Clos d´Agon
Afores sn, 17251 Calonge, Girona
Winery images
Clos d’Agon is located in the beautiful area of Calonge, on the Catalan Costa Brava (Baix Empordà). The property covers about 42 hectares, of which approximately 16 are planted with vines.
The history of Clos d’Agon revolves around the main “Masía” (country house with lands, typical of Catalonia) of the estate, Mas Gil, which gives its name to the entire property. There are written records that confirm the existence of vineyards on this estate as early as the 15th century when it was called Mas Sabater. In 1792 the current Masía was built, today called Mas Gil, which, in ancient times, was surrounded by 12 hectares of vineyards of hybrid varieties.
It was at the end of the 80s of the last century when the modern era began, when a married couple of French-Belgian origin acquired the estate. He, Philippe Dambois, renowned for several winemaking projects, decided to turn the project around. Advised by his friends Pierre Galet and André Crespy, from the University of Montpellier, he replaces the old, but of poor quality and future, gobelet vines with what was one of the first espalier vines planted in Catalonia. Typical French varieties were used, to the taste of Dambois, with a predominance of Bordeaux grapes among the reds and Rhone Valley varieties among the whites. A total of 8 ha were planted, always under Crespy’s supervision.
At the end of the 1990s, Dambois decided to sell the estate to the current owners, initially a group of 6 Swiss friends (2 currently, Alfons Niedhart and Jurg Maurer), related in one way or another to the world of wine and passionate about it.
For this new phase, starting in November 1998, and until 2014, they counted on the initial advice of Peter Sisseck (Pingus), a personal friend. Eight new hectares were planted and work began on the new winery, under the guidance of the renowned architect Chus Manzanares (l’Ermita, Aalto, Enate, Pago de los Capellanes).
Today, and since 2008, the technical direction is in the hands of the young winemaker Miguel Coronado.
The Winery
The building is a modern construction but integrated into its surroundings, slightly inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian and located right in the center of the property.
Peter Sisseck was actively involved in the operational design, in order to achieve the most rational possible development of the work. For example, the grape reception area is located on a higher scale, which allows us to work by gravity in almost the entire process.
The Vineyards
The vineyard is located at the source of “Les Gavarres”, surrounded by the mountains of this protected natural area, which form a kind of amphitheater facing the sea, creating unique conditions. It has a Mediterranean climate influenced by the Tramontana (here already attenuated) and the breezes coming from the Mediterranean, which can be seen from all the plots.
The vines grow on clay and slate soils (increasing the proportion of slate as the land rises) with a mainly north-south orientation. The altitude of the plots ranges from 40 to 140 meters.
The red varieties used are Syrah, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Merlot and the white varieties Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne. Clos d’Agon has recently converted some plots to plant red, white and gray Grenache.
The plots are worked in integrated production, the agriculture is sustainable and rational, taking care of the vineyard as if it were a garden, by hand.
Main milestones of the winery
The fundamental objective for Clos d’Agon Winery has always been the production of high quality wines that express the terroir in which they are produced and are a faithful reflection of the climatic particularities of each vintage.
In order to reach this level of excellence, the technical team has established the following guidelines:
1. Work in the vineyard
We like to say that we are gardeners in our vineyard. The orographic and climatological characteristics of our environment give us a particularly humid environment and a clearly saline influence of the sea, which is about three kilometers away and can be seen from all our plots. To cope with this, we do a lot of green pruning work to ensure perfect aeration of the vegetation and the bunches of grapes.
We follow the dictates of Integrated Production and we are registered in the Consell Catalá de la Producción Integrada (Catalan Council of Integrated Production).
2. Work in the winery
In the winery we are governed by two maxims: absolute respect for the quality of the grapes and the exquisite cleanliness of both the facilities themselves and the work during all the processes.
3. Respect for the typicity and origin of the estate.
Ours is a singular wine based on the place where it is produced and the climatic circumstances of each year.
We try to ensure that our wines express the vintage in which they were born. We do not have recipes that are repeated year after year. The blends, the macerations, the time in barrel… everything is adapted to the vintage.
