Miquel Puig: "When I watch 'Card Game' and see that they don't drink wine, I don't understand it."

The economist Miquel Puig (Tarragona, 1954) is one of the voices that most frequently participate in the country's debates, also on the ARABeyond the articles and controversies about regional funding, immigration, tourism and wages, Puig maintains a long-standing relationship with another part of the Catalan economy.

Wikipedia says he has vineyards in Falset.

— Very modest, huh? But yes.

Where do they come from?

— My grandfather bought a farmhouse in Falset. He was an industrialist from the Baix Camp region who moved to Falset because there was much more raw material there for making wine alcohol: sea breeze –pomaceIn Spanish, which is a word that people do understand—this residue, which is what remains after the fermentation of the grapes, generates a sugar residue that is the basis for making liqueurs. And cognac.

Was the farmhouse part of the business?

— No. My grandfather bought the farmhouse partly to own land, but he didn't dedicate much time to it, nor was he particularly interested in it. My father was the same: he was also an industrialist and wasn't very interested in it either. But they both maintained the farmhouse and the agricultural operation for, you could say, sentimental reasons. And my father passed them on to me for sentimental reasons.

Are you still in a romantic relationship?

— Of course. When my father gave me the farmhouse, I was 19. We lived in Madrid, but I came to study in Barcelona because I wanted to be independent. When I settled here, my father said to me, "Why don't you take charge?" And he repeated something his father had told him: "You'll never get a penny from what this farmhouse gives you." I jumped at the chance. Every weekend I took the train—I didn't have a car—to Falset, and spent Saturdays working in the fields. I've spent countless hours, through the cold and the heat, cultivating the vineyards, the hazelnut trees, the almond trees, and the olive groves. So, yes, I have a very strong connection to this place.

Was his father right?

— I was lucky that, contrary to what he told me, the first two years went very well for me. There was a bad harvest in France, and the price of grapes here skyrocketed. I was a student, I had no money—apart from what I earned working overtime.Daily WorldAnd with some private lessons—and I made money during those years. After that, never again. For many years I made peace with it: I reinvested what I earned. Finally, I started losing money. And when I got older, I decided to rent out the property.

What is the wine like that comes out of there?

— It's a wine from Montsant. Montsant has many similarities to Priorat, because the grape varieties are practically the same: Garnacha Tinta and Cariñena. There's also Syrah, a French variety introduced in recent decades. Priorat and Montsant have been a true laboratory. Many winemaking methods have been tested: new varieties, new pruning techniques, new winemaking methods… Catalonia is extremely innovative in this respect.

Is the wine produced at their farmhouse available for purchase?

— Yes. It's Bodega Comunica. Patri Morillo and Pep Aguilar run it. As is often the case in that area, they have many different brands and labels because they experiment a lot with different varieties and plots of land.

Beyond the vineyards, is wine part of your daily life?

— I can't imagine a meal without a glass of wine. My father did it, my mother did it… When I lookCard gameAnd I see they don't drink wine, I don't understand it. I don't understand it. It's our culture, up until my generation, at least: now I don't know anymore. And in my generation, a meal without wine doesn't make sense. Now it's clear that things are changing culturally.

I'm sure he read the article byThe Economistwhich linked the decline in wine consumption to loneliness.

— Yes, it was very good. Eating lunch alone is rather sad, and then you don't feel like having a glass of wine… It surely has a lot to do with that. What percentage of people eat alone in front of the television? This isn't food; it's, let's say… nourishment. In our view, the table is the center of family and social life. And curiously…

Yeah?

— Advertising equates modern life with hedonism, with body worship, with vacation worship. But I have the feeling that hedonism is on the decline.

Where do you see it?

— Take the proliferation of gyms, for example. Gyms, which are something akin to a torture device, are the complete opposite of relaxing over a meal, which is about giving yourself permission to enjoy yourself.

What makes a good wine so that I can enjoy it?

— I like full-bodied wines. Especially those from Priorat, and when I say Priorat, I also include Montsant. I've grown accustomed to wines with a lot of structure, both white and red. French wines, like Burgundies, often strike me as lacking in body. Perhaps they're not actually lacking, but it depends on your standards. My taste is quite Mediterranean, to put it simply, influenced by Grenache and Carignan. I tend to prefer Grenache to Pinot Noir. I'm sure many people will say, "Hey, you're crazy!" But everyone's taste is shaped by how they've been cultivated. I'm not going to say one is better than the other. It's just that, for me, some tastes simply don't suit me.

And some people think that's excessive.

— We're not going to argue, we're not going to argue! [laughs] Just like there are people who say that music ends with Bach and that after Bach everything is noise. There are people who find Beethoven too much: too much noise and grandiloquence. For me, he's the ultimate. In fact, something I'm very proud of is that I discovered on my own theSolemn Massby Beethoven. He'd never spoken to me about it, and one day I found the record my father had. I listened to it and thought, "How have you ever lived without that?"

Have you ever experienced a moment comparable to wine?

— Once, a friend from Falset and I opened a bottle of Château Dauphiné. We both thought, "That's extraordinary." I don't know if it was the moment or the company, but it was one of those moments when wine surprises you.

What do you associate it with?

— In general, I associate wine with the outdoors: in Falset, by the sea, with a group of people. And wine is what helps to create a euphoric feeling.

Have you ever made wine yourself?

— Yes. For a few years, my wife, another couple from Falset, and I did it. For about ten years, we made two casks a year, about a thousand bottles. We picked the grapes ourselves, did the destemming, took our daughters and friends along… It was a very enjoyable experience. The wine was called Malluvi.

Where does the name come from?

— It was my wife's great idea. Our daughters are named Mariona, Lluïsa, and Victoria, and the other couple's children are named Víctor and Martina. Malluvio fit with all five names. And, what's more, it incorporates "wine" into the name itself.

Did they ever design labels?

— No. But when we gave a bottle as a gift, we wrote the name directly on the glass with a silver marker: Malluví, Mas d'en Cosme, Falset. It was a nice gift. And it was a pretty decent wine, not to say very decent.

Do they still have any bottles?

— Yes, but they're not good. But since you remember them so well, it's good to have them. Maybe we'll do it again someday.