Letting the place speak
Let the vineyard express itself, intervene as little as possible, and wait. Each grape variety and each site is aged separately, then blended with the years in mind.
The winemaker
Fiona Fischer
Winemaker at Celler Laurona, and the voice of Galilea by Fiona.
I am Swiss. I studied at the École hôtelière de Lausanne, then spent my first years on the other side of the table, in Dubai and China: more than three years with Fairmont and Jumeirah, then selling private jets in China. There I learnt how a guest feels when everything arrives at just the right moment – the right bottle included.
In 2014, I arrived in La Figuera, a village of old vines high in the hills of the Montsant. Sixty inhabitants, an average age of sixty. I fell in love with this land, and began working alongside René Barbier, the founder of Celler Laurona. That is where my first wine, Pythagora, was born. I still call it my first baby.
For four years, I worked alongside him, in the vineyards and in the cellar. In 2018, he entrusted me with the estate: his vines and his blends. Today, I make the wines, I run the estate, and my signature is on every label.
“Nature speaks, I translate.”
“René taught me that wine is born to live, not to die.”Fiona Fischer
A legacy and a voice
Celler Laurona is the heritage: Mític, Cronos, Plini, Blanc de Laurona, wines of time. Galilea by Fiona is my voice: Pythagora, Nautilea, L’Irrésistible, Super Nova.
From mountains to mountains
Officially based in Gstaad, I live between the Swiss mountains and those of the Montsant, by way of Lake Geneva and the Mediterranean. In Lausanne and Gstaad, I open my bottles for tastings and Momentum evenings, by appointment.
My mentor
René Barbier
One of the pioneers who brought the old vines of the Priorat back onto the world stage. In 1998 he turned to the forgotten hillsides nearby, which would become the DO Montsant, and founded Celler Laurona there in 1999. Cronos is his wine; Blanc de Laurona was long his favourite white. He taught me to read the vines and to blend with the years in mind.