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    19:57 PM
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    90 Tb
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    257

History

Mas d’en Gil is the culmination of an adventure of a lifetime for three families over the last century and a half. Three stages, three consecutive moments, three visions which have given the estate exceptional qualities in terms of viticulture andwinemaking and the wine trade. 

Francesc Gil, was the founder of the estate. He was intuitive and enthusiastic, very much a man of the 19th century. His descendents managed the estate until the next owners, the Barril family took over in 1930. They consolidated the technical and farming side of the estate and re-named it Masia Barril. Rafael Barril Figueras and his son, Rafael Barril Dosset together with Mª Magdalena Vicente Jordana founded a “new Priorat model based on old methods”. Of advanced ideas, hard-working and determined, they took the ground-breaking decision to start bottling their wine production. 

In 1998, the Rovira Carbonell family bought the estate and recovered its historical name, Mas d’en Gil. This was a dream come true for Pere Rovira, one of the great wine professionals of the Penedès wine growing region. Soon after 2000, the first Mas d’en Gil Wines were released. Pere Rovira’s youngest daughter, Marta Rovira Carbonell introduced organic farming methods to the estate and is the current director of the company, backed by her father and her sister, Pilar.

 

HISTORY:

It is believed that today’s estate, like a great part of the area known as Historic Priorat was controlled by the Carthusian Monastery of Scala Dei. This situation could have lasted over six or seven centuries until the Anti-clerical Laws passed by Mendizábel in 1835. These laws ended the long monastic dominance in the area. After a period of which we have no historical data, we know that towards the middle of the 19th century, Francesc Gil i Borràs (1828-1885) acquired the property, which would have had 120 hectares (296 acres) under vine. He registered the estate in municipal documents under his family name: Mas d’en Gil (The Gil Family Farmhouse).

A businessman, journalist, farmer and a man of intense public life, Francesc Gil was a very popular person in his native city of Reus. He held an important role in the Institut Agrícola Català Sant Isidre (Catalan Agricultural Institute of Saint Isidre) and promoted the planting of vineyards in the Camp de Tarragona area as well as in the Priorat. His agricultural and viticultural activities were intense. He was a pioneer in bottling Priorat wine and achieved accolades in numerous international fairs. He was also responsable for the creation of one of the first Catalan sparkling Wines, the “Champagne de Reus” which was very highly regarded in the last few years of the 19th century.

When he died without offspring , the estate passed to a family member, married to the businessman and polititian, Albert Rusiñol, brother of the artist, Santiago Rusiñol. Santiago Rusiñol was one of the leaders of Catalan Modernisme (Art Nouveau) and would have visited Mas d’en Gil on some occasions. This stage, which covers more than 40 years until 1931, is known as the one with the Rusiñol-Gil family and which enabled the continuation of the farming activities on the estate.

Pere Rovira Rovira‘s life revolves around wine.Born in 1940, in the heart of a farming family from the village of Moja (Alt Penedès), he followed in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps: in the wine trade. Focussed and enthusiastic, over the years, he followed new paths, whilst maintaining quality and his love of the land.

The step of buying Mas d’en Gil is a milestone and is the culmination of a dream of several years: to bottle the land of the Priorat. One of the first decisions he took was to revert back to the historical name of the estate: Mas d’en Gil, which appeared in the deeds. The first years were spent recovering old vineyards and olive groves. Later on he restored the winery built by Rafael Barril and built a new bottle ageing warehouse. The first Mas d’en Gil Wines were released in 2000, quickly followed by olive oil and Agredolç (vinegar), made using the old vinegar “solera” which Barril started in 1958.

The Rovira and Carbonell Families

The Rovira Saga began with Pere Rovira’s grandfather, the charismatic and enterprising Francisco Rovira Parellada (1873-1943). In 1918 he began to work as an intermediary for bulk Wines and thanks to his honesty and friendly nature, he soon became known and respected in squares and markets around Catalonia. His son, Jaume Rovira Martí (1901-1968) took over the business and expanded it whilst at the same time acquiring the family’s first own vineyards.

Pere Rovira, the third generation soon focussed his attention on the world of business, but always wanted to find new ways of doing things. This took him to work in other lines of business. In 1963, he married Pilar Carbonell Fàbregas, daughter of Joan Carbonell i Pilar Fàbregas. They were tenant farmers at one of the oldest farms or Masies in Penedès, Mas Pujó, in the village of Santa Margarida i els Monjos. They worked the land and the chicken farm and make wine for local sale. Pilar Fàbregas, as well as being an expert in natural remedies, she also knew the different phases of the moon calendar and its influence on farming.

