SCALA DEI, the oldest winery in Priorat, celebrates its 50th anniversary and the incredible success story of the QUALIFIED DESIGNATION OF ORIGIN.

Scala Dei, the oldest winery in Priorat and the first to bottle wine at its origin, celebrated its 50th anniversary today at the Cartoixa d'Escaladei (Tarragona, Catalunya) with a hundred guests from the wine world and the Qualified Designation of Origin (QDO).

During the event, Sergio Fuster, CEO of Raventos Codorniu, the co-owner of the winery, emphasized the responsibility of caring for the land that the Carthusian monks chose over 800 years ago to start making wine in the Priorat region. He also warned: "Priorat, like other regions of Catalonia, faces a significant challenge: adapting to climate change and preparing to overcome drought episodes like the one we are unfortunately experiencing.  It is an urgent and inescapable challenge that we must tackle together if we want Priorat to continue making history in the world of wine."

The winery celebrates half a century since its refoundation, but its roots lie in the lands surrounding the Scala Dei monastery, where Carthusian monks began making wine in 1263. Following the Mendizabal confiscation in the 19th century, the monks were forced to abandon the monastery, and five families acquired the Cartoixa and its lands.  They established the Agrarian Society Union of Scala Dei and continued making wine. They even made some initial bottles to present at the 1878 Universal Exhibition in Paris and for the 1888 one in Barcelona.

In 1974, the Society was reestablished as Bodega Scala Dei, launching the first ‘modern’ wines of Priorat and becoming one of the few wineries that bottled wine in the region until the boom of the late 1980s.

Fifty years later, Scala Dei remains a benchmark winery in Priorat, and the QDO is regarded as one of the world's best wine regions.  By respecting ancestral production methods adapted to modern techniques, it preserves the spirit of craftsmanship, working by hand, and its wines capture the essence of the rugged landscape, with slate soils and an intense climate. This is achieved through small productions from 70 hectares of own vineyards, some of which originally belonged to the Carthusian monks and are the oldest in the region, cultivated sustainably, using only natural and organic treatments, and where mainly Grenache is grown.

In the last decade, its wines have received nearly 500 major accolades, including recent awards such as the Gold Medal at Grenache du Monde for Scala Dei Sant Antoni 2020; Gold Medal and Best Priorat at the International Wine Challenge 2024 for Scala Dei Cartoixa 2020; and Best Red Wine of the Year by Tim Atkin in the 2024 Catalonia report for Scala Dei Sant Antoni 2019. Additionally, Scala Dei Sant Antoni and Scala Dei Masdeu have received over 95 points in prestigious international magazines like The Wine Advocate, Decanter, and Wine Enthusiast.

Scala Dei sells 40% of its wines abroad, with Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States being the main markets.

Cartoixa Scala Dei 1974: Living History of the Priorat region

To mark the anniversary, guests were treated to a historic and unprecedented vertical tasting in the refectory of the Cartoixa, the space where the monks would dine together.  It was a journey through the 50 years of the winery, starting with a tasting of the first wine labelled and bottled at its origin in Priorat as a Designation of Origin:  Cartoixa Scala Dei 1974, made with Grenache and Carignan and aged in large vats. Attendees were then able to taste a dozen vintages from the last five decades, offering a true journey through the evolution of Priorat: from ancestral productions to modernisation and the introduction of foreign varieties in the 1980s, the highly structured wines marked by oak in the 1990s, and the return to its roots from the 2000s onwards.

Ricard Rofes, the winemaker at Scala Dei, remarked:  "For someone born in this land and a wine lover, being part of this history is an immense privilege, but also a great responsibility," adding, "Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Scala Dei, the oldest winery in Priorat, drives us to continue making wine with the same dedication and respect that the Carthusian monks taught us centuries ago, keeping the essence of our land alive."

The event served to commemorate half a century of the winery and to celebrate the exciting success story that has transformed Priorat over the last 50 years into one of the most renowned wine regions.  It is a story that began in Scala Dei in 1263 but was nearly ended by the invasion of the phylloxera plague and the migration of people to cities during the textile industry's boom. Thanks to the winemakers who persevered in the 'heroic' cultivation of the vineyard and those who continued to believe in Priorat’s potential, the wines of the Q.D.O., with a hundred wineries, now compete with the best in the world.

Scala Dei Winery: Pioneers of the Priorat’s region

Scala Dei is the oldest winery in Priorat and the first to bottle wine. Its origins lie in the lands surrounding the Scala Dei monastery, where the monks made wine as early as 1263.  By respecting ancestral winemaking methods adapted to new techniques, it stands out for having the oldest and most privileged vineyards in the region. Vineyards that have been preserved over centuries, in plots located between 400 and 800 meters above sea level, combined with the uniqueness of their soils and different orientations towards the sun, give the grapes a wide range of nuances for wine production.