The ACE International Congress on Oenology and Cava is an annual Catalan wine-science event held in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, the historic centre of Cava production. It brings together researchers and winemakers to discuss current topics in winemaking technology, and this page covers what the congress is, its recent themes, and where to find organizer details.
The congress, known in Catalan as the Congrés Internacional ACE de l'Enologia i el Cava and in Spanish as the Congreso Internacional ACE de Enología y Cava, is organized by ACE-CEEC, the professional association of enologists of Catalonia (Col·legi d'Enòlegs de Catalunya), together with the Confraria del Cava and INCAVI, the Catalan government's wine and vine institute. Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, in the Penedès region, is closely identified with Cava production, which this site covers separately under sparkling wine production methods.
What the congress covers
Each edition is organized around sessions spanning the full winemaking chain, from vineyard practices through cellar technique to tasting and consumer-facing topics. Speakers typically include researchers from Catalan and Spanish institutions (INCAVI among them) alongside specialists from fields adjacent to winemaking, such as sensor technology, microelectronics or climate science, reflecting the congress's emphasis on applying outside technical fields to winemaking problems.
Recent editions and themes
The 2024 edition, held in November 2024, was built around the theme of sensing technology and artificial intelligence in winemaking ("Sensorització i IA: l'enologia que ve"), with sessions covering digital sensors for vineyard water management and multisensor systems for detecting volatile compounds and quality parameters in wine, drawing on expertise from INCAVI and the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona (CSIC). According to trade coverage from interempresas.net, the 2023 edition focused on how winemaking is responding to climate-change-driven acidity loss in grapes and wine, a topic of increasing concern across warm, Mediterranean-climate wine regions. An earlier edition, in 2021, returned after a pandemic-related gap with a programme oriented around biomolecules and disruptive innovation in oenology, though readers wanting the exact session list for that year should confirm it directly with the organizer, since this site has not independently verified every detail of that specific agenda.
Finding current programme and participation details
Because the congress's programme, format (in-person, with an online option in recent years) and registration details change from year to year, the organizer's own materials are the only reliable source for current participation information. ACE's own site, acenologia.com, publishes the official programme documents for each edition, typically as downloadable PDFs listing speakers, session times and topics; the host municipality's own event listings (such as Sant Sadurní d'Anoia's town council site) also mirror the official programme in some years.
Checklist: before relying on details about this congress
- Check the edition year explicitly; themes and formats change annually and do not carry over.
- Go to acenologia.com's own programme PDF for the authoritative speaker list and schedule rather than a secondary news summary.
- Note that official programmes commonly include a disclaimer that content may change before the event, so treat an advance programme as provisional until the event has taken place.
- Distinguish the congress (a professional/scientific event) from general Cava tourism or tasting events held in the same town, which are organized separately.
Comparing recent editions
| Year | Reported theme | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Sensing technology and AI in winemaking | Confirmed via official programme and trade coverage |
| 2023 | Winemaking responses to climate-change-driven acidity loss | Confirmed via trade coverage |
| 2021 | Biomolecules and disruptive innovation in oenology | Reported, confirm specific agenda directly with organizer |
For other industry gatherings covered on this site, see news and updates, the page on sparkling wine production, and the broader news and events section.
