The Programmer, the Catedral del Vi & the Organized Anarchy
Mendall is one of Catalonia's most legendary natural wine estates — founded in 1999 in El Pinell de Brai, a hot, dusty town in the Terra Alta that looks like something out of a Spaghetti Western. It is the work of Laureano Serres Montagut, a former computer programmer in Madrid who returned to his hometown, became president of the Catedral del Vi — a functioning wine cooperative designed by students of Gaudí — and then, when they sacked him for wanting to go natural, set up his own cellar directly across the street. Organic from the beginning. Zero sulfur since 2003 — he simply forgot to add it, liked the result, and never looked back. A close friend of Marcel Lapierre. Co-founder of the Brutal Wine Corporation. Organizer of H2O Vegetal. A man of frenetic energy, extreme generosity, and gargantuan appetite for wine. Today, his daughter Alícia works side-by-side with him, bringing her own energy and vigour to the next chapter. On roughly 5 hectares of limestone amphitheater at Terme de Guiu, exposed to the famous garbinada winds, they make up to 16 cuvées a year — macerated whites, red-white co-ferments, barely sparkling frizzantes, and oxidative Garnatxas — in a tiny cellar under their home.
The Programmer, the Sacking & the Forgotten Sulfur Hand
Mendall is the story of a man who wrote code in Madrid and ended up writing the code for Catalan natural wine — a story of sacking, solidarity, and the moment when forgetting became a philosophy. Founded in 1999 in the village of El Pinell de Brai, in Catalonia's southernmost wine region, the estate is the work of Laureano Serres Montagut — a man whose affable manners conceal a profound influence on the natural wine movement, making his revolutionary ideas seem ordinary, even provincial. Everyone who knows him has a story: his frenetic energy, his deep loyalty to friends and family, his extreme generosity, and his gargantuan appetite for wine. But behind the laughter is a revolutionary.
Laureano was working as a computer programmer in Madrid when he decided a change of scenery was necessary. In 1996, he returned to his hometown of El Pinell de Brai, in the Terra Alta region southwest of Tarragona. The following year, he became president of the Catedral del Vi — a functioning wine cooperative designed by students of Gaudí prior to the Spanish Civil War, built as a monument to working-class solidarity and agricultural cooperation. Laureano was sympathetic to the cooperative's commitment to producing affordable wine for real people, but he quickly lost interest in a model of production that prioritized quantity over craft. When he pushed to take the cooperative in a more natural direction, they sacked him. In 1999, he set up shop directly across the street from the Catedral, vinifying 500 litres of a traditional Catalan field blend from his grandfather's vines at Finca Caibelles — and baptised the new domaine as Mendall.
During those first few years, Laureano replanted fallow parts of the vineyard with Bordeaux varieties — seen at the time as the prerequisite for "wines of quality," an irony that in retrospect strikes him as dark comedy. From the beginning, he was committed to organic farming and wild fermentation, but the real turning point came in 2003, when he "forgot" to add sulfur dioxide to the wines — and enjoyed the results so much that he never looked back. In those early days, he made friends with the late Marcel Lapierre, who introduced him to the world of natural winemakers in France. It didn't take long for Laureano to learn the ropes. By the late 2000s, he was experimenting with everything from carbonic maceration to fermentation in amphora — a necessary period of trial and error for what would come next.
Laureano's influence extends far beyond his own cellar. He was there the night the Brutal Wine Corporation was founded — the loose collective of natural winemakers that has become a global brand and a badge of honour. He is an organiser of H2O Vegetal, one of Europe's most talked-about wine fairs, alongside Joan Ramón Escoda. Many years ago, he often packed his van full of eager young vignerons and drove up to Barcelona with unfinished samples. Most tasters dismissed them as heretics, but a few had the good sense to see what is now obvious. These young utopians were on a mission to restore what those who built the grand cooperatives of the 1930s had lost: a basis for real solidarity among artisan farmers. On the surface, it may seem like a raucous party — and it is! — but Laureano's contribution to Catalan wine is nothing short of revolutionary. Today, his daughter Alícia — having completed her winemaking studies — works side-by-side with her father, offering her own energy and vigour to the next chapter of Mendall.
