Família Barbier
Grower/Winemakers
Clos Mogador
Priorat, Spain
Spotlight No. 06
Looking out across Clos Mogador at the panorama of the Priorat, it is easy to imagine the attraction René Barbier Ferrer and his wife, Isabelle Meyer, felt for this wild, all-but-forgotten land. It began in 1979, when René and Isabelle found some abandoned vineyards outside of Gratallops and scraped together enough money to buy them. And over time they convinced some friends—Josep Lluís Pérez, Carles Pastrana, Daphne Glorian and Alvaro Palacios—to do the same. None of them, especially the Barbier family, realized that this would initiate such great change. As the story goes, the friends took care of the vines and made the wines collaboratively, much as the historical cooperatives had. But they soon realized it was confusing to have one wine labeled with many names. Plus they were developing their own ideas about how they wanted to make wine. They decided to split, found their own cellars and released their first individual wines in 1991. Their wines received international attention, restoring the Priorat’s long overdue respect.
In 1992, something else significant happened: René Barbier Meyer, decided he wanted to join his father in pursuit of the family dream. He worked with his father, studied at the enology school in Falset, and worked in Roussillon and the Loire Valley, France; Argentina; South Africa; and California. When he returned he was ready to make wine. In 2002 he started making wines for Christopher Cannan’s Clos Figueras. He also helped his father to create one of the Priorat’s first white wines, Nelin. Then he fell in love with Sara Pérez, the daughter of Josep Pérez, another of the original five. They bought an abandoned vineyard together and, two years later, released their first wine, Bellvisos, which means “beautiful vista,” (which it definitely has, facing north to the Montsant and west with an open view to the setting sun). Over time they have gone on to create many projects together, including a family of four children.
These days, Sara takes care of winemaking at her family winery, Mas Martinet, and René IV runs Clos Mogador. One of René’s younger brothers, Christian, has come of age and is embracing the viticultural side of the family business. Born in 1992, Christian grew up in the arms of his parents as they scaled the llicorella slopes of Clos Mogador. Whether by inclination or osmosis, he developed a connection with nature that led him to study biodynamic viticulture at the Spanish Biodynamic Federation and at the Laboratory of Soil Microbiological Analyses in France. Christian says, “Listening and feeling nature helped me to understand that the land had to act with freedom.” It is his job to provide the conditions under which the land can thrive. His brother René mirrors that sentiment: “We are an integral part of nature. We must ask it what it wants and needs, not what we want it to do for us.”
Christian and his viticultural team of 12 see their mission as a “fight for a better world, free of chemicals, waste and single-crop farming.” They macerate herbs like horsetail, nettle and valerian and apply them to the soil to support natural balance in their vineyards, including the insects and microorganisms that are part of the ecology. They also keep bees to promote cross-pollination. And, of course, making what was old new again, they use mulas instead of machines whenever possible.
Anderson, the youngest brother Barbier, was born in Haiti in 1996 and was adopted by Isabelle and René. He has grown up surrounded by creativity, nature and the encouragement of self-expression. He has emerged musically inclined and philosophical. He and his brothers make a wine from the Montsant called Com Tu (with you). Anderson created the label with his mother, filled with personal meaning: Two eyes containing two faces of different races, one masculine and one feminine, are joined by a pair of spectacles, the bridge of which is made of two joined hands, all representing a united view of life. The C is curly like Anderson’s hair; the O is an open door and represents a mouth and open communication; the M is made up of two musical notes; the two pencils forming the T portray his love of writing; and the U resembles a bush, reflecting his love of nature.
The next generation has become part of the dream that began in 1979, and the generation after that is already on its way to finding its own voice within the Priorat mosaic. No matter how far away they go, the road always seems to bring them home to the Priorat, where an opportunity to express whomever they choose to be is supported and has the potential to be realized.
When Isabelle and René first came to the Priorat, they could not have known how far their dreams would expand. Paulo Coelho wrote in The Alchemist, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” In the case of Família Barbier the story is not just about wine. It is about the power of love and a connection with nature they found in the Priorat.
The photo above is courtesy of the Barbier Family.
