deeply rooted both in the present of our estate and the past that made it all possible. At Can Bas we have a leader to guide our dream, someone to encourage and direct our day-to-day work. A man of his time, with firm convictions, with a clear gaze and a friendly manner. This is Pere Ventura, the owner of Can Bas. A man with his feet firmly on the ground, who is never idle and who, with his head held high, always has his eye on the future. Inspired by him, here at Can Bas we look to the future at all times. We imagine, try out, experiment, innovate and generally do all we can to develop today's wine-growing and wine-making techniques. Infected by Pere Ventura's spirit, the way we see wine - and the whole wine world – is based on one premise: to make the best wines and to make you happy. Only after you've savoured them can we be sure we've managed it. At Can Bas we have a dream: to get through to you and to please you.
and what I take from you today I will give you back
tomorrow, ploughed with the burning fire
of the sun and the ploughshare of the moon Ali ibn Jalaf al-Laridi. (XII century Catalan poet).