A hundred years of the cooperative moment, a hundred years of teamwork in Priorat. Various cooperatives are commemorating this year their first century since they were created, a time where the hard work of the lands and trying to overcome adversities has allowed them to guarantee, these days, the production of some of the most highly regarded vines in the world.
Bellmunt del Priorat’s Cooperative will host, between 15 April and 14 May, a showing that exhibits the history of the local cooperative moment by using some of the tools Carmen Pallach, Maria Teresa Torné and Maria Secall have been collecting from the various rural houses in the village. Thanks to the land’s machinery and utensils, one can trace farmers’ life on crops such as olives and vines. This is a wide range of historical images that help rounding up and contextualizing the showing.
Bellmunt’s Cooperative was born to “guarantee a higher and fairer price for unpacked wine, previously and mostly sold in France”, says Joan Barceló Martínez, current president of the entity. They used to grow Garnacha, Cariñena… which slowly gained higher prestige, but also a higher price.
For decades, Bellmunt’s Cooperative shared economic prominence with the so-called “Mines”, as the main economic and social engines in this Priorat village. Now, “Mines” have been turned into a cultural and tourist piece of equipment, and Cooperative now has 35 partners, far from the 150 it had over their golden age. However, future is about optimism: “We have new young partners and harvests that been sold already!”, claims Joan Barceló, as he also adds vine production is sold to various cellars within Priorat.
The Casa Gran del Siurana cellar, which belongs to Castell de Peralada, is the current tenant of the Cooperative’s facilities. Here’s where their wines are made: GR-174, Cruor, Gran Cruor, La Feredat and Gran Cruor Cariñena, explains Jordi Alentorn, person responsible for the vineyards. The arrival, some years ago, of the above-mentioned cellar to Bellmunt’s Cooperative meant a financial injection that, at the same time, guaranteed the continuity –in the Cooperative’s facilities– of wine production. Currently, Casa Gran del Siurana and the Cooperative share prominence in this centenary celebration.