Clos Mogador

In the small Catalan village of Gratalops, a winemaker of French origin named René Barbier helped transform a forgotten, semi-derelict wine-growing region in Priorat into one of the most famous in Spain. It was on the family estate, ‘Clos Mogador’, that this story largely began.

History

The Barbier family’s winemaking roots date back to 1800 in Gigondas, in the south of France. Fleeing the phylloxera epidemic, part of the family moved to Tarragona in Catalonia in 1880. Almost a century later, in 1977, René Barbier, born in Tarragona in 1950 and educated in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Lima, arrived in Priorat, a region that was going through difficult times following decades of decline. He bought land in Gratallops and began producing wine, joining forces with four other young winemakers, Carles Pastrana, Josep Luis Pérez, Daphne Glorian and Álvaro Palacios, who together became known as the ‘Gang of Five’.

For the first three vintages, the group shared a single winery and pooled their harvests, producing a single wine under five different labels: ‘Clos Mogador’, ‘Clos Dofi’, ‘Clos Erasmus’, ‘Clos Martinet’ and ‘Clos de l’Obac’. The joint 1989 vintage caused a sensation amongst critics and is rightly regarded as the vintage that revived Priorat as a serious wine-producing region.

From 1992 onwards, each estate began producing wine independently, and Clos Mogador became a true single-estate winery.

Vineyards

The estate’s vineyards are situated in an amphitheatre-shaped valley formed from crumbly slate, not far from Gratallops, surrounded by mountains rising to a height of 1,200 metres; according to some sources, the vineyards’ origins date back to Roman times. Sources differ slightly in their estimates of the exact area, as the estate has expanded over the decades, but the main vineyard, ‘Clos Mogador’, covers an area of between 13 and 20 hectares, with approximately half of it planted with old Carignan vines around 80 years old.

Terroir

A distinctive feature of the Priorat is ‘llicorella’ – a soil composed of crushed black shale and quartz, which forces the vines to dig deep into the ground and produces grapes with a pronounced mineral character. The vineyards are situated at altitude in a bowl-shaped valley, cooled by mountain air and partially irrigated by the nearby River Siurana, which gives the wines their signature concentration and balanced freshness.

Grapes

The flagship red blend is primarily made from Garnacha and Carignan, two classic Priorat varieties, with small additions of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. The estate also produces the ‘Nelin’ white wine from organic plots planted predominantly with Garnacha Blanca and Macabeo, as well as rare local varieties.

Winemaking

Farming on the estate is carried out according to the principles of organic agriculture and is increasingly focused on regenerative methods: the vines are grown alongside aromatic herbs, olive trees and fruit trees to encourage biodiversity. All the grapes are harvested by hand.

In the cellar, the wines are made exclusively from grapes, without any additives; they are fermented naturally and are allowed to express the individual character of each vintage, rather than being moulded to a fixed house style.

Wines

‘Clos Mogador’, the red wine of the same name, became the first wine in Catalonia to be awarded the ‘Vi de Finca Qualificada’ designation, which guarantees that all the grapes come from this single estate. Alongside this, the winery produces Manyetes, an aged red wine made from old vines, the white Nelin and the rosé Gratallops Rosat. Decades after that first joint harvest, Clos Mogador remains one of the wines most closely associated with the revival of the Priorat region, and one of the most highly regarded.