Our history begins in 1905 in L’Espluga de Francolí (Conca de Barberà) when Josep M. Rendé i Ventosa, a renowned Catalan agronomist, encouraged cooperativism in Catalonia.
In 1916, he founded the Agricultural Federation of the Basin, with 25 unions and 15 cooperative wineries. In 1919 he was a professor at the School of Agriculture. He promoted the Agrarian Social Action of this body, with correspondence in agricultural education, and carried out a great deal of activity in the organization of trade unions and cooperative wineries, as well as viticulture and oenology services. He will always be our benchmark to look forward to.He will always be our benchmark to look forward to.
1905
In 1991, the brothers Josep M. and Joan Rendé Masdeu decided to modernize their plantation and make and sell their own quality wines.
In 1994 they took over from the Mariona Rendé winery together with her husband Jordi Roig. His brother, Guillem Roig, joined the winery as an winemaker and to this day continues to formulate Rendé Masdéu’s wines. They were the ones who converted the farm to the organic cultivation of the vine in 2010 and who to this day have taken a greater qualitative leap in the elaboration of wine learning and perfecting year after year each of the our wines.
The Relief
On October 22, 2019, the rising Francolí River devastated the 700m2 building where the winery was located, marking a turning point in the history of Rendé Masdéu.
In the days after the tragedy, many people from the village and from all over Catalonia turned to help all the victims of that fateful night.
The river overflow
Inside the cellar, in the aging area of our wines, being a very low ceiling and with many columns, it was filled with mud and this was what protected many bottles from being dragged by the water to the sea.
A large non-profit team was working 3 days in a row from sun to sun. Taking bottles out of the mud to form a human chain to their destination, this is where the Mud Wine was born, a wine that represents the immense strength of the solidarity of many people to whom we are eternally grateful.
Vi de Fang
In those days a social movement called Riuada Solidaria was created, which organized all the people who wanted to help those affected in many ways.
Cleaning and helping where needed and in the following months there were dozens of events such as concerts, sports activities, wine tastings. All to raise money for all the victims who were affected by the rising river. Impressive the work that this non-profit organization carried out by giving a lesson in solidarity.
Solidarity
All the wineries of the DO Conca de Barberà made a blend with a little wine from each winery so that we could start again, as did 14 wineries of the DO Montsant, from this initiative was born the Wine solidarity, a wine that flew off the shelves of all outlets. We are very proud and grateful to our sector as the samples of help came from all over Catalonia and even wineries from Spain and Portugal helped us without even knowing us before, they left us without words.
solidarity
Then came 2020 with COVID-19, a global pandemic that made things even worse. We decided not to give up and were looking for different alternatives so we could reopen our winery. From the nerves, the tension and even the despair arose the ideal place, some old cellars with a lot of history located between L’Espluga de Francolí and Montblanc that had been in bankruptcy for 3 years. Finally in June 2020, despite the setbacks resulting from the pandemic, we were able to acquire the new winery.
reborn
During these months we rowed against the clock to have all the winery facilities ready for the first day of harvest in late August. We made renovations, new warehouses, new machinery and all the effort paid off in the end.
Being able to enter the grapes of the 2020 harvest in the new winery and continue writing the story of Rendé Masdéu has been one of the biggest challenges our family has ever faced and now we are very happy to continue working to offer you our best wines and unique experiences in the new winery.
Again
