The Sommelier, the Vineyard's Voice & the Burgundy Model in the Albera
A boy from Roses who became the second-best sommelier in the world, ran Girona's most iconic wine bar for thirteen years, and heard the vineyard call him home — Roger Viusà now farms 2.5 hectares of slate-soil vines in the Albera mountains, making natural wines of vineyard, village and comarca from Carinyena, Macabeu and forgotten field blends.
Origin — From the Dining Room to the Vine
Roger Viusà was born in Roses, a fishing town on the Cap de Creus in the Alt Empordà, in 1978. His family were pagesos — farmers who grew cereals — and he spent his summers at the mas with his grandfather, running through fields that would later call him back. But first, there was wine to learn from the other side of the glass.
He became a sommelier of rare distinction: best sommelier in Spain in 2007, best in Europe in 2008, and second best in the world that same year. In 2012, he opened Plaça del Vi 7 in Girona — a wine bar and restaurant that became an institution, with 400 references and a kitchen that drew the Roca brothers in as shareholders in 2019. For thirteen years, Roger was the soul of the room, the man who could make you enjoy wine with fewer words than anyone else.
The pivot came during studies in biodynamic agriculture, when a teacher asked if the vineyard spoke to him. "I became aware that the vineyard attracted me, called me, and that I would end up making wine. And that before fifty, I would dedicate myself to it." The epiphany was quiet but absolute. He began making wine in 2014 at Celler la Gutina, then at Celler Rim, and later worked closely with David Pujol at Pujol Cargol — eight harvests as an apprentice before he dared to claim the title of vigneron.
In 2024, exhausted by a restaurant industry battered by the pandemic and hungry for a life rooted in soil rather than service, he closed Plaça del Vi 7 and walked away from the dining room for good. "I needed a change, because in life I want to be happy. And this wine project excites me enormously."
The Place — The Albera Slopes and Their Slate Voice
The Albera is the easternmost spur of the Pyrenees, a rugged mountain range that separates Catalonia from France and plunges into the Mediterranean at Cap de Creus. Roger's two vineyards sit on its southern slopes — one in Vilamaniscle, the other in Vilajuïga — on slate soils that give the wines a mineral tension and a stony clarity he adores. "The slate gives an expression to the wines that I like very much."
Vilamaniscle — The Mixed Vineyard
A parcel of Carinyena negra alongside a field blend of Picapoll, Muscat, Lledoner and Carinyena blanca — old vines planted in the 1950s, grown on slate, farmed without chemicals. From the Carinyena comes El Born; from the mixed varieties, Les Damajoanes, fermented and aged in glass demijohns.
Vilajuïga — The Two-Face Plot
Another slate parcel, this one split between Carinyena negra and Macabeu. The Carinyena gives Estrep Vermell, a light, joyful red; the Macabeu, blended with the Carinyena, gives Brillant amb llum — a broken-colour rosé or white that catches the Albera light in the bottle.
Old Vines, Real Age
Among the 2.5 hectares are vines of 70 and 90 years — gnarled, low-yielding plants that produce fruit of unusual concentration. Roger works them by hand, without irrigation, without synthetic treatments, letting the slate and the Tramontana wind do the shaping.
No Cellar of His Own
Roger does not own a winery. He vinifies at Celler Pujol Cargol in Masarac, a communal arrangement that keeps his overheads low and his focus on the vineyard. "Wine is not improvised," he says. "It is a learning year after year, harvest after harvest, making decisions, learning, taking risks, incorporating knowledge."
Winemaking — The Burgundy Model, Catalan Soil
Roger organises his wines according to the Burgundy hierarchy — a radical act of clarity in a region more accustomed to blending everything into anonymity. At the base are wines of the comarca, made from purchased grapes grown by friends across the Alt Empordà. Above them are wines of the village, from specific plots. At the summit are wines of the vineyard — single-parcel expressions that carry the name of the vine and the voice of the soil.
