Gobe's friends

In the early eighties little Josep Barceló, still too young to read, would identify the peg to hang his coat on at his Priorat school by a drawing of a mushroom (“rovelló”) over it. In his childish speech, he would not pronounce the “r” sound properly, so his schoolmates promptly nicknamed him “govelló”, later shortened to Gobe.

Gobe grew up among his friends, meeting them also after school to play football (their team was called “La Xusma”, the rabble), and, later on, to share a bottle of wine. In due time, many of them worked in the world of wine; Gobe himself at the Celler de Capçanes, while planning to make wine from a small family vineyard farmed by his uncle.

Sadly, in 2004 Gobe died in an accident. A few weeks later, his friends visited Gobe’s family and suggested making the wine Gobe dreamt of, as a common effort, in a non for profit way, as a tribute to his memory. The twelve friends, with the help of Gobe’s uncle and brothers, would endeavour to make Gobe’s wish come to reality.

And so it did.

Amics del Gobe (Gobe's friends) was on its way.

The vineyard is in the Montsant DO, at a height of some 300 m: 1 hectare of sandy soil with 80-year old Carinyena and some new Garnatxa, farmed organically. Grapes undergo a first selection in the plot, are gathered in 12 kilo boxes and taken to the Venus La Universal winery, where a second selection is made before starting the winemaking process.

After destemming and 20 days of contact with the skins, the wine goes to second year 300 l French oak casks, where it stays for twelve months.

The wine itself is a good example of Montsant red. Dark cherry colour, with slightly tinted legs. In the nose red and black fruit, not overripe, with tobacco and balsamic notes. Not too much wood, letting the fruit shine. Tannins still noticeable, good structure in mouth, with a long finish. A very pleasant, straightforward, drinkable wine.

The output being around 1’000 – 1’800 bottles, it is not easy to secure one. I got mine in a visit to Gratallops, in the Bonviure wine and delicatessen shop, where Jaume Balaguer showed me his small winery (more on that on another post) and other small gems he has.

What is the future of this initiative? In the short term, the 2009 vintage will start to include some wine from the Carinyena planted in 2005. This will allow to eventually increase output to a maximum of 3’000 bottles. And with the support of winelovers, Gobe’s friends intend to go onforever; a support not so difficult to give, because at around 10 EUR per bottle the quality / price ratio is excellent.

Any of you interested in further details can join the Gobe group in Facebook or have a look at the video in Vintaix (see links below).

Perhaps from somewhere Gobe still looks after his vineyard…

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=181198642078&v=wall
http://vintaix.com/comunidad/blog/2009/12/10/els-amics-del-gobe/

DO Montsant: up and coming

The DO Montsant was defined ten years ago as a solution to the issue posed by a number of villages (actually seventeen) encircling the prestigious DOQ Priorat yet included in the much less glamorous DO Tarragona. These villages had already a defined personality, recognized with a subzone denomination (Falset) but the quality differential with the rest of the Tarragona DO finally led to the creation of the DO Montsant.

Wine has been produced in the region since Roman times, but the monks of the Scala Dei priory gave a major push to winegrowing in the late Middle Ages. Phylloxera, as everywhere in Catalonia, all but destroyed the wine industry, but in Montsant the cooperative effort managed to bring back wine production to acceptable levels. Now some of these cooperatives, led by the example of Capçanes, are making significant strides in the race for quality. Many of the other wineries in the zone are small (perhaps 20’000 bottles per year), family owned and in the hands of young, enthusiastic people that have decided to remain in the country rather than depart for the big cities.

Montsant vineyards, between 200 and 700 m above sea level, present a wealth of microclimates due to the hilly terrain. Yearly rainfall is about 500 liters by square meter as an average, and concentrated on spring and autumn. Winters are cold, and summers hot and dry. In summer evenings wet sea breezes bring precious moisture that, combined with a big temperature difference between day and night, ensure optimal ripening of the grapes.

Soils are varied, with three main types:  

• Limestone rich compact soils 
• Sandy soils coming from granite decomposition; sited largely around Falset, the main town and seat of the DO Council 
• Slatey soils, known as llicorella, similar to those of Priorat.

The two last soil types have low content of organic matter and drain water extremely well, forcing vine roots to dig deep in search of moisture.

