After more than three years of work and an investment of more than 40 million euros, Perelada inaugurated yesterday, one year later than initially planned due to the pandemic, its large Empordà winery, in an act that was attended by of the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès.
The great investment is “the meeting point between an avant-garde oenological proposal that aims to promote the DO Empordà internationally and a project based on landscape architecture, sustainability, integration into the landscape and the territory, and top-level wine tourism ”, underlined the president of the Perelada Group, Javier Suqué. The project, he added, “is a dream come true, the bet and commitment of a family that began 20 years ago with a long hiatus due to the 2008 financial crisis.” The idea was taken up again in 2015, and in 2020 they already carried out the first harvest. The budget deviation from what was initially planned has exceeded 10 million euros.
Suqué points out that “beyond the short-term profitability of the business”, they have taken into account “passing on a great legacy to future generations and to our territory”. The president of the group wants to make “a qualitative leap in winemaking, also betting on wine tourism and sustainability”. They aspire to produce wines that are “references of international stature”. Eugeni Llos, general director of Bodega Perelada, highlights the “enormous enthusiasm” deposited in a project that represents “a very important commitment, a before and after”.
The landscape and the land form the backbone of the building, designed by the RCR Arquitectes office, a 2017 Pritzker Prize winner. It is a pioneering construction in environmental design as it integrates in a completely respectful way with the surrounding environment and produces minimal impact. The new winery has the highest global rating in sustainable building.
The Perelada Group, which includes distribution, closed the last fiscal year with sales of close to 60 million euros, 7% more than in 2020. Vins Perelada reached a turnover of 20 million in 2021.
And after inaugurating their great Empordà winery and a year after celebrating their centenary, they are already thinking of new investments in Priorat. This same year they will invest around one million in the rehabilitation of the Casa Gran del Siurana for wine tourism purposes. It is a farmhouse with three centuries of history on the outskirts of Bellmunt del Priorat where monks from Scala Dei lived. They have also announced an investment of between two and three million to build a new winery in which to produce their highest-end wines from the DO Qualified Priorat.
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