The 47 million winery designed to make the best possible wines

PeraladaBudget, time, knowledge, and experience. This is the blend that has made the Perelada winery possible, a RCR project that 22,000 people visit each year. It cost 47 million euros and took 20 years to complete. "A winery that will not go out of fashion," says Perelada's oenologist Delfí Sanahuja, who has been present in each phase of the winery's construction, inaugurated in 2022. "I knew zero about architecture, and they knew zero about wine. Now I could be an RCR intern after two decades with them," the oenologist jokes, "we understood each other very well," he affirms.

Things, however, could have been very different. Owner Artur Suqué was very good friends with Ricardo Bofill Sr., and therefore he was the first person he thought of to commission the project of rebuilding the winery. At that time, RCR was just starting, and Bofill had built the Château Lafitte winery in Bordeaux. But Artur Suqué understood that the winery would be for his son Javier – as it has been – and that it would be better for him to decide. His son opted for the architects from Olot. "We won the lottery because in 2017 they were awarded the Pritzker Prize," says Sanahuja.

The project was conceived in 2003, and construction was supposed to begin in 2007. But the crisis came, and it didn't start until 2018. During this period, no one wasted time. They continued to hold meetings and visited 150 wineries. "The architects, Javier Suqué, and I went. So they could familiarize themselves with barrels, tanks, and vats, so that we could speak the same language." And to lay the foundations of shared values linked to functionality, sustainability, and, why not, beauty.

The winery is 18,200 m², it has no facade or sign, and when you arrive, you don't see it. "It has to move you from the inside, not from the outside. We didn't want to put up a sign visible from Figueres," explains Sanhauja. Integration with the environment has always been one of RCR's strong points. "We see this in the work they did with the Les Cols restaurant, for example. If we were to see the winery from a bird's-eye view, like the storks that fly over its roof, it would look like a field of stones, another extension of the land, there to ensure the tramuntana wind never blows the roof away. It was built on a slope, taking advantage of an embankment that divided the plots. And a part was excavated to create corridors, which they call the Labyrinth, and what they call the Temple, where the highest-end wines are aged.

When they were contacted, RCR had never built a winery, but during the two decades the project lasted, they built another one, the Brugarol winery. They already went there with expertise from everything they had learned in the Perelada design. For Perelada, RCR built a new construction, but integrating it with an old one, the farmhouse. The structure of this building from the 1940s could not be touched because it is listed. It was built by Adolf Florensa, when he was the municipal architect of Barcelona because the owner, Miguel Mateu, was the mayor at the time. RCR recovered the rooms where cows, horses, or butter were made and has dedicated it to wine tourism. There is the reception, a wine bar, a terrace, the shop, tasting rooms, and an auditorium. In the center, surrounded by the modules of the farmhouse, a garden of Mediterranean aromatic plants: thyme, lavender, fennel, rosemary... With which they also season the dishes they serve at the bar. The two buildings coexist perfectly despite being separated by 80 years. Of course, one is extremely discreet in terms of surface area.

The visit begins with a video in the auditorium and then descends to the Labyrinth, the bowels of the winery. "RCR was in charge of designing the architecture and the part of functionality and route, I did that," explains Sanahuja, who says they had a "symbiotic relationship" and that they are "very down-to-earth people." The groups that visit are always accompanied and are a maximum of 15 people. They take an audiovisual tour that shows them the various vineyards they have in Empordà, such as Garbet or Malaveïna. The soil of each estate (clay, slate, sand), and the essential elements for obtaining grapes: the vines, the people, the climate, the sea, the mountains, the tramuntana wind. They are evocative and short images. That accompany you along a corridor until you enter the largest room of the winery. The visit is so well designed that they have won several world wine tourism awards, for the best wine tourism experience or for being part of the 50 most admired wineries in the world.

When you finish the Labyrinth, you find yourself in a 2,500 m² room without a single pillar. "The Cathedral of Girona has the widest central nave in Europe without any pillars, it's 23 meters. This one has 29. We beat the Cathedral of Girona! Although it wasn't a competition," explains Sanahuja with wit. The reason for doing it this way was technical. "Where there was a pillar, there couldn't be a tank. Or a passage." An exquisite structural calculation that attracts many architecture lovers to visit. A visit where you are inside, but never quite set foot in the cellar. The building has three levels. The work level where the tanks are, the visitor level, which is accessed via a walkway raised at 3.5 meters, and the office level, which you don't see on the visit because it's above the walkway you are on. But there are more things you don't see, like the installations: hot water, reverse osmosis, nitrogen, compressed air, air conditioning, electrical installations... Where is all this? When you leave the visitor level, you can see it. Pumps, hoses... all hidden and ready for when needed. "This is not a museum," Sanahuja recalls. Separating the enotourism soul from the winemaking one simplifies the lives of those who work there, but also makes the visit pleasant and without the need to use equipment to comply with food regulations. What doesn't understand levels, however, is the aroma of fermentation that fills the entire space.

A cellar within a cellar

The story doesn't end here. Because inside the winery, there is another winery, the one intended for making the highest-end wines and which is also toured during the visit. Precisely, developing these wines was one of the project's objectives. For the property and for Sanahuja, who has 33 harvests at the house and has been a one-winery man since he was hired in 1993. "The stars aligned and it fell to me to be here," explains Sanahuja, who states that Javier Suqué spared no expense nor questioned the project as long as it was committed to "trying to make the best possible wines".

Of the more economical wines, which range from 15 to 20 euros, they make 2 million bottles. Of the higher-end ones, which cost 20 euros and up, about 100,000. Nevertheless, the space is designed to double production if they ever decide to, which for now is not the case. Perelada winery is already the largest in the DO Empordà, and it has been a driving force for the entire region.

The facilities are completely modern. It is a winery designed to require little labor, highly automated, as it is difficult to find staff. With eight people, the entire winemaking process is carried out (harvest aside, of course). In 2021, it received the LEED Gold certification; the building was the first winery in Europe to meet all sustainability requirements. "We have made a beautiful winery, but it must translate into making better wines," says the oenologist in the Temple area. This is where the architects did as they pleased. On one side, there are cement and glass vats so Sanahuja can experiment. On the other side, rows of barrels of the finest wines. But they don't do it in a straight line, it makes a slight curve, as if they were ribs. The space has a special aura. They were inspired by pyramids and churches. It is a place for wines to evolve. With the space of magic, mysticism, and faith, the visit concludes.