What are the biggest challenges facing winemakers in the near future?
I think that for European winemakers our greatest challenge is learning how to compete with the New World given that we don’t have the same flexibility. The legislation surrounding winemaking in Europe stifles creativity right now, but hopefully in the future things will be more flexible. Climate change is, of course, a huge challenge. Vines are very sensitive to temperature and if it increases by more than 2ºC in the next 20 years vines will suffer. In the past 40 years we’ve already seen temperatures rise by 1ºC and we now harvest 10 days earlier than we used to. If this continues we will have to redraw the map of the wine-growing regions – we’ve already had to start planting new vineyards at higher altitudes in Spain. Of all the wines you make, which makes you the most proud – and why? There are many wines that we’re proud of, but perhaps I’d choose Mas la Plana in this context. In 1979 it was selected by Gault Millau as the best wine in its category – it was the first time that it
