Clos Mogador

The Free Bacchus Story

By the late 1980s Priorat's vineyards had dwindled to about 600 hectares, and the region looked to be in terminal decline. René Barbier had bought a small plot above Gratallops in 1979 and planted it with more Garnacha and Cariñena and some Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.

Barbier is one of five winemakers who re-established Priorat as a serious region in the late 1980s, and Clos Mogador, mostly old-vine Garnacha and Cariñena grown on llicorella slate and made since 1989, was one of the five wines that launched modern Priorat. The estate says it became a certified organic grower in 2012. The grapes are certified by the CCPAE, Catalonia's organic control body, though the wine itself is not, and the Regenerative Viticulture Association lists Clos Mogador among its certified wineries, with biodynamic methods alongside.

In 1989 he drew together Josep Lluís Pérez, Carles Pastrana, Álvaro Palacios and Daphne Glorian, and their shared first vintage set off Priorat's revival.

The 2022 Clos Mogador drew 97 points from Wine Advocate. Manyetes, all Cariñena since 2011 and made in a seventh of the quantity, is more limited and arguably the more revealing bottle for anyone following how the estate has developed.

Barbier's influence extends well past his own labels: his son René Barbier Meyer also runs Venus La Universal in neighbouring Montsant with Sara Pérez, daughter of fellow pioneer Josep Lluís Pérez, which makes Clos Mogador something like a founding institution of modern Priorat.