El Pinell de Brai, the Terme de Guiu & the Garbinada Hand
El Pinell de Brai is a hot, dusty little town in the Terra Alta — the southernmost Catalan wine region, situated between the River Ebro and the lands of Matarraña in Aragón. It looks like something out of a Spaghetti Western, a place of silence, heat, and stubborn vines that have survived centuries of sun and wind. For Mendall, El Pinell de Brai is not merely an address but a statement of identity: a place where a former computer programmer built a cellar under his own home, directly across from a cathedral of wine, and proved that the most profound wines sometimes come from the most unlikely places. The town has become the unlikely ground zero of Catalonia's lively natural wine scene — a pilgrimage site for those who understand that revolution often begins in the provinces.
Since 2017, Laureano's viticulture has been centred in the neighbouring village of Vilalba dels Arcs, at the lieu-dit of Terme de Guiu — a limestone amphitheater planted to massal selections of white, red, and grey Garnatxa, old Carinyena, and Macabeu, along with a few errant vines of Malvasia de Sitges. Perched at 400 metres above the Mediterranean, Terme de Guiu is exposed to the famous garbinada winds of the Terres de l'Ebre — cool, humid sea breezes that moderate the intense summer heat and preserve the acidity that makes these zero-sulfur wines so vibrant. The soils are limestone and clay — a combination that stresses the vines, concentrates the fruit, and imparts a distinctive mineral signature to the wines. The elevation and the wind together create conditions of freshness and complexity not often found in this part of the world — a secret weapon that Laureano understood before anyone else.
The Terra Alta itself is a region of extraordinary viticultural significance. It is the soul of white Garnatxa — 33% of the world's white Garnatxa grapes are grown here, accounting for 75% of Spanish production and 90% of Catalan production. The region's calcareous soils, Mediterranean sun, and traditional grape varieties give its wines a power, character, and persistence that are unmistakable. The whites are pale and fresh with broad, balanced palates. The reds are known for their Mediterranean character — great colour intensity, fruity aromas, and a generosity that speaks of sun and limestone. For Mendall, the Terra Alta is not merely a terroir but a playground — a landscape of possibilities where Laureano and Alícia can experiment, improvise, and create.
El Pinell de Brai is a small town in the Terra Alta that looks like something out of a Spaghetti Western — hot, dusty, and stubbornly itself. It is the home of the Catedral del Vi, the wine cooperative designed by students of Gaudí that dominates the town's skyline like a cathedral of working-class solidarity. And it is the home of Mendall, whose cellar sits directly across the street — a tiny space under Laureano's home where up to 16 cuvées are made each year from grapes grown a few kilometres away. For Laureano, El Pinell de Brai is the anti-Madrid: a place where there is no code to write, no algorithm to optimize, only grapes to harvest, ferment, and bottle. The town has become a pilgrimage site for natural wine lovers — a place where the revolution is not televised but tasted, one cuvée at a time.
Terme de Guiu is the lieu-dit where Mendall's vineyards are centred — a limestone amphitheater at 400 metres elevation in Vilalba dels Arcs, exposed to the famous garbinada winds that blow cool, humid air from the Mediterranean across the Terra Alta. The soils are limestone and clay, the vines are massal selections of Garnatxa Blanca, Garnatxa Negra, Garnatxa Roja, Carinyena, Macabeu, and Malvasia de Sitges, and the farming is organic and low-yielding. The elevation and the wind create a freshness and complexity that belie the region's reputation for heat and power — a microclimate that Laureano understood intuitively and that has become the foundation of everything Mendall produces. The amphitheater shape of the vineyard traps the cool air, creating diurnal temperature variation that preserves acidity and aromatic complexity in a way that flat, coastal vineyards cannot match.
The Terra Alta is the southernmost wine region in Catalonia, situated between the River Ebro and Aragón, recognised by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve with incredible winemaking potential. It is the undisputed soul of white Garnatxa — 33% of the world's white Garnatxa is grown here. The region's calcareous soils, Mediterranean climate, and traditional varieties produce wines of power, character, and outstanding persistence. The whites are fresh and aromatic, the reds are deeply coloured and fruity, and the landscape is one of rolling hills, ancient vines, and villages that time forgot. For Mendall, the Terra Alta is a canvas of extraordinary diversity — a place where Laureano and Alícia can explore the full range of Catalan viticulture, from the fresh, reductive whites of Macabeu to the dark, oxidative reds of Garnatxa Negra, all within a few hectares of limestone amphitheater.
