Sara i René Viticultors
The Sara & René Viticultors project was born from the desire to work specific vineyards in Priorat in a deeply personal way, focusing on the character of each site and the intimate relationship between landscape, vine, and wine.
The beginnings
It all began when we had the opportunity to recover a small estate called Bellvisos, an old vineyard situated on a steep slope in Priorat. It was a wild place, surrounded by Mediterranean forest, where the vines grew almost hidden among holm oaks, pines, and shrubs. A harsh yet profoundly beautiful landscape.
Where the land demands
Bellvisos is not an easy vineyard. The slopes are extremely steep, with inclines that turn every workday into intense physical effort. The soil is llicorella, the characteristic slate of Priorat—a laminated and fragile rock that breaks into dark shards, forcing the vine roots to penetrate deep into the earth to find water and nutrients.
Working here means accepting the conditions of the landscape. The vines are planted on narrow terraces or directly on slopes where practically everything must be done by hand.
There is no room for heavy machinery or easy paths. Every pruning, every treatment, and every harvest demands time, patience, and a very direct relationship with the vine.
But it is precisely this toughness that gives meaning to these vineyards. In these extreme conditions, the plants grow slowly, developing deep roots and finding their own balance with the environment. This is where the intensity and identity of Priorat wines are born.
When we started working Bellvisos, we did so with the will to listen to the site, without imposing a preconceived model. We observed how the plants reacted, how the soil behaved, and what kind of wine could be born from that plot.
Over time, the project grew around the idea of “partides”, which is the traditional way of naming parcels in Priorat. Each partida is a small world within the landscape: a unique combination of soil, orientation, slope, climate, and varieties that results in wines with their own personality.
Listening to the vineyard
The vineyards are worked using organic farming, always seeking balance between the plant, the soil, and the landscape. Our goal is not to intervene much, but to accompany the vine so it can honestly express the character of the place.
The varieties we grow are the historic ones of Priorat: Grenache, Carignan, and hairy Grenache, varieties perfectly adapted to this dry Mediterranean climate and the poor llicorella soils.
These are vines that have learned to survive in difficult conditions and today form an essential part of the landscape.
This project is, at its heart, a way of dialoguing with the land. Each partida has its own voice and each wine tries to tell the story of that place.
Two voices of Priorat
The two main partides of this project are Bellvisos and Pedrer, two nearby sites but with very different personalities within the Priorat landscape.
Bellvisos is an isolated estate, surrounded by forest, located on a very steep slope. It is a wilder and more austere place, where viticulture requires very intense work and where the vines grow in extreme conditions.
In contrast, Pedrer is a parcel where the landscape opens up a bit more and where the presence of stone and llicorella dominates the terrain. Here, the wines show a slightly more open and delicate expression of the territory.
Through these two partides, we try to show how the same landscape can generate different wines according to its orientation, its soil, and its natural balance.
