Falset Wine Fair

Falset, Priorat's capital, with some 2'800 people, is not exactly a large metropolis, but has a charming old quarter and is, above all, the hub of a fascinating wine zone. Well, two.

Falset is the political capital of the Priorat comarca, a unit similar to a county or canton. Within the Priorat comarca we can find the DO Montsant and the DOQ (Denominaciò d'Origen Qualificada) Priorat. Most of Falset ground is in Montsant DO.

In the first weekend in May, Falset hosts the Fira del Vi on Saturday and Sunday, a public tasting where many wineries of both zones pour their wines, along with many activities for the whole family.

Interesting as this is, allowing to sample many wines, a number of parallel, more focused events in Falset or the surrounding villages easily steal the show. I have already mentioned some of them in previous posts, but I think that a general overview is needed.

Friday evening is the starting point.

At Capçanes the cooperative organizes the Garnatxa Night, with their own Garnatxa wines and others from guest wineries (DO Terra Alta this year), together with live music and tapes from nearby Michelin-starred restaurants.

At Falset takes place the only white wine event. After all, most of the Priorat & Montsant wine is red. But still two prestigious wine shops in Falset, Aguilo Vinateria and Vins i Olis del Priorat, convene most of the whites from the comarca and a handful of guests from other places. Oysters and artisan cheeses are offered along with the wines.

Still on Friday evening, at Porrera Carinyena wines are the star. This village has excellent old-vine Carinyena plots, but most of the wine coming from them reaches the market as blends with Garnatxa or other grapes. In the Tast de Carinyenes tasting, wineries pour the unblended Carinyena wines, usually from unlabeled bottles just filled from the barrels. All this in the town square, with a cold buffet available. This is really my favorite tasting of the weekend, as it offers wines that can not be found elsewhere, and the quality and variety (for such a small village) are stunning.

On Saturday morning, the Gratallops restaurant Les Figueres hosts the Tast amb Dones, or Tasting with Women, which is in fact a tasting of wines made by women oenologists (do not get the wrong ideas). A number of interesting wineries are represented.

Also on Saturday morning, and this year for the first time, Poboleda wines are on show in the premises of the Perinet winery.

On Saturday late afternoon, another of the classic tastings: Tast amb Llops, featuring the wines from some of the top wineries in Gratallops and organized by the Cal Llop (house of the Wolf) hotel. This is the event to taste wines from the Priorat pioneers: Perez, Barbier, Palacios, Glorian.

And on Saturday night, the Hotel Mas Figueres at Marçà puts together Vi de Nit, a dinner-cum-tasting usually featuring an impressive roll-call of Priorat and Montsant wineries, giving the best overview of the comarca output. If I had to take somebody to an introductory tasting of these two zones' top wines, this would be it.

A simpler, more relaxed alternative is to be found in Vi-Night at Les Figueres in Gratallops: tapes, wines and music.

On Sunday morning, and in the beautiful halls and terraces of the Cal Compte Hotel in Torroja, there is an event where the main features are the wines from the village. But also the two other archetypal Mediterranean crops are tasted in parallel: hand-made breads and Extra Virgin olive oils from the zone, often produced in small quantities by the wineries themselves.

The other event on Sunday morning is the Tast de les Mines (Tasting of the Mines), which ows its name to the mines that used to be worked in Bellmunt del Priorat. That is a vertical tasting of three vintages of the main wines from Bellmunt, El Molar and El Lloar.

On Sunday afternoon there are no significant events.

Not all wineries are present in the events. We must remember that in many cases they are family run, and they are spread thin in this weekend.

In most of the tastings live music is played and selected food is offered, apart from those that include dinner outright. It is also common that a few wineries from other zones are invited.

Which are my favorites? My schedule in the last editions has been Tast de Carinyenes, Tast amb Dones, Tast amb Llops, Vi de Nit, and Cal Compte, although I always have doubts about missing other events.

This is really a hectic weekend, tasting some 100 - 150 wines, but the opportunity is too difficult to resist, and I can only recommend it warmly to anybody with the desire to delve into Priorat and Montsant.





Hi there!

