Last Friday Petra dressed up. Fray Junipero came down from the heights to stroll in the scented summer night. He wandered the streets and went, incognito, to his home. That beautiful house museum, full of beautiful things… and that their neighbors, the Galmés Ferrer family, were having a party. They were inaugurating the cellars, the cellar where they will age their wines, and Fray Junípero did not want to miss it. Among other things because it dedicated a statue to him.
The houses are next to each other and the families are related, since Fray Junípero is named Miguel José Serra Ferrer. There is historical data dating back to 1713 when it seems that the house of Fray Junípero and the house of Galmés Ferrer were one and the same, but that for 200 years they have been separated.
The Galmés Ferrer wineries were, until a few years ago, the wines of Can Mec, owned by Juan Galmés de Petra, a musician by profession, who in 1984, made wine from his own vineyards and sold it in bulk. His son Guillem continued the family tradition of making his own wines and selling them in bulk, but also incorporated the production of mistela or sweet mass wine. An exquisite wine for special moments.
Now, Guillem’s son, Arnau Galmés, makes the wines. Oenologist by profession, connoisseur of modern technologies and ancient traditions, he is the creator, together with his parents, of Bodegas Galmés Ferrer.
This new house, on Barrancar Art Street, which belonged to his maternal grandfather, is intended for breeding, tasting, shop…. has been restored with excellent taste, styles and details have been respected, as well as the facade of the house. In the basement there is a magnificent stone vault for aging. It has a section dedicated to the exhibition of paintings, now has on display a beautiful collection of images of Petra, the old quarter, the Church, etc. …
It has a small terrace where they hope to offer visitors, along with the tasting of their wines, a good bread with sobrasada…
The inauguration was a success, as my friend Willy said, a real pilgrimage to Petra. The holy words were dedicated by the Rector of Petra, Don Bartomeu, who probably sensed the presence of the Blessed of Petra, inaugurated the house and the statue.
I have no doubt that Fray Junípero was not exactly drinking, although I have no doubt that wherever Fray Junípero went there was wine. Galmés Ferrer makes the wines of the year, has a small batch of reserves from ’94, which are still sleeping in the cellar, and very soon there will be a new wine in the collection of this new winery, a wine that is still a secret, a wine that I am very happy for its author Guillem, and that Fray Junípero will also be happy about.
