Ricard Rofes
Winemaker
Cellers Scala Dei
Priorat, Spain
Spotlight No. 24
Carthusian monks chose to settle in the Priorat in 1163. They chose a location next to the Montsant (“holy mountain”), where a shepherd told them angels were seen going up a ladder to heaven and down again. That seemed like a good place to build a monastery. They named it Scala Dei (“ladder of God”). A lot has happened since then, stories that could become a Priorat version of Isabel Allende’s The House of Spirits. And Cellers Scala Dei winemaker Ricard Rofes would make a good protagonist. But he would never give himself that title because, in the story of wine, nature owns that role.
The Augustin Peyra family, along with four others, bought the monastery of Scala Dei and surrounding lands in the 1840s. Over time, the Peyra family bought the others out to ensure the integrity of the history of the land. The last remaining descendant is Carles Peyra, great-great-grandson of Augustin. His aunt, Assumpció Peyra, was devoted to the Priorat. She was the one who promoted the wellbeing of the region by bringing viticulture back in the 1960s. In 1974, Cellers Scala Dei was one of the first in the region to bottle wine instead of selling in bulk. Assumpció loved the Priorat. She also loved her nephew, Carles, who spent summers with her, running around the mountains, exploring the vineyards and letting her win at chess.
No other winery in the Priorat has a story like Cellers Scala Dei, so the role of winemaker required more than just vinification skills. It had to be a special someone who felt the past, who valued and understood the Priorat so it could be transmuted with respect into the wines. That person turned out to be Ricard. He grew up with vines but as a child had no idea a person could aspire to make a living from them. The only thing he knew was that he had to be with nature. Then destiny led a friend, already working at the winery, to tell him about a crash course in winemaking. He took it, realized it was what he had been searching for and went on to study agricultural engineering and enology at the University of Tarragona.
Ricard began his winemaking career at the co-op in Masroig, in the Montsant near the Priorat. He had met Carles Peyra, owner of Cellars Scala Dei, at various tasting events and they kept in touch. One day in 2007, Ricard received a text message from Carles asking if he knew anyone who would be interested in being a winemaker at Cellers Scala Dei. Ricard responded, “I do. I will text you his information,” and promptly sent Carles his own name. As Ricard says, “When an opportunity like that passes in front of you, from the place everything started, you take it!”
His first chore was to get to know exactly how history manifests itself in the wines. He became familiar with each vineyard and had the rare opportunity to vertically taste the wines since 1974. What he discovered was that the wines made before the innovations of science and technology were better. The attempts to make life easier had erased the soul and distinction of the grapes. His mission was clear: to restore the vineyards and cellar practices to the more fundamental methods of the past—no chemicals in the vineyards, no additives in the cellar, the use of cement fermenters and large aging vessels. The only modern technology he employs is temperature control.
Ricard says, “My part is to maintain what has been given to me, to do things without breaking the natural sense of what has been happening for centuries before me. I want to make the cellar profitable so that the owners have the money and incentive to preserve their landscape.” And this is probably what Carles Peyra appreciated when he entrusted Ricard with his family heritage: shared priorities of sustainability for all life, human and natural, which ensures a legacy for generations to come.
