H i s t o r y
Chronology
Late XVIII century
The winery is founded in L’Avellà as a village cooperative, where wines and oils were made and exported to Cuba
XX century
The Avellà winery had been abandoned for decades, but the vineyards were still farmed by historic sharecroppers
1984
The Peris family recognizes the high historic value of a small winery and L’Avellà territory’s potential and founds MontRubí, which starts producing cava
1986
The Peris family makes a strong bet with a young winemaker, Josep Queralt, who is nowadays still in charge of producing our wines, after more than 30 years
1992
The fever of the Olympic Games in Barcelona is boosting the cava industry and MontRubí has lived some plethoric years producing small production cavas, some of which have been awarded by prestigious wine critics
2000
After years producing cava and experiencing how the industry was going through a battle of prices, the family decides to change direction and starts with the Proyecto Gaintus. This was a firm bet to recover the grape variety Sumoll and was a strong backbone in MontRubí’s philosophy
2001
MontRubí releases the first 100% Sumoll wine in the world: Gaintus
2006
Plantation of our iconic Sumoll vines in vertical training system
2010
First vintage of our young monovarietal wines Black & White, nowadays exported to 22 countries
2018
Renovation and expansion of the winery incorporating the latest technology in the wine industry and building a new aging room
2020
Opening of the 1902 Villa of historic and cultural patrimony with its own restaurant, wine bar, venue for events and different outdoor spaces
2021
Opening of Casa Gran 1771. A boutique hotel with 10 rooms, gym, lounge area with fireplace, bar and swimming pool
The estate
In the town of L’Avellà, where MontRubí is located, there are the two wineries, the Casa Gran 1771 hotel, and the chalet, an architectural work from the end of the 19th century completely restored, and which houses the gastronomic restaurant, the summer Wine Bar and the winter Wine Bar, as well as the wine shop.
From our vineyards, we harvest only certified organic grapes of native varieties of our area. We have been taking care of our farm for years to have a natural heritage that everyone wants to come and enjoy.
One of the most important enclaves of MontRubí, are the remains of the Hermitage of Sant Andreu de L’Avellà, from the 11th century, which we decided to recover together with the archaeologists of Arqueovitis, from that point, the entire estate can be viewed in 360º .
At MontRubí we are committed to a way of working the field that is faithful to how our ancestors did. Understanding the ecosystem of the vineyard and respecting it, thus we obtain wines that give MontRubí its unique character.
Gaintus Project
When MontRubí was founded in 1984 in an 1880’s building which had been producing wines and oil for export to Cuba until the early 20th century, we started with the production of cava. Few years later, after experiencing the battle of prices which the cava industry was going through, we decided to change direction and made a strong bet towards a different project: produce still wines with indigenous grapes and that’s when the Gaintus Project was born.
This project started in the year 2000 and reflected our interest in the recovery of the grape Sumoll, a variety which had been widely extended in Catalonia and specially in Penedès. However, since this is a delicate grape with certain difficulties to grow, combined with the Phyloxera plague and its replacement with grapes for the production of cava and foreign grapes, Sumoll was almost extinct.
In the year 2001, after the recovery of an old Sumoll vineyard which had “survived” the extinction, we released Gaintus, the world’s first 100% Sumoll red wine. The name Gaintus refers to a climbing trail in the Pyrenees, and it symbolizes the challenge that MontRubí was facing as well as being pioneers in opening a new path.
It was a long journey, since when we decided to recover Sumoll everyone around was recommending us against it because it was a delicate grape with its difficulties to grow. It was an experimental phase as there was hardly any information on how to deal with this grape. Nevertheless, we can say that, along all these years, we kept learning how to domesticate it and that is how we obtained the recognition for being the world pioneers in the production of wines with Sumoll.
Types of grapes
MontRubí wines express the roots, the singularity and the traditional viticulture value. Therefore, we strongly believe that the indigenous grapes are the most adequate to express the character and identity of our land ant its culture.
The grape varieties for our whites are Xarel·lo, Macabeu and Parellada and the ones for our reds and rosés are Grenache, Carignan and Sumoll.