After more than four years of silence, I am happy to write here again. It is not that my passion for wine has decreased. Neither the interest of Catalan wine has dropped; far from it. But I have had a considerably complex time since then, from the professional point of view, including relocating from Barcelona to Basel, Switzerland. As my family has stayed in Barcelona, I have now to take care of many things (shopping, cleaning, cooking...) that were before family business - or, to be frank, my wive's😚!

Even commuting to Barcelona to be with my family on most weekends, my available time for winery visits and tastings has been greatly reduced. Nevertheless, I want to restart blogging my experiences and opinions, such as they may be. I hope to make them interesting for anybody that is kind enough to read them.

I will perhaps focus less on wine descriptions and more on wineries and wine people. Anybody using the Vivino app can find under Joan Massana my tasting notes, now over 800.

Other areas of interest come up. I now live less than one kilometer away from Alsace, although the vines may be a little further afield. Also the German Baden region is at hand. And Switzerland, unknown to many people, is home to many quality wineries, often using obscure grapes that render personal, unconventional wines that the Swiss, shrewd and knowledgeable, tend to keep to themselves. Now and then, I may drop a post about these areas where I am still feeling my way.

My first post will be about the Falset wine fair, due next weekend. It is the best way to feel the' pulse of Priorat and Montsant: three days packed with events, good food and fund. A great introduction to one of the world's most remarkable wine zones, its wines and their makers.

I only want now to apologize to the hardy souls that have been fruitlessly visiting this site in the last years. I will do my best to repay them!

Grape gathering at Mas Sinén

Last Saturday, in the highest of spirits, I drove to Poboleda in DO Priorat, to the friendly Mas Sinén winery, to feel what cutting grape feels like.



The winery ready to receive the grapes.



Salvador was just leaving the winery to climb the hill with his four-wheel-drive and join the people already working up in the vineyard. When we arrived, they stopped and sat down to breakfast. My timing was perfect!

I was offered a piece of delicious coca de recapte, a precursor, some say, of Neapolitan pizza (in the Middle Ages, Naples and Catalunya were ruled by the same family for some time), and a drink of … not wine, but rather water from the fountain close to the winery.



Mas Sinén winery from the vineyard.



Refreshed, we turned to the vines, not before a patient Salvador explained to me the principles of proper grape cutting and selection. It may look easy, but to avoid harvesting gatolls (late-maturing clusters that are still unripe) requires attention. By the way, this is one of the advantages of manual harvesting; machines do not discriminate, but take everything, ripe or otherwise..

At the beginning, all was very well; it was fun, it was relatively early, and friendly clouds obscured the sun.



Carinyena clusters freshly cut.



However, after two hours of bending continuously to reach the grapes, my back started to remind me of several things: my overweight, my sedentary habits, and having left behind my 50th birthday. To compound things, the clouds cleared and the sun started to shine down on our backs.



Tough work ahead (at least for me!)



One hour later, to my shame, I had to sit down in the shade, utterly exhausted, while my fitter, leaner and younger colleagues clicked on merrily. Fortunately, lunch time was near, and I could make a relatively honourable retreat to the winery.



The Montsant ridge protects from Northern winds.



There Salvador was entertaining some visitors, who looked curiously at my rather battered appearance and agreed with me about the high quality of the wine they were sipping: the new Petit Mas Sinén. After they left, Conxita and Salvador prepared lunch: fresh, real tomatoes (nothing to do with the somewhat similar fruits found in the cities’ markets) and lettuce, small Arbequina olives, coca de recapte, Catalan sausage and fried white beans, sweet coca with dark chocolate. Excellent! Some friends of the winery came for coffee, and we sat for some time discussing the harvest and future projects of this dynamic pair.



Skins float to the surface to form the cap.



After coffee it was time for work (light this time – or perhaps the lunch had given me extra strength): a small tank of Merlot was fermenting, and the cap, formed by the skins and pips that float to the surface, had to be broken and mixed with the must below. In the process, the gas foams through the must showing off the beautiful pink colour that contrasts with the dark cap.

After breaking the cap, the gas foams up showing the beautiful colour.

