Mas Martinet Assessoraments

In the 80s there was a plethora of nonconformist ideas coming from all the wine-growing regions in the country. We had come from a decade when the demand for bulk wine had reduced. Spain, which back then was the country with the highest production of this type of wine, was hit by a sale crisis and wine surplus rose.

The cause was mainly the use of technology in northern European countries. In those countries sugar was added to increase the wine colour and as a result of this, they did not need to import so much wine from southern Europe.

The reaction to this was collective all over Spain. The so-called “improver” wine varieties such as Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, etc, started to be planted and regrafted. All over the place new wineries were set up by people who did not belong to any winemaking family saga but to other professional fields and were not willing to let their homeland to lose economic power. That was an extraordinary moment! Together with some of the former students at the vocational school in Falset, we planted French grafted vines in the regions of Rueda, Ribera del Duero and some others. In those parts of Castile big plots of land, where beetroots had previously been grown, were now planted with vines.

That was the time when the well-known critic, Mr Robert Parker, wrote that he had found the “Spanish Petrus” in reference to Mr Alejandro Fernández’ Pesquera wine. That provided a morale boost for all those people who, like ourselves, had their hopes pinned on their own incipient projects. Mr Parker has been frequently criticised but I believe that the idea he wanted to express is that quality wines can be made wherever man likes (within limits, of course) and that great wines do not belong only to classic European wine-producing regions, as it was believed then.

We would, nevertheless, like to draw attention to the importance that these regions, like Bordeaux or Burgundy, have had in the development of quality wines all over the world. Back then, we paid constant visits to all the European wine-growing regions. The students in the vocational school, as it is mentioned in the previous article, with their way of acting and that moment in our lives also left their positive imprint on each of us.

In 1981 and after a long time working as a teacher of natural sciences and biology at Viaró School in Sant Cugat del Vallès, Montse and I decided to move to the rural area of El Priorat and work in a vocational school in Falset. I had the feeling a stage of my life was over. A stage where I had learnt how to teach and enjoyed myself very much doing this for the eight years I worked there. But I wanted to go back to my rural origins, I had the urge to experience and share the problems and the day-to-day country living, and, why not, participate in making the future of the young winemakers a bit better.

When we moved there, unlike most of the people that nowadays come to El Priorat from all over the world, we had no intention of working in the field of winemaking or viticulture. Montse, also a graduated biologist like myself, got a post as a science teacher and I was the responsible for the technical management of the school and also taught. We shared this adventure with our children Sara, Núria, and Adrià. Jordi was born three years later.

El Priorat, an inland and harsh region but with a strong personality, did not offer many prospects back then, at the beginning of the 80s, and the majority of young people left their villages at the slightest chance. The area needed a plan for the future and, like with any good plan for the future, this involved the fields of education and training. And the plan was finally implemented. In 1982, Mr Jaume Ciurana i Galcerán, director of INCAVI (Catalan Institute of the Vine and Wine) proposed us to open a new specialty in the school: Viticulture and Oenology, a three-year course program. This was a specialty that had been very recently created and the school in Falset was one of the first schools in Spain offering the program. You can check the photo gallery of the beginning of the school.

Since we did not know anything about that field, we employed outside teachers so that we could start the new project.

In 1983, a new facility is built next to the main school building where the specialties connected with the winery, laboratory, ageing and tasting will be taught. We devote most of our time to studying, experimenting, and , together with the students, making wine with the grapes harvested in the school’s property but also buying grapes to neighbouring wine makers. This wine was sold to the school’s students and half the benefits were spent on new laboratory material to do experiments and the other half went on the end-of-year trip.

On these trips we visited wineries and vineyards in the main European wine growing regions. Every year we went to a different region: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Piamonte, Champagne, Alsace, Rheingau, Valais, etc. Back then there were no low-cost trips or low-cost accommodation like now, and even the Internet was not available, that meant we had to do all we could so that the trips were as cheap as possible. We travelled by bus, we had our tents and put them up in camp sites where we spent the night. There was a cook in the group, Rafel, who cook us dinner every day after our visits. We had a wonderful time and, what’s most important, those were extremely profitable experiences for the students.

I would like to stress the methodology we used. Most of the academic topics became experimental and illustrative. We designed “experiences” that the students had to do and the most significant were selected to take part in the CIRIT competition organised by Generalitat de Catalunya, which was devoted to research carried out at schools. We won on different occasions and the money awarded also went on the organisation of those trips.

I love teaching and those were wonderful years that I really enjoyed. For me it was a privilege to have been able to somehow contribute in the education of those young people who were so willing to learn. Their parents were mostly wine makers in the region who were quite disappointed with the terrible situation of wine making at the time and they were undergoing a metamorphosis that gradually led them to wish to work the old vineyards of the family, make their own wine and change and revive El Priorat.

Much has been said, and is still said, about the resurgence of El Priorat in the world’s winemaking panorama. Everybody seems to have something to say, either because they have heard a conversation, or read an article, or seen a documentary, or just because they have heard something … The guided visits offered in different wineries also play a part in this: there the same thing can be explained in different ways since it has really been experienced differently… No need to mention our personal interpretation. Of course, this means that you often hear claims and statements almost “ex cathedra” that have absolutely nothing to do with the original thing, with what really happened.

That is why I got the idea (taking advantage of this extraordinary means of communication!) of explaining “my personal experience” through all these years.  I do not intend to deny or reaffirm anything but I would like to show all the things we have been doing so far to those interested. Things do not tend to happen overnight; my thoughts and my way of doing things evolve gradually. Our aim is to make a good product in a specific place and the process has to be environmentally balanced, i.e. environmentally, socially and economically sustainable. But in order to reach this goal, as I said before, there has been an evolution. Some of the things I did 10 years ago, I would not do them now and probably some of those I do now, I will not do them in 10 years’ time.

We will then briefly go through “my” evolutive story in El Priorat, by uploading short articles in this blog.