His methods are deliberately simple. For whites: gentle pressing, débourbage, spontaneous alcoholic and malolactic fermentation, then three rackings — the first before winter, the second during winter, the third before bottling. Everything happens in stainless steel, with some wines aged in glass demijohns. For reds: three to seven days of maceration, then the same three rackings. No additions, no corrections, no filtration, no fining. "The vineyard expresses itself; I just take care of the elevage."
He is not interested in the glu-glu fashion — the easy, fruit-bomb natural wines that dominate certain markets. His Estrep Vermell is light and drinkable, yes, but it is also serious, with the saline grip of slate and the herbaceous edge of old Carinyena. "This is a fun and easy wine to drink, although in Empordà the fashionable glu-glu wines don't come out," he says with a smile that suggests he is fine with that.
The Wines — Vine, Village, Comarca
Roger's range is organised like a Burgundian staircase, climbing from blended comarca wines to single-vineyard expressions. All are natural, all are from indigenous varieties, and all carry the slate-and-wind signature of the Albera.
El Born
Vineyard red — Vilamaniscle100% Carinyena negra from the Vilamaniscle slate parcel, fermented and aged in stainless steel. Dark, peppery, and mineral — a wine that demands patience and rewards attention. Roger dreams of adding old barrel to the élevage when funds allow.
Les Damajoanes
Vineyard white — VilamaniscleA field blend of Picapoll, Muscat, Lledoner and Carinyena blanca from the mixed parcel, fermented and aged in glass demijohns. Only 160 bottles. Textured, floral, and slightly oxidative — a wine that tastes of the Albera's herbs and sea breeze.
Brillant amb Llum
Village rosé/blanc — VilajuïgaFrom the Carinyena and Macabeu of Vilajuïga — a wine of broken colour, somewhere between rosé and white. Brilliant, luminous, and saline; the kind of wine that tastes like swimming in the Mediterranean on a windy September afternoon.
Estrep Vermell
Village light red — VilajuïgaA light, joyful red from Vilajuïga's Carinyena and Macabeu — estrep is a local sweet, a pegadura, and the wine is indeed easy and fun to drink. But it is not simple: the slate gives it a mineral backbone that keeps it from being merely glib. Over 3,000 bottles.
Fill d'una Sirena
Comarca white — Alt EmpordàA white of the comarca — grapes purchased from friends across the Alt Empordà, blended and raised with the same care as the estate wines. Between 600 and 1,000 bottles. The name evokes the Mediterranean mythology that haunts this coast.
I d'un Pastor
Comarca red — Alt EmpordàThe red counterpart to Fill d'una Sirena — a comarca blend from purchased fruit, made with the same natural rigour. Darker, earthier, and more brooding than the village wines; a snapshot of the Alt Empordà's red-wine potential beyond Roger's own vines.
Legacy — The Sommelier Who Learned to Listen
Roger Viusà matters because he represents a rare trajectory: from the very top of the service pyramid to the humblest rung of production. A man who once stood on world stages holding a tastevin now kneels in slate vineyards he does not fully call his own, vinifying in a borrowed cellar, and releasing wines in quantities that would barely fill a restaurant's by-the-glass list. The scale is minuscule. The precedent is enormous.
His legacy is the proof that terroir hierarchy can exist in the Empordà — that the Burgundy model of vineyard, village and comarca is not a French monopoly but a universal language of place. By naming his wines after specific plots and specific villages, by purchasing grapes from friends and treating them with the same rigour as his own, Roger is building a map of the Albera in liquid form. The Albera Dinàmica collective extends that map beyond his own bottles, creating a territorial identity for natural wine in a region that has long been overlooked by the international market.
But perhaps his deepest legacy is quieter. When Roger left Plaça del Vi 7, he said he wanted to recover something he had lost: time for culture — museums, theatre, cinema, concerts. "Before, I did it a lot, especially when I lived in Barcelona, but since I took over the restaurant I have emptied myself, given a lot, and had no time to nourish myself. Now I need to incorporate it again." A winemaker who believes that art feeds wine, and that wine feeds art. The vineyard, it turns out, was not calling him away from culture. It was calling him back to it.