The Ferrer Family

Building Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards was the fulfillment of a longtime dream for José Ferrer, whose father, Pedro Ferrer Bosch, had come to the United States in the mid 1930s with the idea of making sparkling wine in North America.

At that time, Pedro and his wife, Dolores Sala Ferrer, were well-established sparkling wine producers in Spain. Their marriage had united two prominent Catalan wine families—the Salas, who owned a wine export business and the Ferrers, winegrowers since the 1500s and the family behind La Freixeneda—a 12th century farming estate. Together they founded Freixenet, producing their first cava in 1915, and eventually becoming the world’s largest producer of méthode champenoise sparkling wine.

In the early 1930s, Pedro Ferrer Bosch went to New Jersey in search of land for a U.S. winery. But he was sent back to Spain by the start of the Spanish Civil War, in which he would lose his life. His youngest son, José Ferrer, who had inherited his father’s pioneering spirit and passion for sparkling wine, never forgot Pedro’s wish to forge sparkling wine in the new world. José Ferrer shared this dream with his wife, Gloria, who would later inspire him to build her namesake winery in a breathtaking Carneros pasture.

The Woman Behind the Wine

It was a brilliantly sunny Sonoma afternoon, and Gloria, on vacation in this picturesque part of the world, sat down to write her husband a letter. The letter described the beauty of rolling Carneros hillsides underscoring an impossibly blue sky, of sun-drenched vineyards and cool afternoon breezes. It reminded her of Catalonia. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to spend more time here,” she wrote, “to plant vineyards and one day make California wine?”

In 1982, José, Gloria and their two sons, Pedro and José Maria, visited Sonoma Carneros, and found a home for Gloria Caves & Vineyards. Pedro (the eldest son) moved to Sonoma County to lead the winery until 1994, when he returned to Spain to become the CEO of Freixenet S.A. Younger brother, José Maria, joined the Gloria Ferrer team for the next four years, carrying on his family’s tradition of quality sparkling wine production. Today, the award-winning wines of Gloria Ferrer represent the culmination of a family dream that began more than 70 years ago.

“For generations, my family has said, ‘When you serve sparkling wine, you are serving a smile.’ ”