Villa, wine and olive oil

When Maribel Riera and her husband wanted to view Mas Vida, a Catalan farmhouse they were interested in buying, the selling agent said there was no need for keys. “He told us we could walk in any time we wanted to, through the gaping holes in the walls,” said Maribel, now retired from the practice of law. “The house was a total ruin.” The 14,000-square-foot, six-bedroom property in the Empordà region of northeastern Spain, with views of the snow-capped Pyrenees and the Bay of Rosas, was built in 1704 as a rectory for a neighbouring hermitage. Now it is the centrepiece of a 198-acre estate that produces four varieties of wine and one of olive oil. Riera recalled that after buying the property in 1988, her husband, Alberto Fernández, promised that they would turn the 50 acres around the house into a paradise. “And that is what we did,” she said.

Alberto, a property developer, died two years ago, and Maribel now wants to sell the estate. “This was always a joint project for the two of us,” she said. “And without my husband it doesn’t feel the same.” Mas Vida is on the market with the Lucas Fox agency in Barcelona, listed for an undisclosed amount. The process of restoring the three-level house in rustic Catalan style took around 18 months. As Alberto had considerable experience with similar projects, the process was remarkably trouble-free, Maribel said.

Structural transformation
“The most important structural work we did was to raise the whole roof by around three feet,” she said. “Apart from that, we tried to preserve the existing style wherever possible. We did it with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of love.” The ground floor still was being used to house livestock when they bought the site, and a chimney intended to funnel the animals’ body heat into the living quarters above was left in place. The stone troughs lining one of the walls also were retained as a decorative feature, as well as the original hardwood hooks used to hang slaughtered livestock. Mas Vida’s walls, made of local stone, are exposed throughout its interior. A stone staircase that had been filled with rubble was cleared, and upstairs, many of the original stone floors were restored and the kitchen expanded. The couple had
additional windows installed throughout the structure. Fittings, such as doors and a bathroom basin, were bought from famous Barcelona hotels.

During the renovations, the couple cleared the area surrounding the farmhouse that had become overgrown with pine trees, a major fire risk in this Mediterranean climate — and “discovered that the land had originally been planted with vineyards and olive trees,” Maribel said. These days the Empordà region is not one of the country’s better-known wine-producing areas. But in 250 BC, the Greeks first bought wine into Spain in nearby Empuriabrava. And for centuries - until disease wiped out the area’s vineyards - it was one of the country’s viticulture centres, according to Charlotte Rodríguez, who specialises in large estates for Lucas Fox.

Over the years the couple bought an additional 148 acres, 25 of which are now dedicated to vines and 50 to olive groves. The rest is forest, though planning permission has been granted for additional vines and olive trees. From 1992, when the first vines were planted, it took five years to produce quality wine. Riera says the process was surprisingly easy, as the couple had no initial plans for commercial production. “Commercialisation and distribution are the hardest part. We started out as pure hobbyists,” she said.

Wine production
Over the years the couple also built a winery and an underground cellar, both of which were modernised in 2000, as well as a barn for storing agricultural equipment. Mas Vida now produces four wines under the Protected Designation of Origin, or P.D.O., of Empordà: two chardonnays called “Mas Vida 17” and “117”; a merlot, “Mas Vida 32”; and a blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and tempranillo called “Mas Vida 23.” A total of about 14,000 bottles are produced each year. The estate’s crop of manzanilla, picual, argudell and arbequina olives is turned into 3,800 litres of oil, annually, by a local cooperative.

Charlotte said in Spain it was relatively unusual to find a vineyard with a home of such quality. “In France, you often get the lovely old house with the vineyards - that’s quite rare in Spain. Here, you’re more likely to get a cortijo with the olive groves,” she said, using the local word for a luxury villa.

Over all, estates typically are valued according to land quality, which varies enormously depending on factors such as location, sunlight and drainage, rather than the quality of accommodation, Charlotte said, adding, “You might top up the price by half a million euros or a million for a really special house.” There is no central database in Spain with details on wine estate sales, but according to her, the country is proving increasingly popular with prospective buyers who formerly would have looked in France - especially the sherry-producing areas around Jerez and Arcos de la Frontera. The country’s taxation, which favours landowners, is part of the reason, she said. “Buyers are much cannier now and better informed than five years ago,” she said. “But they’re not always realistic when it comes to pricing.”

Rafael del Rey, general director of the Observatorio Español del Mercado del Vino, or Observatory of the Spanish Wine Market, said his organisation had also noticed increased interest in Spanish vineyards. He attributed it to the commercial potential of wines from major regions such as Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Penedès.

Within the Spanish vineyard market as a whole, Charlotte said there was a trend toward buyers’ favouring small, boutique vineyards of less than 50 acres that produce high-quality wine that can sell at a premium.