Altogether there are 2’000 hectares under vine, with an average production of 10 million kg of grape. Some fifty wineries are active. Evolution of sales since the establishment of the DO has been astonishing: in 2002 only 10 % of the wine was sold bottled; in 2008, 78 %, one third in Spain and two thirds in international markets, mainly Germany, France, UK and the US.

The range of grapes used are a mixture of traditional local varieties, often more than fifty years old and grown in bush form, and international varieties. For white wines Garnatxa blanca, Macabeu, Parellada, small-berry Moscatell, Pansal and Chardonnay are allowed. For reds Carinyena (aka Samsó), Garnatxa negra, Garnatxa peluda (hairy), Monastrell, Ull de Llebre, Picapoll negre, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.

95 % of wine produced is red. Reds are usually dark and concentrated, while whites can be young and crisp or oak aged, with more structure and complexity. Fruity rosés are sourced largely from Garnatxa negra.

Noteworthy are the rancis and mistelas. Rancis are brown, nutty wines that undergo oxidization in the oak casks for years. Mistelas are produced adding alcohol to unfermented must and aging in oak, sometimes with sherry-like solera systems. These can be perfect wines for aperitif and dessert.

My favourite Montsant wineries: 

• Acustic Celler
• Celler de Capçanes  
• Celler Dosterras 
• Celler el Masroig 
• Joan d’Anguera 
• Coca i Fitó 
• Orto Vins 
• Portal del Montsant 
• Venus La Universal
• Vinyes Domènech

Some outstanding wines are produced in very small wineries (for instance, Espectacle) and some interesting producers only have one or two wines (as Laurona).

Many wines of Montsant exhibit two excellent attributes: personality and a great quality price ratio, as they have not (yet?) achieved the fame of their Priorat neighbors. This is a DO to watch closely.

http://www.domontsant.com/
http://www.acusticceller.com/
http://www.falsetmarca.com/eng/FRAMES.HTM
http://www.cellercapcanes.com/english.htm
http://www.dosterras.com/english/index.html
http://www.cellermasroig.com/?id=en&m
http://www.cellersjoandanguera.com/ing/index.htm
http://www.cocaifito.com/website_eng.html
http://www.portaldelpriorat.com/
http://www.vinyesdomenech.com/VD_2008/
http://www.cellerlaurona.com/celler.php?i=3
http://www.espectaclevins.com/default.asp?pag=230

Celler de Capçanes, to modernity through tradition

As I have explained in a previous post, a vast majority of the cooperative wineries in Catalonia are dominated by conservative thinking that hinders the much awaited modernization they need, both in commercial and technical terms.

The most important model for these outdated wineries to copy is the Celler de Capçanes, located in the village of Capçanes, DO Montsant. This cooperative followed the trodden path at the beginning: founded comparatively late in 1933, they produced and sold bulk wine till 1980, when they stopped wine production altogether to just sell their grape to other producers.

But in 1991 the oenologist Angel Teixidó started production of wine again and even barrel aging. A few years later, contacts with Barcelona’s Jewish community culminated in a bold move: the decision to produce kosher wine, that is, wine elaborated following the strict rules laid out in ancient Jewish law.

The beauty of the idea was its power as motor of change. Though ancient, the kosher rules drove the winery to purchase state-of-the-art equipment to be able to fulfil the cleanliness and materials requirements. And then the production of other fine wines came along naturally. The grape varieties in production are Garnatxa blanca and negra, Macabeu, Carinyena, Merlot, Syrah, Ull de Llebre, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Some of the Garnatxa vines are ca. 100 years old.

After the years, the kosher wine, Peraj Ha’abib of Flor de Primavera, enjoys a high reputation in its market sector. But there are many other wines from Capçanes to consider:

• the Mas Donís range (blanc, rosat, negre), easy to drink, fresh 
• Mas Collet blanc and negre, with some oak aging 
• Vall del Calás, Costers del Gravet and Mas Tortó, coupages of several varieties with 12 months of oak 
• the Carretell sweet/fortified wines from Garnatxa negra: a ranci, oxidized by a long stretch in old oak; a mistela, in fact must with alcohol added, and a vi de licor, with alcohol  
• Pansal del Calás, the wine from overripe Garnatxa negra and Carinyena grapes  
• the Garnatxa negra wines: Lasendal, with slight oak aging, Cabrida, from old vines and 12 month oak aging, and Cabrida Calissa, from special limestone soil vineyards. To visit the Cabrida vineyard in a sunny morning and later have a bottle with a nice lunch in El Cairat restaurant in nearby Falset is a rewarding experience.

