Things have been up and down, like a helter skelter ride. It’s almost three years since we started on our dream project of building a new winery on a hill with a terrific view of our entire vineyard. Today we finally decided not to make that dream come true. Basically there have been too many obstacles along the way and we have been forced to accept that it’s not a good idea to push ahead with the project.
Last summer, we were granted preliminary approval to build the winery, with a heavy 800-page application for planning permission. That was definitely a major step in the right direction, but it’s of no use now. Since we began our vineyard project in the summer of 2017, the grape harvests have not been what we expected. In the last week of June 2018, large areas of Europe were gripped by a heatwave with temperatures hitting 45°C. The heat scorched and killed half of our grapes. In 2019, we lost two-thirds of our crop to grey mould. Then the pandemic hit… and as we were finally about to press GO, we discovered that construction costs have soared since we began this project, due to the pandemic.
The long and short of it is that we’re putting this project behind us. The romantic dream of our winery lives on. However, we still need a new winery so that we can continue developing our wines and their quality. This week, we launched a new project. We’re leasing a large warehouse in the centre of Falset, which is the “capital” of the Priorat and not far from our vineyard, about 7 minutes away. Logistically this is an excellent location for our business. Our goal is to have a fully functional winery with the capacity for about 75,000 bottles ready for the next harvest in September/October 2022. This new project has put the smile back on our faces and we’re giving it our all.
Try stopping us now!!!
By the way, this year’s harvest went really well, despite a very complicated and long, drawn-out harvest due to grey mould, which affected the area just before harvest-time. We harvested the quantities that we were hoping for. 😊
