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Clos Mogador is the consequence of many generations. These generations have been passionate, have lived the moment with a keen sense of intuition, and have enjoyed many experiences and emotions. Great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, ourselves, our children and our grandchildren-all of us have enjoyed, we still enjoy and continue to enjoy the beauty and fragrance of wild rosemary, mixed with the scent of thyme and lavender. We smell the soil after rain and the clay, baked hard in the summer months when rain is scarce. The rocks are heated by sunlight, an intense smell mixed with the scents of spices and ash from burning the branches during winter pruning. We live with slow buzzing bluebottles at harvest time, the cicadas sing song and on a cool night, the frogs sing heartily, joining in with the crickets. Spring flowers and we awaken to birdsong. The birds, in their promiscuity, help pollinate and produce new fruits that are harvested. The insects fly from flower to flower, creating unique creatures, fleshy berries with wonderful flavour, and perfume that will never again be experienced. The vineyards are dotted with olive trees, fruit trees and also not far away, some holm oaks with one or two pine trees that interrupt our view. Wrinkled figs and textured almonds, fruit surrounded by bushes of all kinds, flowers blooming in every season, saturating the air with scents throughout the year... I remember my son, René when he was three years old, spending his days with a group of friends, selecting the best wild berries and putting them in a sand bucket from the beach. I remember my wife, Isabelle, helping him select the best figs to dry or for eating immediately, or my other son, Christian, who is unable to live in any other place on this planet than here, surrounded by all kinds of nature ... "To make good wine," says my oldest son, "you have to choose the best grapes, the ones you would eat..." and this cannot be done in large fermentation vats, it has to be done the same way my son once filled his sand bucket, by filling small tanks ... After all this, a bottle of Clos Mogador brings us together to share our passion. Without realizing it, we have been taken on amazing journeys where we have met new people who fill our hearts with happiness. I am reminded of the comments of my youngest son, Anderson, who is thirteen, a comedian, happy, a humanist ... He would say with a beaming smile: "many small things in life are beautiful, gather them around you." And perhaps, at the same time, we will offer you a glass of Clos Mogador.
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| RENÉ III |
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 RENÉ BARBIER Born in Tarragona in 1950, René is a direct descendent of a French line of winemakers whose origins can be traced back to the 1200s. Just as his ancestors had done before him, he has spent his life working in the wine world. Trained in the most presitgious winemaking schools of Bordeaux, Borgogne and Limoux, he has also worked in acclaimed wineries such as Moueix, who are amongst other things the makers of Petrus. His scope in the wine world and experience stretches from the vineyards to wine marketing and most importantly covers the part where his own wines are made. In 1979, he acquired his first vineyard in Priorat and started to make his first wine in the area: Clos Mogador. A little later on came Nelin, Manyetes and Espectacle del Montsant. |
| ISABELLE |
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ISABELLE MEYER Born in Nancy in 1952, Isabelle Meyer’s life has for the most part been linked to art and creative activities. She received her formal training in various centres, including from 1972 onwards, the École Superieure de Chorègraphie de Parara (Dance school). In 1975 she created the Escuela Estudio de Arte Coreográfico Isabelle Barbier (Isabelle Barbier School of Choreography) in Tarragona. This training centre was recognised by the Catalan Autonomous Government and was a member of the Barcelona Theatre School (Institut de Teatre). To the date, she has helped to promote cultural projects in the world of dance, art and other creative activities in the Priorat region as well as in the Tarragona province. Since 1993, she has been working side by side with her husband at Clos Mogador, where she is in charge of graphic design, public relations and marketing. Amongst her most well known artistic achievements is the painting which was used to promote the wine, Espectacle. |
| RENÉ IV |
