Sandra Doix Mora

Grower/Winemaker
Sandra Doix Mora Wines
Priorat, Spain

Spotlight No. 29

Salanques de Joan Doix is a precious parcel of vineyards that face east toward the village of Poboleda. Its provenance began in 1850 when the Jaume Estrems Sans family first planted Carinyena vines. The family became “Doix” a generation later, when Jaume’s daughter married Joan Doix Abello. They had a son, Joan Doix Estrems, in 1926. He and the vines shared a long life together, and he visited them every day of his life until he passed away at age 93. Eventually, he saw his granddaughter, Sandra Doix Mora, making wines from his beloved old vines. He felt the sunlight, the llicorella and memories of his life coming through the wine and it made him very happy.

Legacy was what the family had in mind when they planted Carinyena so long ago because, despite the challenges when young, once Carinyena adapts to the hot, dry climate of the Priorat, it provides consistently beautiful fruit. Sadly, no one anticipated a blight like phylloxera, and only a few of those original vines survived. But in 1902, the family sacrificed everything and grafted their old-vine cuttings to phylloxera-resistant rootstock. The vineyard has been consistently cared for by descendants of the Estrems family ever since.

Joan Doix Estrems was only ten when the Spanish Civil War started, but he became the man of the house when his father was arrested for being on the wrong side of politics. He assumed responsibility for his mother, the other children and the vineyards, but he never complained. Joan grew up and married Teresa Casas Gorga, and they had a son, Josep Maria Doix Casas. Joan insisted Josep go to school to learn a trade, so he became an electrician, but he always worked with his father in the vineyards on weekends.

Then Josep Maria fell in love with Maite Mora Pamies. When Josep Maria went to work each day, Maite swept up her children and joined her father-in-law in the vineyards. She was the daughter Joan never had. She watched and she listened when Joan spoke about each vine. He said, “If you love your vines they will give you everything they have to give.” The bond that formed between them, and with the vines, was enduring. To this day, Maite tends the vines just as Joan taught her, by hand, knowing their wellbeing depends on this collaborative sense of touch.

In 1997, Joan was 71 and decided to retire. The Priorat was beginning to show signs of potential profitability. Maite would manage the vineyards (with Joan’s guidance, of course) and they could hire an enologist to make their own wines. They released their first wine in 1999. Joan’s granddaughter Sandra was still in high school, trying to decide what to study in college. She loved growing up in the family vineyards, living the life of her ancestors in Poboleda. She liked science a lot and thought that through biology she would gain insight into the vines and the chemistry of wine. In 2009 she graduated from Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona with a degree in agricultural management and enology. After an internship in Napa, California, she returned to the Priorat and officially became the winemaker of the family winery, Mas Doix.

A shift in philosophies eventually caused the family to split. One part of the family built a new winery outside of the village, where they make wine under the Mas Doix label. Sandra and her parents kept the old cellar and the original family vineyard, Salanques de Joan Doix. Sandra’s father is retired now and helps his wife in the vineyards, and soon Sandra will release vintage 2020 under her own name.

Most people in the Priorat are matter of fact, even fatalistic, about their lives, but for Sandra her life has been a dream come true. “I chose this life,” she says. “I grew up with the vineyards. They are as much a part of me as my family. It is a privilege to be able to preserve the family legacy.” She says working with their old-vine Carinyena requires patience because “it wants to flow freely like an untamed horse. But with time it comes to trust you. Once you earn its respect it gives you balanced bunches of perfect tiny berries.” There is consistency between vintages because the old vines are less reactive to the weather conditions. But most important to achieving the authenticity she seeks is the balance between the sweetness of the fruit and the tannins from the skins. During winemaking, the density expands with finesse and restraint, becoming a transcendental journey into the heritage and terroir of the Priorat.

Sandra and her husband started generation six early enough for their children to spend time in the vineyards with their great-grandfather and their grandmother, establishing roots of their own. It is too soon to know for sure, and there will be no pressure, but one can hope they will find themselves connected to the vines just as the generations before them did.

Family photo below courtesy of the Doix Family.