The winery

The Winery

Born with the vocation to produce wines that express the uniqueness of their environment, Abadal is a family-owned winery founded in 1983 by Valentí Roqueta, and linked to viticulture for more than 800 years. The winery is located in a unique landscape of vineyards and forest, in Santa Maria d’Horta d’Avinyó, around the Masia Roqueta (12th century).

Since the founding of the winery, we have worked to recover and promote the historical and traditional grape varieties of the Bages region, such as Picapoll -currently the flagship variety of the D.O. Pla de Bages-, Sumoll and, later, Mandó, which make up our identity and future due to their late ripening and good adaptation to climate change.

Vineyard, forest and biodiversity

Ours is a unique landscape of small vineyard plots surrounded by forest. Our vineyards, distributed in terraces at different levels, are nourished by a clay and limestone soil.

The vineyards are immersed in a unique Mediterranean microclimate with continental influence, with a marked temperature oscillation between day and night, and situated at over 350 meters above sea level.

At Abadal, the vineyards are surrounded by forest, with trees such as holm oaks, oaks, and pines, among others. This forest environment, along with the undergrowth of aromatic herbs, infuses nuances and gives identity to our wines.

On the estate, we apply a sustainable forest management model, preserving and cleaning the forest and undergrowth—an essential task for fire protection as well. In this area, we hold the PEFC sustainable forest certification.

We also have a couple of donkeys, Torrent and Aya, who help us to keep the forest clean. We reuse the resulting forest mass to produce biomass that will be converted into energy.

One of our main pillars is the care for the environment and the biodiversity that surrounds us: the vineyards protect the environment, and the environment protects the vineyards. Our estate enjoys a diverse and rich mosaic of animal and plant species, which coexist in harmony with our vines.

Our vineyards and forests serve as a natural refuge for the fauna that is so present in our ecosystem: squirrels, foxes, badgers, rabbits, reptiles, butterflies (such as the common blue, copper butterfly, or zebra butterfly), amphibians and a long list of birds, including bee-eaters, stonechats, swallows, nightingales, robins, jays and sparrows, among others. We enhance the presence of flowing water to encourage life around the vineyards (streams or several ponds that are fed by rainwater).

In harmony with this entire ecosystem, we care for our surroundings by preserving the native vegetation, and respecting and protecting for the wildlife that comes to make its home with us.

On the estate, we also have beehives, essential for pollination and promoting biodiversity, and we produce our own honey. With the olive trees on the estate we produce an oil from the recovered Corbella variety, expanding the range of local products we offer.

The soil

The soil is one of the pillars of the identity of our wines. We apply regenerative work practices, maintaining a living soil, caring for it as much as possible and applying measures that ensure better preservation of the environment with the least impact on it.

In some of our vineyards we conserve the soil with plant cover to increase water regulation and drainage, promote active microbiology and minimise compaction by facilitating the hard work of the roots in our clay soils. In part of the vineyard of our iconic Abadal Nuat wine, we repurpose bark from our forest management, applying the mulching technique, which helps preserve soil moisture and reduces the impact of temperatures on the soil and the vineyard.

Dry stone heritage

Also in the line of landscape management and strong commitment to the territory, and with the aim of preserving the environment and the historical heritage, we are working on the conservation of the vineyard vats and huts, dry stone constructions dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and which constitute one of the most important wine legacies of Bages.

The dry stone walls, also present on the estate, also serve as a refuge for birds, reptiles and insects, while also helping to prevent soil erosion and retain the humidity of the land.

Historical heritage

The winery is located around Masia Roqueta, originally from the 12th century, a jewel in the cultural and winemaking history of the Bages region.

In the basement of the Masia we find different spaces -cellars- where some large bocoyes are kept full of rancis wines that are part of the family’s heritage (they began to be filled at the beginning of the 20th century). The Abadal Sagristia project is the result of a long period of research.

Traditional varieties and ancestral winemaking methods

Since the founding of the winery we have been working on a line of research based on the recovery of traditional Bages varieties -Picapoll and Mandó as the main exponents- and on research into ancestral winemaking techniques, with the aim of highlighting the uniqueness of the Bages region.

In 2009, the Paisatges 1883 Project was launched -so called because it was the year of maximum splendour of viticulture in Bages -inspired by Abadal’s viticultural knowledge and varietal heritage in the region. This project culminated in the Vino de Tina Arboset, an experimental wine, produced in a dry stone vat, recovering this ancestral vinification method, with the first harvest taking place in 2013. Finding inspiration in the past, with an eye to the future. As a result of years of research and the experience gained, the Abadal Arboset 2017 wine was born.