The cellar at Mendall is a place of deliberate chaos and deep intuition — what might be described as "organized anarchy." It is tiny, located under Laureano's home in the centre of El Pinell de Brai, with limited space dictating that the majority of wines are bottled young, brimming with an energy that comes from the family's unique brand of winemaking. Laureano has settled into a unique methodology: though certain parcels are always vinified in the "traditional" manner — pressed whites, macerated reds, bottled dry — every harvest brings surprises. On roughly five hectares, he might make up to 16 cuvées: macerated whites, red-white co-ferments, barely sparkling frizzantes, and oxidative Garnatxas. Anything is possible, and most decisions are made spontaneously, based on the conditions of the harvest. The wines are made in all manner of vessels — stainless steel, old oak, amphora, and whatever else is at hand — with no additions, no sulfur, no fining, and no filtration. The result is a portfolio of extraordinary diversity and unmistakable energy.
Zero Sulfur, Spontaneous Decisions & the Organized Anarchist Hand
The winemaking philosophy of Mendall is one of organized anarchy and absolute spontaneity — a methodology that Laureano has refined over two decades of trial, error, and intuition. He does not follow recipes; he follows the harvest. Each year brings surprises, and each cuvée is a response to the conditions of the vintage, the vineyard, and the moment. This is not negligence but a discipline of responsiveness that requires more courage, more knowledge, and more trust than any technical manual can teach. As one importer observed, Laureano's affable manners conceal a profound influence on the natural wine movement — he makes revolutionary ideas seem ordinary, even provincial.
The whites are made with a range of techniques that reflect the diversity of the Terra Alta's white grapes. The Macabeu Terme de Guiu is a pure expression of Macabeu from the limestone amphitheater — beautifully nutty, reductive, and minerally with pear fruit, so pure and expressive with a long finish. The Macabeu Finca Abuerador is more complex and intense — lively, nutty apple and pear fruit, very fine with a long finish, so expressive and nutty that it seems to carry the DNA of the limestone itself. The BB is a creamy, aromatic white — a pure delight of natural wine with ripe stone fruits such as peach and apricot, interwoven with hints of gentle spice and floral lift. And the La Plana de Guiu is a gutsy skin-contact white — two-thirds Macabeu, one-third Garnatxa Blanca — textured, grippy, and thoroughly addictive, with a savory depth that makes it irresistible with food.
The reds are made with the same spirit of experimentation and the same commitment to zero additions. The Garnatxa del Pais BP Finca Espartal 'Roig' is warm, sweetly aromatic cherry fruit — rich with herbal notes, so lovely, rich and warm yet fresh with a sweetly fruited palate, broad texture, elegance, and a slightly tingly finish. The Garnatxa Finca Espartal is bright red, slightly reductive and very fresh with lovely sweet, pure cherry fruit, nice savoury complexity alongside the sweet fruit, and amazing purity with attractive reduction. The Carinyena lo Terme de Guiu is a rustic but balanced wine with dark fruits and Mediterranean herbs — full-bodied with soft tannins, a wine of the garbinada wind and the limestone soil. And the Alicia Caibelles — named after Laureano's daughter — is an intense and structured red that carries the energy and vigour of the next generation.
What emerges from the tiny cellar under Laureano's home is a portfolio of extraordinary diversity and unmistakable energy — up to 16 cuvées a year from five hectares, each one a spontaneous response to the vintage, the vineyard, and the moment. The wines are united not by style but by philosophy: organic farming, wild fermentation, zero sulfur, no fining, no filtration, and a willingness to experiment that has made Mendall one of the most exciting and unpredictable estates in the natural wine world. The Carabonica cuvées explore carbonic maceration. The frizzantes capture the barely-sparkling energy of young fermentation. The oxidative Garnatxas push the boundaries of what Catalan red wine can be. And the co-ferments — red and white grapes together in the same tank — break every rule of conventional winemaking and emerge as some of the most original wines in the portfolio. All are united by a single principle: the harvest decides, and the winemaker listens.
