The Suqué Mateu family, owners of Grup Peralada, has fulfilled a dream. More than twenty years ago, they began to imagine the construction of a new winery on the old farm next to Peralada Castle to dedicate it to the production of the wines they make within the Empordà Designation of Origin. This project is now a reality thanks to an investment of close to 45 million euros, which has allowed the construction of one of the most beautiful and impressive wineries in Catalonia. The complex is a true benchmark in sustainability and landscape integration and will soon receive awards and be admired internationally.
The winery was designed by the Catalan firm RCR Arquitectes, which received the Pritzker Prize in 2017, considered the Nobel of architecture. "Despite being from Olot, we haven't had many opportunities to create pieces of certain importance close to home; it's a joy to see this dream come true and to be able to express our way of understanding life and architecture through this work," reflects Rafael Aranda, founding partner of RCR along with Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta.
With no visible facade from the outside, as the building is hidden underground by taking advantage of a natural ten-meter slope in the terrain, the new winery has a production capacity of 2.5 million bottles ---currently Perelada produces 1.9 million--- and is the first in all of Europe to achieve Leed Gold certification, the highest global rating in sustainable building. Multiple factors have been taken into account, such as the materials used and the technical innovations incorporated into the winery in terms of energy eco-efficiency, with intensive use of geothermal energy as the most prominent element.
The entire building has been conceived to be visitable and offer a unique experience that allows boosting wine tourism and economically revitalizing this town in Alt Empordà, where the Barcelona business group organizes the Castell de Peralada Festival every year and where it also owns a casino, a five-star hotel, a wine spa, and a golf course, in addition to the emblematic 14th-century castle, which includes a Gothic cloister and a museum with an important art collection. Visits to the winery will begin after Sant Joan, with the forecast of reaching 20,000 visitors per year. The entrance will cost 20 euros and includes a tasting of three wines. If you also wish to visit the castle, the combined visit will cost 30 euros.
The new complex, inaugurated this Tuesday by the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, occupies a total area of 18,200 square meters, with striking gardens with native plants. In addition to the underground winery, in the restored buildings of the old farm—original work by the Barcelona architect Adolf Florensa—an auditorium, a shop, and a restaurant run by the renowned chef Paco Pérez have been set up. It is a wine bar, called Celler 1923, where you can taste the house wines accompanied by dishes inspired by Empordà gastronomy from 1923, the year in which grandfather Mateu founded the winery. The company is already preparing to celebrate its centenary in a year, with a commemorative wine.
"Financial profitability, by itself, does not justify a project like this; we seek emotional profitability and to leave a legacy for future generations and for the entire territory. The new Perelada winery is a clear commitment by the family to make the best wines of the DO Empordà, which we want to help take a leap and project itself internationally," emphasizes Javier Suqué, president and owner of Grup Peralada along with his siblings Isabel and Miguel.
According to the businessman, once this investment is completed, the group is already considering new projects to continue boosting the growth of its wine division, such as investing in new wineries in Galicia and Ribera del Duero, where it currently has no presence. "We want to be a leading group in the Spanish wine market. It is reasonable to think that we should have something in Galicia and, in Ribera del Duero, we already control a 40-hectare estate, but we still do not produce any wine," explains Suqué. He also announces that after the summer, the commitment to Priorat (Casa Gran de Siurana) will be redoubled with the construction of a new winery to produce high-end wines and a small hotel in Scala Dei, in an old summer house of the Carthusian monks that will be remodeled.
Construction of a winery for Blanc Pescador wine in Vilamalla
In Empordà, the company also has other initiatives underway, such as the upcoming construction of a winery to produce two of its best-selling wines, Blanc Pescador and Cresta Rosa, of which it sells more than 4 million bottles, outside, however, the designation of origin. Currently, these products, dependent on the subsidiary Celler del Pescador, are produced in facilities located within the town of Peralada, but now production will be moved to Vilamalla, to a new building that will be built on land located next to the group's logistics center. The project will be ready in 2023 and will involve an investment of 20 million.
In 2021, Grup Peralada's wine division had a turnover of 59 million euros, a 7% increase. Of this figure, 19 million correspond to Perelada brand wines and the rest come from the group's other wineries, which produce brands such as Chivite, Gran Feudo, Viña Salceda, Oliver Conti, Privat, Casa Gran de Siurana, Cresta Rosa, Blanc Pescador, Cims de Porrera and Finca La Melonera, belonging to different designations of origin, such as Empordà, Priorat, Navarra, Rioja, Cava and Sierras de Málaga. To lead this entire business area, during the pandemic, Grup Peralada hired Jaume Mussons, a senior executive from the Orangina Schweppes group with previous experience in other large multinationals such as Cruz Verde-Legrain, Bacardí and Henkel. Globally, incorporating the other business areas and casino operation activity, Grup Peralada has a turnover of approximately 250 million euros.
According to the director of Perelada, Eugeni Llos, these new facilities "represent a before and after," both for the company and for the DO Empordà, which must take a leap to make itself known, since, currently, 70% of its wines are consumed in the Girona regions, with a very small export volume. With 150 hectares of owned vineyards, Perelada produces a third of all the wine from the DO (about six million bottles), which brings together 51 wineries.
The house's winemaker, Delfí Sanahuja, emphasizes that with this new large winery "the aim is not to make more volume, but higher quality wines to put DO Empordà on the world wine map." "We have created a winery of emotions, fusing the art of architecture with the art of enology, and that should allow us to go from making excellent wines to exceptional wines."
Although it has now been officially inaugurated, the winery already received the first kilos of grapes during the 2020 harvest. The architectural design by RCR Arquitectes has conceived large open-plan halls free of columns and with a constant temperature of 16 degrees thanks to the geothermal energy provided by 331 piles buried at a depth of between 8 and 20 meters. The vinification room contains 188 stainless steel tanks ranging from 600 to 30,000 liters, a figure that more than doubles the 80 tanks of the previous facilities, which will allow separate vinification of the different plots and subplots of each estate. The aging room is particularly striking, dimly lit and where thousands of liters of wine rest in 4,000 oak barrels, although the capacity of the room is 8,000 barrels.
The visit to the winery hides another surprise: El Temple. It is a winery within a winery destined for the production of the highest range wines (such as Gran Claustro and Ex Ex or Finca Garbet, of which only a thousand bottles are made per year, at a price of 110 euros). This space, where a nearly mystical atmosphere is breathed, houses concrete fermentation tanks and oak foudres for special aging. "El Temple is a space of spirituality to give maximum value to the grape," explains Rafael Aranda. "With this project we wanted to be very honest, tell the truth and transmit the essence of the land by creating spaces that make people feel," adds the architect.
This emotional component that has guided the entire construction will, according to Perelada, offer visitors "a memorable experience." Thus, visits will be carried out in groups with a maximum of fifteen people, so as not to truncate that atmosphere, which also plays with a permanent play of light and shadow. In the form of a labyrinthine route, before visiting the productive area, visitors will pass through five rooms where small audiovisual pieces are projected on large screens to showcase different aspects of the winery's most emblematic estates: La Garriga, Pont de Molins, Malaveïna, Espolla and Garbet. A sixth room, equipped with a spectacular horizontal screen, is dedicated to detailing RCR's architectural project.