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RENÉ BARBIER MEYER Born in Nancy in 1973, at the age of 4 his family moved to Tarragona where he studied up until BUP (equivalent of Secondary school leaving certificate). In 1992, at the age of 18 he started learning to be a cellar master and gained work experience at Clos Mogador and Clos Erasmus. Between the years of 1992 and 2000 he learned about making wine with his father. He also learned a great deal from Fernando Zamora, Roberto Xipreso (bodegas Achaval-Ferrer, Argentina), Gerard Gauby, (Domaine Gauby, Rousillon Francia) and Didier Dagueneau (Loire France). He worked harvests in South Africa and the United States of America. In 1999, he started the Manyetes project as well as the Laurona project in D.O. Montsant (wine appellation). In 2000, he took charge of making Clos Figueres for Christopher Cannan. He created the first Nelin white Priorat wine. He also bought an abandoned vineyard, got it back into production and founded the Sara y René Viticultors project (Sara Pérez, his wife, is daughter of José Luis Pèrez of Mas Martinet). The first wine made with grapes from this vineyard was Gratallops Bellvisos 2002. In 2001, he bought a vineyard of centenary Carignan vines and started to experiment with grape growing in mountainous terrain by re-introducing ploughing by mule as well as other organic grape growing techniques. This was the start of his career as creator of wines from the vineyard right up until the bottle. Up until this time, he had only made wine from the grapes as they arrived at the winery. This is an important turning point in his professional career. ‘La viña del vuit’ is a multi-proprietor vineyard, owned by 8 friends (4 men and 4 women): Iban Foix, Julien Basté, Philippe Thevenon, Sara Pérez, Ester Nin, Montse Mateos and Núria Pérez. His first child, Ariadna was born in 2002. In this year he also started to work jointly with Sara as consultants to Dominio don Bibei in the Ribeira Sacra. In 2003, together with Sara they created Los Irreductibles Restaurant in Gratallops. In 2004 he became a business partner with Sara in Venus la Universal, a D.O. Montsant winery, which was set up by Sara Pérez in Falset. The family also currently lives on this property. The same year saw the arrival of their second child, René. In 2008 he was followed by their second daughter, Gaia and in 2012 Léon was born. René is currently in charge of all winemaking at Clos Mogador winery. |
| CHRISTIAN |
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CHRISTIAN BARBIER MEYER Christian Barbier Meyer. Born into Nature in 1992 and raised on Llicorella lands, inhabited by intense and rich fauna. Instructed by the wisdom of plants, trained by the animal world, he grew up with the realism and constant message of his surroundings. Christian has had ongoing training at the Spanish Biodynamic Federation, combined with a scientific education at the Claude Bourguignon School about life on earth. |
| ANDERSON |
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ANDERSON BARBIER MEYER Born in Haiti in 1996. Young music producer. Carefree, he enjoys the present as well as the future, always respecting the past. Between two worlds: the wine and the music; the country and the city. Enjoys travelling, good company, good wine and good music. At the moment he is involved in the project Com Tu, together with his two brothers, René and Christian. He is a man of few words and big smiles. |
| ORIGINS |
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In the 19th century, the Barbier family owned some 1,500 hectares (3,707 acres) of vines in an estate called Le Martinet. This estate extended into three appellations: Plan de Dieu, Rasteau and Gigondas all of which are situated in the Vaucluse region of France – more or less between Violès and Sablet. In her famous novel (later televised), Elisabeth Barbier used the Château de Martinet as a setting for her plot using the nickname Mogador. Léon Barbier, our great-grandfather, pioneered the bottling of his first wine. In 1880, phylloxera ravaged the vineyards in France so he was obliged to source the much needed grapes from Spain. This was the origin of the negotiations for the winery founded in Tarragona (Catalonia), which was registered under his son’s name, René Barbier. In the 1940s, Leon II and René II took the initiative of bottling the first wines from the Priorat as well as other quality wines from Catalonia. The occupation of France in the 1940s also forced them to reconsider their commercial strategies. Improving the Spanish wines by introducing oenological technology became the family’s main object. With the influx of tourism in the region during the 1960s, the family in charge of René Barbier SA, became associated with like-minded people in order to achieve these objectives. However, mass tourism was not an ideal environment in which to create wines of this level. The early death of René II at 50 led to this project being more or less abandoned and the society absorbed by a company with a somewhat doubtful reputation. With the introduction of democracy in Spain this shady enterprise was dissolved. But, due to accumulated debts, the family was unable to buy the company back. At this point, the company was acquired by Freixenet, in whose hands it still remains today. Leaving that difficult period in the past, we now turn to a new and exciting venture created by the present generation! In 1979, René III (son of René II), his wife Isabelle Meyer and their children René IV, Céline and later on Christian and Andersen, acquired a few hectares of Grenache near to Gratallops in the DO Priorat. This was the birth of Clos Mogador. Some years later, in 2000, a dream held close to their hearts came true – the creation of a white wine called Nelin. Round about the same time, enticed by an old property of Cariñena vines, the Manyetes label was created.  |
| Isabelle's paintings |
