A winery, a terroir, a territory

Abstract

Gramona Cellar is a family business located in Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, in Spanish Catalonia. In 2001, they build a new cave because the old building had been gradually found in urban areas. The architecture is both visually inventive and bioclimatic, it is buried at 90%. In 2008 they begin a process of integration of the cave in the local landscape, with the need to promote the understanding of the environment and its own production. The european program BIODIVINE to improve plants’ biodiversity, has been presenting the good results of the roof-gardens. Some belveders has been created, some old roads reopened, some dry-stone huts have been restored. Since 2011 the laboratory of Claude and Lydia Bourguignon analyzes the earth, identifies its specificity and purposes programs to restore its vital balance. A herd of cows ‘Albera’ (forgotten local specie) is introduced to limit the undergrowth vegetation and risks of fire. Some tests are done with the Veterinary University of Barcelona to educate sheep to graze the grassy areas without damaging the grapes and the leaves in the vineyards. The Italian school of pruning Simonit & Sirch, regularly comes to teach how to relearn the pruning of stocks and to reduce the stress of the plant, permitting to stabilize production during periods of drought. A program of research in climate change is followed, with INCAVI (Professional Catalan Institute) and the University of Navarre installing sensors in the ground and dendrometer that measure the expansion of the feet of the vines to monitor plant water stress.

In 2011 a geothermy system is installed, covering up to 40% of energy needs in the cellar during harvest. This is a pilot program done with the University Rovira y Virgili of Tarragona.