With monks came wine and they set in motion a viticultural tradition that continues to this day. Of course the monk-made wines weren’t what made the region famous, that lie in the work of the founding of the Scala Dei winery (formed from the lands stripped from the monastery in the mid-19th century) who released their seminal 1974 vintage that many in the wine world took note of. Some of these people formed a group of winemaking pioneers who came to the territory in the late 1970s to follow a new vision, this time had by René Barbier III who saw great potential for the region in the unique slate soil called, llicorella.