In 1967, Pere Rovira turned Mas Pujó into a serious business, where evidence shows that winemaking had taken place on the estate since the 16th century. He set up a business specializing in making white and red Wines under the D.O. Penedès appellation. In 1972, he and two associates bought Caves Hill located in Moja and in 1980, he finally bought the Mas Pujó property. The property covers 30 hectares and he joined these to the lands bought a few decades earlier by his grandfather and father. He founded an agricultural business which took on the two family names: Agrícola Rovira Carbonell.

Over the years, Pere Rovira continued to extend his horizons in this sector. He started to buy wine all over Spain and in 1988 he started to export to Portugal, France and, once his eldest daughter Pilar Rovira Carbonell joined the firm, to Germany and Italy too.

Mas d’en Gil today

IMG_4838At the beginning of the 21st century, Marta Rovira Carbonell, fourth daughter of Pere Rovira and Pilar Carbonell, moved to Munich (Germany), and started to work as an industrial engineer in the aeronautical sector. From an early age, she had lived among the world of winemaking and vineyards and always remembers when she went to have breakfast with her grandfather Joan, surrounded by all kinds of tools from the winemaking trade.

Even though from 2000 onwards, she had been involved in the tastings at Mas d’en Gil, it was not until 2004 that she decided to return to her roots and very soon she started to introduce organic farming methods to the estate. Grandmother Pilar’s former influence is well known within the family, who was an expert in the lunar cycle and was familiar with aromatic and medicinal plants. Marta’s awareness for organics was strengthened during her time in Germany. The next, most natural step for her was to introduce biodynamic farming methods.

Since 2008, Marta Rovira has been in charge of Mas d’en Gil. She has been supported by her older sister, Pilar and her father Pere. We are now enjoying a passionate stage of growth and consolidation. Despite being widely accepted around the world for the excellent Wines made here, the family strives continuously to improve, to define their identity and to work more closely with nature in their farming methods. Based on a team which combines local roots with international ones, Mas d’en Gil is working towards a model based on a coherent and consistent interpretation of the area in order to make a great, classic wine from this ancient, demanding and marvellous land, the Priorat.

Source: Finca Mas d'en Gil

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Vineyards

Rocks and woodland, unfathomable natural springs, sunny, steeply sloping traditional “coster” vineyards and crowning them all, is the Masia or Farmhouse with its old underground cellars. It is solidly built, standing tall and protected by the nearby Sarraí Mountain. A dream has come true in this far corner of the area known as “Historical Priorat”. It is framed by the limestone cliffs of the Montsant and Llaberia Mountain Range, caressed by the Serè wind blowing in from the north and the Garbinada sea wind from the south-east, this place can only be understood as a single unity, a unique estate.

At 350 metres above sea level, Mas d’en Gil covers an area of 125 hectares (309 acres) of land within the municipal area of Bellmunt del Priorat in the southern area of the Denomincació d’Origen Qualificada Priorat (Priorat Qualified Designation of Origin). We could say that the estate, spread over five valleys is a scale model of this mountainous region known as the Priorat. It is a region filled with steeply sloping slate-based hillsides, Mediteranean woodland, interspersed with vineyards of Garnatxa (Grenache) and Carinyena (Carignan) and by olive, hazel and almond groves.

The holm oak to the east and the pine forest to the west are green lungs that contribute to the biodiversity and at the same time bring freshness to the estate. At the southern border, the Molinos ravine (ravine of the windmills) channels the air and refreshes the LA COMA valley and, at the same time, acts as a corridor for aerial fauna. The vineyard shares the place with the centuries-old olive, almond and hazelnut trees. The result is a beautiful agricultural mosaic from certified organic farming.

Biodynamics, introduced in 2008 by the fourth generation of the Rovira family, revitalizes soil, brings health and balance to plants. The wines increase their aromatic complexity on the palate, and they awaken their identity. The wines must reflect the natural landscape of an estate that we are trying to understand as a living being, as an agricultural unit that seeks to keep the soils healthy and balanced with the native flora and fauna. 

Source: Finca Mas d'en Gil

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2 different wines with 11 vintages

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