Priorat: Social, Demographic and Economic Impact of the Wine Revival
Thanks to its wines, the Priorat now believes in something.
There are young people who, for the first time in one hundred years, are
returning to the country in response to a peasant-farming vocation. There are
schools that, for the first time in living memory, have a growing intake of
pupils. Sparkling new wineries are opening in villages where nothing had opened
for a century or more. Rural tourism that follows the wine route is gradually
beginning to make its presence felt. Hotel accommodation and restaurants are
making their debut. Years ago, everybody in Catalonia knew that the Priorat
produced wines. Now the exceptional wines of Priorat are well known around the
world and the revival of the region has shown the value of maintaining mountain
viticulture.
The importance of maintaining mountain viticulture
Maintains economic activity and prevents rural
depopulation.
Preserves a unique landscape formed over centuries of balanced human
intervention.
Develops a land use mosaic as one of the most appropriate measures to
prevent forest fires. It has been proven that the vineyard creates a good
firewall.
Keeps the indigenous grape varieties that are especially adapted to the
terrain and climate.
Supports the development of unique, high quality wines.
Makes an important contribution to the cultural and biological diversity of
the planet.
Provides a tourist attraction.
Helps to create a strong local identity.
Changing Social Dynamics
Priorat has experienced a stable demographic trend in the last
few years with an upwards orientation. The evolution of the population
2001-2005, is affected by the influx of two main population profiles:
1. persons of urban origin
2. a foreign population arriving in Priorat to work in the agricultural sector.
Evolution of the
population according to place of birth
2001-2005
There has been an increase in the working population and a
reduction in unemployment, with a progressive integration of the job market from
the increasing influence of the Tarragona-Reus coastal core region.
As late as the 1980s, only one single-lane road connected
Priorat's crumbling medieval towns to the rest of Spain. Accessibility to the
coast has improved in the last decade, but continued limitations in
infrastructure create difficulties for the transformation of the region,
illustrated in the diagram below.
Social Dynamics: the difficulties of
creating transformation in the Priorat region
It is not easy to attract customers nor skilled workers to the
region, but its very remoteness is a key to its recent revival. Priorat bypassed
the era of mass-produced wines that dominate the more accessible parts of
Catalonia and as a consequence, has been well placed to take advantage of recent
changes in consumer tastes. For discretionary purchases, consumers have
increasingly rejected the industrial 'fordist' model of low cost mass
production, trading up where the product is aspiration or trading down when the
product is only function. As a consequence, demand has soared for high quality,
individual organic wines, produced from small vineyards whose annual output
often amounts to just five thousand prized bottles.
Consolidating Social and Economic
Development
To try and ensure that quality is maintained, innovations
continue, and wines stay ahead of the competition, Europe's first Science and
Technology Park specialising in wine research and development opened in 2009.
Its location will be Falset, the heart of the Priorat wine growing area. The
Park will be of critical importance in guaranteeing the continued social and
economic development of the region.
Priorat Science Park of Wine Technology
A Science Park of Wine
Technology opened in 2009 in Falset, the heart of the Priorat wine
growing area. It is intended as an international centre of wine research and
development, ensuring the region continues to stay ahead of the wine
competition. It includes a series of pilot plants and facilities to assist new
business start-ups.
The Wine Technology Park is one of four new tourism-related
Research and Development institutions in the region.
New Tourism-related
Science and Technology Parks in the Tarragona Region
