WHO WE ARE AND OUR HISTORY
1978
“The New Priorats”
Between the late 1970s and the early 1980s, oenologist Mariona Jarque (Barcelona 1960) and journalist Carles Pastrana (Tarragona 1952), along with a group of people from different European countries involved in the wine trade, began a project to replant vines on the steep slate hills of the Paleozoic Era located in the southwest of Catalonia. This was an extremely challenging region known as the Historic Priorat, where, for centuries, the rural economy relied on viticulture and winemaking in a rugged and difficult-to-access geography. From the 12th century until the 19th century, this land was administered by the monks of the religious community of the Priorat of Escaladei, a member of the Grande Chartreuse in France.
1981
The Project and International Interest
Known as the New Priorats, stricto sensu, the project was born in Tarragona in 1978 as a result of the reunion of two childhood friends, René Barbier and Carles Pastrana. They set out on the challenge of replanting vineyards and reviving the wines from this extremely harsh land known as Priorat. However, this project would not generate much interest for many years, until 1981, when international specialized media, would rank these new wines among the best in the world; an event that would spark the revival and global recognition of what had been until then the most depressed region in Catalonia for the past few decades.
1984
Plantations
The works began in the mid 80s with the recovery of old vineyards still in production and, mainly, with new plantations on the abandoned slate slopes that had been neglected for decades. Five years later – 1989 – the first harvest was produced based on modern concepts and technologies, the introduction of new grape varieties, and oenological knowledge that made it possible to produce the first fine aging wines from Priorat. These wines were structured, elegant, and noble.
1989
The First Harvest
It was a time of hard and patient work, with the creation of new plantations and the recovery of some old ones that were still in production. They aimed to make wines that, based on concentrated fruit and careful winemaking, would express the character and power that the old Priorat slate soils could provide, without sacrificing elegance, finesse, and complexity that new winemaking techniques allowed. The 1989 vintage, which made waves worldwide, was produced from a single blend of grapes from the founding group’s vineyards, which had initiated the project a decade earlier.
1990
The Diaspora of Creativity
In the following harvest of 1990, each member of the group would begin to establish their own winery and define the distinctive characteristics of their own “clos”, including differences in blending, winemaking systems, and aging. It was at this point in history that we like to call “The Diaspora of Creativity,” when each of these New Priorat pioneers established their unique features.
1991
One of the World’s Best Wines
Before the legendary first vintage of 1989 was released to the international market in 1991, twelve years of hard work filled with great moments and some terrible and irreparable setbacks had passed. It was in the midst of this context that the first two vintages of Clos de l’Obac, 1989 and 1990, were already recognized by the French guide Gault & Millau and the Slow Food Guide to Wines of the World as one of the best wines in the world and of absolute international value, respectively.
Today
Clos de l’Obac Today
Four decades after those beginnings, the projection of Priorat wines and the two properties of the Pastrana & Jarque family, Clos de l’Obac and Miserere, are now a reference point in the international wine scene. The strength of the movement initiated by that small group of pioneers has led to the construction of nearly two hundred new wineries in Priorat by winemakers from around the world, revitalizing an area that, as we mentioned earlier, had been the most depressed in Catalonia.