This process is called pigeage, and is done by mechanical means in bigger tanks, but has to be performed manually five to six times per day in the smaller containers.

Manual pigeage.



Bloodstains? Wrong! Merlot juice!



Suddenly it was seven in the evening. I had to drag myself to my car and leave Poboleda, thankful to Conxita and Salvador for an amazing, if exhausting, day. I must come back next year, but better trained!

Happy, tired me.

Wine in restaurants 1.4: wines in Mas Mariassa

This year’s holidays we did not fly abroad, but rather spent ten days in a small hotel (seven rooms) in the Catalan countryside. Mas Mariassa, a former farmhouse perched in the Serra de Llaberia hills that separate Priorat from the Mediterranean, is a haven of peace and silence. The nearest village, Pratdip, with picturesque remains of walls and castle, was haunted by vampire dogs (the dips) in the Middle Ages, until heavenly intervention rid the village of the scourge-or so say the legends. Anyway, the dogs in Mas Mariassa showed no vampirical inclinations, but were extremely friendly.

Not a vampire!

I can recommend Mas Mariassa for the place, the nice premises, the excellent cooking, and the personalized, professional service, but this blog’s focus is on wine. The wine list is a very good introduction to the wine zones around the hotel (DOQ Priorat and DOs Tarragona, Montsant, and Terra Alta), featuring a nice blend of well known warhorses and more independent, out of the way wines. In addition, a sprinkling of interesting wines from other zones.

Francesc, the owner and chef, is very knowledgeable and gives sound advice. Good glasses and prompt decanting in many cases. Temperature perhaps a little on the warm side.

We enjoyed several remarkable bottles, including a Cava one while in the candle-lit outdoors Jacuzzi, late after dinner under the stars and with strawberries. Here some details about them.

L’Heravi criança from the Vinyes d’en Gabriel winery in DO Montsant is a blend 50/50 of old vine Garnatxa and Carinyena, organically farmed. After one year in oak, l’Heravi is deep cherry red, with red fruit still dominant over cedar and spicy notes. Fruity and well balanced in the mouth.

From the relatively undistinguished DO Tarragona, Serra de Llaberia is a winery not far from the hotel. A family project. Their Elisabeth 2003 red has mainly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, with a little Garnatxa and Syrah. Twelve months in French oak. Deep red, shows little evolution in the rim. Ripe red fruit in the nose, cocoa and balsamic herbs. Big in the mouth, with well-rounded tannins and long. A Pleasant surprise.

Clos Nelin is one of the greatest whites of Priorat. Crafted by the master hand of René Barbier of Clos Mogador, he mixes, on a base of Garnatxa blanca, small parts of Viognier, Macabeu, Pinot Noir, Marsanne, Escanyavelles, Roussanne and Pedro Ximénez. The varietals are processed separately and in different types of container (stainless steel, concrete, oak) and aged for nine months. Pale yellow, with noticeable legs, shows a very full palette in the nose: white flowers and fruits, the mineral touch of Priorat, citrics, butter, hazelnuts. All these come again in the mouth, with a velvety yet crisp sensation.

Another interesting Montsant was Terròs, from La Cova dels Vins of winemaker Sisco Perelló. Garnatxa, Carinyena and Syrah aged for fourteen months in French oak, giving a deep cherry red wine, with lots of red fruit, minerality and tobacco and leather notes. Wide and long in the mouth.

The Cava in the Jacuzzi was Agustí Torelló Mata Gran Reserva. The testing conditions were not what could be termed scientific, but this is a great wine from one of the best Cava producers. A Brut Nature with no less than 36 months of ageing, and from a blend of the three classic Cava grapes: Macabeu, Xarel•lo and Parellada. Comparatively light and flowery (for a Gran Reserva), perfect for the moment.