Zero Sulfur, Spontaneous Decisions & the Covenant of Organized Anarchy
The guiding principle of Mendall is that the wine must be allowed to surprise you — and the winemaker must be willing to be surprised. The organic farming at Terme de Guiu provides healthy, complex grapes with robust indigenous yeast populations. The tiny cellar under Laureano's home forces decisions: limited space means wines are bottled young, capturing an energy and freshness that larger estates with infinite barrel rooms can only dream of. The absence of sulfur since 2003 means that every wine is a pure, unmediated expression of grape, place, and vintage — with all the risk, unpredictability, and brilliance that entails. The carbonic macerations, the amphora experiments, the red-white co-ferments, the oxidative Garnatxas, the barely-sparkling frizzantes — all are expressions of a single belief: that winemaking is not about control but about conversation. For Laureano and Alícia, this is not dogma but the only way they know how to work: with creativity, with restraint, with spontaneity, and with the stubborn conviction that the best wines are made by those who have the courage to let the harvest decide — one spontaneous decision, one unexpected cuvée, one honest bottle at a time.
Garnatxa, Macabeu, Carinyena & the Honest Hand
The Mendall portfolio is a testament to the creative chaos of organized anarchy — a collection of up to 16 cuvées a year that span white, orange, red, rosé, and barely sparkling, made from both indigenous Catalan varieties and the occasional experimental blend that breaks every rule in the book. The wines are united by organic farming, zero added sulfur, wild fermentation, and a philosophy of radical spontaneity that privileges the conditions of the harvest over the consistency of the cellar. Production is small and highly variable — around 40,000 bottles from 5 hectares in a typical year, but the exact number and composition of cuvées changes with each vintage. The wines are distributed through specialist natural wine importers across Europe and beyond, appearing in the world's most discerning natural wine bars, restaurants, and shops. And every bottle carries the unmistakable energy of a cellar where anything is possible.
The Programmer, the Catedral & the Catalan Crown
Mendall is not merely a winery; it is an act of creative resistance and communal joy — a two-decade project in a hot, dusty town that looks like a Spaghetti Western, founded by a former computer programmer who looked at the modern wine world and chose organized anarchy. In an era when the Spanish wine industry was scrambling for critic approval and export markets, Laureano Serres demonstrated that the most profound wines sometimes come from a tiny cellar under your own home, directly across from a cathedral of wine, made by a man who forgot to add sulfur and never looked back. He has proven that Macabeu — dismissed as a simple blending grape — can produce whites of nutty, reductive complexity and mineral depth. That Garnatxa Negra — often reduced to bulk wine — can be both solar and fresh, generous and pure. That a field blend named after your daughter can carry the energy of a new generation. And that up to 16 cuvées a year from five hectares is not madness but method — the method of organized anarchy.
The legacy of Mendall is the legacy of the programmer's logic and the anarchist's spirit. Laureano did not inherit a wine philosophy; he coded one from scratch — using the same skills that made him a computer programmer in Madrid (observation, problem-solving, systematic thinking) and applying them to fermentation, maceration, and blending. His friendship with Marcel Lapierre gave him the vocabulary of French natural wine; his sacking from the Catedral del Vi gave him the freedom to experiment; and his daughter Alícia gives him the continuity of a family project that spans generations. His co-founding of the Brutal Wine Corporation gave natural winemakers a brand and a community. His organisation of H2O Vegetal gave sulfur-free winemakers a festival and a family. And his van full of unfinished samples, driven up to Barcelona in the early days, gave a generation of Catalan vignerons the courage to be heretics.
The future of the project is tied to the future of natural wine in Catalonia and beyond — to the growing recognition that the region's greatest viticultural asset is not its Cava or its Priorat but its human capital: the vignerons who have the courage to farm organically, to ferment without additions, to bottle without filters, and to trust the harvest to decide. As the Macabeu Terme de Guiu continues to prove that Terra Alta whites can be nutty, reductive, and mineral, as the Garnatxa del Pais demonstrates that Mediterranean reds can be both solar and elegant, as the La Plana de Guiu pushes the boundaries of skin-contact white wine, and as Alícia brings her own energy and vigour to the next chapter of Mendall, Laureano remains what he has always intended to be: a former computer programmer who returned to a hot, dusty town, who was sacked from a cathedral of wine and set up shop across the street, who forgot to add sulfur in 2003 and never looked back, who drives a van full of heretics to Barcelona, who organizes raucous parties that are also acts of solidarity, and who is proving that the best wines are made by those who have the courage to be surprised — one spontaneous decision, one unexpected cuvée, one honest bottle at a time.
"On the surface, it may seem like a raucous party — and it is! — but Laureano's contribution to Catalan wine is nothing short of revolutionary."
— Percy Selections, on Mendall & Laureano Serres