It is really a luxury to visit Celler de Capçanes, especially going to see the vineyards. They are scattered around the countryside, not grouped together, doubtless due to the diverse owners. In this way, some are just surrounded by forest that lends flavour to the resulting wines.

http://www.cellercapcanes.com/english.htm

http://www.domontsant.com/
http://www.restaurantelcairat.com/cairat/

Wine cathedrals




Rocafort de Queralt

 

Probably many of you will be acquainted with the works of Antoni Gaudì. In the first quarter of the 20th century he was the top Modernist (Art Noveau) architect in Catalonia, and designed beautiful, improbable buildings like La Pedrera or La Sagrada Familia, the unofficial icon of Barcelona.

Rocafort de Queralt



Pinell de Brai



In that same period the Catalan government (la Mancomunitat) promoted setting up farmers’ cooperatives. In many cases, the cooperatives erected their own buildings (cellers) to make wine and olive oil, and it became the fashion to employ the best architects of the time. The resulting cellers were unmistakably Modernist. Many of them have survived to date, and are regarded as “wine cathedrals” on account of their configuration and size. A typical layout is having one central, higher aisle flanked in some cases by two lower ones. Vats stand in these aisles, and presses and destemming equipment are placed where the altar might be. In the would-be crypts not bishops but oak barrels rest.

Pinell de Brai



Pinell de Brai



These magnificent buildings can be found mainly in the DOs of Terra Alta (Gandesa, Pinell de Brai), Montsant (Falset), Conca de Barberà (Espluga de Francolí, Sarral, Rocafort de Queralt, Barberà de la Conca, Pira, Montblanc), Penedès and Tarragona (Nulles). A few more are scattered over the rest of Catalonia, some of them in towns very close to Barcelona (Rubí, Sant Cugat del Vallès) where the agricultural past is far, far away. Some non-cooperative wineries have as well modernist buildings; the most interesting are Codorniu (DO Cava) and Raimat (DO Costers del Segre). My personal favourites? Pinell de Brai, Nulles and Espluga de Francolí. All three have undergone extensive restoration and can be seen at their best.

Pinell de Brai

A first glace at their often fancy structures and embellishments may give the wrong impression that the artistic side had taken preeminence over the functional. Usually that is not the case, and the state-of-the-art winemaking technology of the time was used in the design and execution. (By the way, that also holds true about Gaudì’s work. However fantastic La Pedrera may seem, layout of the flats and internal structure are surprisingly modern and comfortable).



Espluga de Francolí




Pinell de Brai



Gaudì designed only one winery, in Garraf. The main figure in this field was one of his disciples, Cesar Martinell, who built more than forty of these edifices, and many other outstanding architects had celler design as one of their sidelines.

Pinell de Brai





Espluga de Francolí



Unfortunately the pioneering spirit is long gone from most cooperatives. Excepting a handful of cases, cooperatives are dominated by conservative majorities that do not want to take risks and fall back on traditional winemaking, with average to poor equipment and techniques and a lower quality range output. Sadly, the words “Celler Cooperatiu” or “Cooperativa” are not usually a signal of quality in a wine label. It is to be desired that cases like Capçanes (DO Montsant), that jumped into state-of-the-art winemaking with excellent results, encourage the rest to modernize and improve.





Espluga de Francolí



In the meantime, a visit to any of these cellers as an architectural site is perfect to complement wine tasting in a good winery in the surroundings.

 

Pinell de Brai

http://www.crcava.es/catala/flash.html

http://www.doconcadebarbera.com/catalan/frame.htm

http://www.costersdelsegre.es/eng/index.php

http://www.domontsant.com/

http://www.dotarragona.cat/en/

http://www.dopenedes.es/index.php?lang=en

http://www.cellercapcanes.com/english.htm

http://www.codorniu.com/home.html?wlang=en

http://www.raimatvinas.com/



Pinell de Brai