Cal Sec: from vines to truffles
Eight years between planting the first oaks and lifting the first truffle: twenty grams, one 30th of January. The estate's story, generation by generation.
The Cal Sec estate sits at Mas Boquera, in the municipality of Vandellòs i l'Hospitalet de l'Infant: dry-stone terraces built from the land's own rock, facing northwest, between 220 and 280 metres. On paper, too low for truffles. So much for paper.
The great-grandfather grew vines here. Then, like half of Baix Camp, the estate turned to hazelnuts until around 1990. Over the years, grandfather Josep Boquera Pallisé and father Josep Tomàs Picó let terraces go one by one, and the woods kept claiming them. Only the terrace by the stone hut held out, with its cherry trees.
In 2009 Josep Tomàs Boquera started circling the idea of the black truffle: trips to Sarrión in Teruel and to the Prades hills to learn. In 2011, the real work — clearing the growth and recovering every terrace, one by one.
In 2014, after soil analyses and expert advice, the first planting: fifteen holm oaks and fifteen oaks inoculated with black truffle. And then the hardest craft of all: waiting.
On the 30th of January 2022 the first one came up: twenty grams. On the 4th of February, another at fifty. Eight years between planting and the first scent — every outing with today's dogs traces back to that day.
In 2023 the estate grew by a neighbouring plot of seven thousand square metres: some three hectares in all. In winter the terraces work again — and guests of the house can come and see it with the dogs.