At the winery we also experimented with vinification and ageing in different materials: stainless steel, clay, concrete, wine presses, oak, chestnut or cherry wood…

Projects

We participate in the Voluntary Agreements Programme for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

Promoted by the Government of Catalonia, it was launched in 2010 through the Catalan Office for Climate Change. By means of an Agreement, the organisations that adhere to it undertake to monitor their GHG emissions and to establish, on an annual basis, measures to reduce them.

We collaborate with the Catalan Cork Institute for the reuse of corks in their R&D projects.

The Catalan Cork Institute Foundation is a non-profit cultural and scientific foundation whose mission is to enhance the value of the Catalan cork sector through research into cork stoppers and other applications, and to promote the conservation and responsible management of cork oak forests.

Participation in research projects

At the winery we actively participate in several research projects focused on soil or vineyard management, biodiversity and sustainability, among others areas.
One of the most recent is the Open Digivine project, for which we have used technologies such as a system of weather stations and soil and plant sensors, connected in an open Open-Data network. The aim is to develop predictive models of diseases that can affect vineyards, allowing the application of preventive measures in soil management and efficiency in water use.

Joining POTS for the management of reusable packaging

POTS is a circular economy project that seeks the reuse of bottles through circularity. In this initial stage, the reuse of bottles is being carried out from the bottles consumed in the winery’s Wine Tourism Centre -during visits, tastings, the wine bar or events-.
The used bottles are collected in special boxes -the POTcases- and sent to the POTS cleaning plant. Once cleaned and sterilised, the bottles are returned to the winery, ready to start a new cycle. The water consumption needed to clean the bottles is less than the water needed to manufacture a new one, also reducing the carbon footprint of new production.

Origins

1199 First documents showing the origins of the Roqueta family as vine growers. The Roqueta Farmhouse (known as Mas Roqueta), has been documented since 1199 in Santa Maria d'Horta d'Avinyó, and has continuously cultivated its vineyards over the years.
1983 Valentí Roqueta founded Abadal.
1995 The Appellation of Origin Pla de Bages was established and chaired by Valentí Roqueta from 1995 to 2015.
1996 Abadal Picapoll was released on the market for the first time.
1999Abadal obtained the Catalan Agriculture Shield awarded by the Generalitat of Catalonia, in recognition of their actions to promote the wine sector and to honour the attainment of Pla de Bages Appellation of Origin for wines from the Bages region.
1999 The project to restore vineyard huts was completed; in 2017, the project won a prize in a competition organized by the D.O. Pla de Bages.
2002 Abadal 3.9 was launched on the market for the first time.
2009Abadal Nuat appeared on the market for the first time.
2011 The Catalan Sommelier Association (ACS) awarded Abadal “ Best Winery” of the year.
2011Abadal celebrated its 25th anniversary with Ferrán Adrià and the President of the Generalitat de Catalunya. To commemorate the year, a limited edition wine -Abadal 25 Aniversari- featuring a label illustrated by the artist Joaquim Falcó. From left to right, Chef Josep Roca and Valentí Roqueta, at the celebration of Abadal’s 25th Anniversary.
2012Abadal launched a line of research into the use of dry stone huts in a project called “Vi de Tina Mas Arboset”. It is part of an ongoing investigative venture called Paisatges 1883. A dry stone hut (La Tina) at Mas Arboset in operation.
2014Abadal was included in Drinks International’s ranking of ‘The World’s Most Admired Wine Brands’.
2014 Abadal becomes the first European winery to receive the “Wine Tourism Quality Certificate” authorised by TÜV Rheinland. Presentation of the Wine Tourism Quality Certificate.
2015Valentí Roqueta was presented with an award for his outstanding career as a professional Enologist by the Catalan oenologists association (Associació Catalana d'Enòlegs).
2016Abadal 3.9 is certified with the prestigious classification of an Estate Wine (Vi de Finca). Presentation of the Vi de Finca (Estate Wine) certification. From right to left, Valentí Roqueta, President of Abadal; Salvador Puig, Director of Incavi; and Miquel Palau, winemaker.
2017 Miquel Palau, winemaker at Abadal, received the "Honorific Award for the Future", awarded by the Catalan wine guide- Guía de Vins de Catalunya 2018 – in recognition of his career and his innovative work in the sector.
2017 Abadal Mandó was launched on the market for the first time.
2018 Abadal was awarded the Catalonia Wine Tourism Prize for the Best Wine Tourism Experience.
2020 Abadal Matís was launched on the market for the first time.
2020The ‘Mas Arboset, the recovery of Vino de Tina’ project is awarded the Viu la Pedra Seca Prize.
2021Abadal Arboset 2017, the continuation of the experimental Vino de Tina project, is launched on the market.
2024Miquel Palau, winemaker at Abadal, named Best Winemaker of the Year by Tim Atkin MW.
2024The Abadal Wine Experience & Christmas Market receives the Vinari Award for the Best Wine Tourism Experience in the Cultural, Social and Sports category.