Harvest in 1975. Me with my grandpa, my mother and my uncle, all together helping in the field work … kids also had a place.
History
“I don’t know exactly how long my family has had vineyards, but everything makes me think that my great-grandfather, Francisco Miró Brunet, was the first member of the family to plant a vineyard, because my grandfather Olegario Miró Bosquet, born in 1899, already inherited a vineyard.”
The grandparents
My grandfather Olegario had his own winery, where he made and sold his wines, until 1959, which is when the cooperative was founded and when he became a member, therefore closing his winery..
On my mother’s side, my grandfather Jaume Diego Rius, born in 1917, was a renowned grafter (professional who grafts vineyards) and an expert in the work of the vineyard, the relationship between lunar cycles and the tasks of the vineyards and rest of crops, nowadays, we could define him as a “biodynamic grandfather”.
Grandpa Jaume & Grandma Roseta
Grandpa Olegario & Grandma Madrona
Grandpa Jaume & me
Miquel Miró & Elena Diego
My parents
My father, Miguel Miró Descarrega, born in 1941, has continued working in the vineyards, as a member of the cooperative, until his retirement.
My mother, Elena Diego Vernet was born in 1945. She helped her parents with household and field tasks. When she married my father in 1967, she was taking care of my grandparents and helping my father in the fields. In 1983, when my grandparents had already died, my mother opened a grocery store in town to help the family economy from another perspective, unfortunately, she had to close it in 1996 due to fibromyalgia, which she still suffers.
1992
Since I was little I helped my father in the vineyards and other crops, I learned to prune, plough, harvest, cultivate vineyards,… but I was bored because there was nothing else to do after the harvest …
Looking for the path between studies and jobs, in 1992, I began to work in the world of wine, marketing wines in two provinces of Catalonia for a winery in Penedès (Catalonia, Spain).
Well, looking at my story, maybe I did not start working in the wine world in 1992, maybe it is a family tradition which I am just following.
But I am sure that the change arose in 1992, in the Penedès winery I discovered what there is after the harvest: the winemaking process and the marketing of the wine.
I at 18 months in the Molí
de Corbera d’Ebre street for Corpus
de Corbera d’Ebre street for Corpus
Yayo Jaume & me
My cat Ennak and me
In 1995 I had the opportunity to start working at Vinícola del Priorat, a cooperative winery in Priorat, where I still work. The challenge was very nice, pretty much everything had to be done, the whole project had to be defined and carried out, with a small team of people involved and very enthusiastic farmers, grateful to be able to learn and help the cooperative. For me, helping a cooperative was like helping my father, also a member of a cooperative.
1995
1999
Rosendo Ràfales Jornet during the enology course
After 4 very intense years and where I learned a lot, I planted my first vineyard. Something had awakened in me that told me that I had to keep going, that I had more to learn, that I had to be able to make the style of wine I had in mind.
To be able to keep on going, my personal project began in 1999, with the planting of the first vineyard on my father-in-law’s abandoned vineyards, Rosendo Ràfales Jornet. By coincidence, my father-in-law’s family also had a winery in Gandesa, where the vineyards are. As a young man, he studied some oenology, although he never carried out the profession.
As my father-in-law’s vineyards had been abandoned for many years, I had to start from scratch, uprooting the vines and planting them again. To help define the new plantation project with 5 hectares of vineyard, I had the help and experience of my father, and also a more current and professional point of view from Sisco Blanch Batiste, friend, agronomist and also viticulturist.
1999-2009
During the period from 1999 to 2009, I did not have a winery. I refreshed my memory and deepened in the fieldwork, as well as started to produce the first harvests in Miquel Aubà Fleix’s winery, in Gandesa. I had to learn how to ferment the wines, how to work around the winery, how to clean…
Miquel Aubà Fleix
Ignasi Carsí Costas
2009
In 2009 we began the works of the winery, in Corbera d’Ebre, my hometown, and and where we already make the 2010 vintage.
The long-awaited moment had arrived, 10 years later I could start “cooking” everything I had in my head, the “big kitchen” but not a “small cellar” was now ready to go “from the head to the bottle” , the different styles of wine, perhaps not very typical of Terra Alta, not from nearby areas, but that I really wanted to elaborate and experiment with other concepts.
Full of many ideas, I needed someone to teach me how to make it happen, from here to thank Ignasi Carsí Costas, a now-retired winemaker, a great friend, and better person, who with his patience, knowledge and experience guided me to achieve that the wines in mind made it into the bottle.
2010
No matter how small the project is, one alone gets nowhere, Shaun Pentecost started working in the winery in 2010, we can say that we are a team of 2, enthusiastically overcoming obstacles.
Shaun Pentecost
Present and Future
What I could never imagine is that either of my two daughters had any interest in the vineyard and wine, I do not know if it is the same way again, but Andrea Miró Ràfales began to “cook her ideas” on the 2017 harvest. Although at 16 years ago she made two wines for her Baccalaureate Research Work. Now, at 20 years old, keeps enjoying it.
Aïda Miró Ràfales, at the age of 14, made her first wine, I do not know if either of the two will continue making wines, maybe they will be the fourth generation, or not. What I do know is that now the three of us are enjoying it a lot, the “big kitchen”, not the “small cellar” is at home, but the future will tell.
All this is a lot of work, but also a fantastic experience and even more, since Andrea and Aïda have started their projects. Sharing with them the moments in the vineyard, the winery, the projects, each one their own but shared, it is a wonderful experience. I hope you can share and enjoy it through our wines. Cheers!
With my father and daughters
Andrea Miró Ràfales
Aïda Miró Ràfales
Celler Jordi Miró in #Instagram
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