RICARD ROFES - THE REBORN OF THE PRIORAT
RICARD ROFES :
Born 31 October 1974, Tarragona, Spain
Education Degree in Winemaking & Wine Marketing
Jaume Ciurana School of Oenology
Degree in specialist winemaking studies
Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona
Career :
1997: Celler El Masroig cooperative in Montsant, winemaker
2007: first vintage at Cellers de Scala Dei
2008: first vintage of RAR
2014: first vintage at Abadía de Poblet
Family : Married to oenologist Magda Pellicer; two children Guillem and Bernat
Hobbies : Mountain-biking, reading, eating out
Priorat was reborn in the 1990s when five winemakers together made international headlines.
Rofes remembers: ‘I was 21 when I made my first wine, and in those days I wanted to be a famous winemaker. Priorat was all about René [Barbier], Alvaro [Palacios], Carles Pastrana, Daphne Glorian and Josep Lluís Pérez. Then when I came to Scala Dei, “click!”,
I realised the protagonist is not the person, but the place. The weight of tradition, that legacy, can’t be modified by someone who is spending 10 or 20 years there. There have been many people before you, and there will be many after you. The best you can do is to leave it as good or better than you found it.’ He stresses: ‘The wines of Ricard Rofes don’t exist. It’s the wine made by the land and the grapes.’
Rofes has become one of the leaders in Spain’s Garnacha revival, producing some exceptional wines. ‘The irony is that in my first job at Masroig all the wines were based on Cariñena. It’s much warmer in Montsant, and Cariñena has more acidity, tension and a lower pH. I didn’t like Garnacha at all.’
Building a legacy
Now Rofes is becoming something of a godfather to a new generation. Fernando Mora MW says: ‘He’s serious – he wants people to learn.’ In 2017, Roc Gramona Simó, the next generation of the Gramona family, biodynamic growers and makers of traditional-method sparkling wines, worked with Rofes as assistant winemaker. ‘Ricard is very accessible. He’s humble. He’s from the region. He’s like Joan Asens – he gives you freedom, he’s not a control freak. Working with Ricard you learn to be somuch more respectful of the fruit.’
‘Ricard took on the role of a leader in the winemaking community, which had been missing from Priorat’
Arthur O’Connor, Last article of the Decanter.
The RARet selection of Ricard Rofes :
The RAR White of Ricard Rofes :
The Rar Esencia White 2017 :
The RAR 4 2010 :
Useless Websites https://uselesslyweb.com/ Useless Websites