Ramón Jané broke 500 years of family tradition in 2006 by vinifying a portion of his grapes with his wife Mercé Cuscó and best friend/oenologist Toni Carbó as Mas Candí—they had always sold their crop to large cava producers. Over centuries of tasting, the Jané family has tailored their farming to focus on indigenous Xarel.lo, which grows best in their living calcareous clay soils. In 2006, they began to shift to natural farming; now in their old-vine vineyards inherited from their families, chemical inputs have been eliminated; emphasis is on gentle, manual handling of fruit throughout the process; and the goal is taking the wines of the Penedès to a higher-quality, personal place, as well as producing both serious and more playful still wines from local, nearly-forgotten varieties. Up until now, there has been little precedent for wines like these in the Penedès; Mas Candí is at the forefront of a changing scene in the region for still and sparkling wines of global quality.