A perfect place to make trips to the wine zones around and then relax and, with a good dinner, enjoy a nice bottle.

http://www.masmariassa.com/index.php?lang=eng
http://www.domontsant.com/

http://www.doterraalta.com/#/home
http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php
http://www.crcava.es/catala/flash.html
http://www.serradellaberia.com/?page=portada&idioma=en
http://www.agustitorellomata.com/en/
http://www.vinyesdengabriel.com/



Wine in restaurants 1.3: Coma Vella and Cérvoles negre at Cal Joan del Batlle

This last weekend, a long one in Catalonia because Monday was a holiday, my wife and myself escaped the city and climbed up the Pyrenees (in our car) to Cal Joan del Batlle, a small but well appointed hotel at 1’250 meter height close to Sant Llorenç de Morunys. Contrary to most surrounding restaurants, that serve straightforward, nourishing mountain food, Cal Joan del Batlle’s menu is made up of rather elaborate recipes cooked very competently.

Cal Joan del Batlle courtyard

Going more in detail about their wine service, the wine list attracted me immediately. It is not very long; adequate in my view for a remote place with less than a dozen tables. But with a nice balance of Catalan / foreign wines and mainly filled with carefully selected bottles from smaller cellars, it gives a compelling backdrop to the restaurant’s cooking with enticing proposals to the wine lover.

There is a good selection of dessert wines by the glass; the wine temperature was adequate; and a wine pairing was offered with the tasting menu.

On the minus side, glasses are certainly substandard. They know and are considering how to address the issue.

A mark-up of around 50% over shop prices is in line or lower than many comparable restaurants and rounds off, in my opinion, a very attractive offer.

We had dinner on Saturday and Sunday, and both bottles were worth mentioning.

Coma Vella 2006 is a red from Mas d’en Gil, based in Bellmunt, DOQ Priorat. This winery has over forty plots with different grapes; its wines show this complexity. They also produce excellent virgin olive oil and vinegar.

It is a coupage of 40 % garnatxa, 25 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 % Carinyena, 10 % Syrah and 5 % Merlot., Harvested by hand, with a first selection in the vineyard, grapes are collected in 20 kg boxes and taken to the winery, where they undergo a second selection. The wine is aged for twelve to fourteen months in French and American oak and clarified with egg white before bottling.

Dark cherry red, with a lot of fruit both red and black, balsamic, the minerality common in Priorat and some spicy overtones. In the mouth shows big structure, noticeable acidity, with fine tannins and long finish.

It paired perfectly with my veal entrecote with goat cheese fondue.

Cérvoles negre 2006 is a DO Costers del Segre red from Cérvoles Celler. Handpicked and manually selected grapes from Ull de Llebre 38 %, Cabernet Sauvignon 32%, Garnatxa 18 % and Merlot 12 %. Vine planted ca. 25 years ago in loamy soils at around 700 m over sea level.

Aged for twelve months in fine grain, slow growth French oak. Not-too-deep cherry red, with fruity nose and medium structure in mouth. Fine, fresh, elegant. A great match for my cêpe-stuffed pigs’ trotters.

I would like to end this entry, one year and forty-five posts since I started this blogging adventure, thanking my readers for their patience and menacing with more posts to come. Salut! Cheers!



http://www.caljoandelbatlle.cat/

http://www.masdengil.com/
http://www.cervoles.com/home.php?lang=EN
http://www.costersdelsegre.es/eng/index.php
http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php

Clos Martinet vertical: today may be a great day…

The lyrics of the song by the local folk singer Joan Manel Serrat were dancing in my head as I drove towards Priorat. This may be a great day…will it? The first steps were clear and had its roots some months before.

When I was visiting Mas Martinet in March, Josep Lluís Pérez, while discussing with him his first wines, made a remark: “We must make a vertical tasting of Clos Martinet!” I agreed heartily, and, with the help of Oleguer from Vins Noè, gathered a group of twelve fortunate wine lovers, including some top bloggers like David González (Adictos a la Lujuria), Jaume Aguadé (Vins de Catalunya) and Ricard Sampere (Els vins que vaig tastant).



Josep Lluís Pérez



We first met in Mas Martinet with Josep Lluís and then visited his Serra Alta vineyard. I had been there in March; the sight was more astonishing then, with all the iron rings plainly in view, but now it was beautiful with all the green shoots blooming.

Serra Alta in March



Serra Alta in May



There, by the plot, we could enjoy an impromptu master class about vineyard management by Josep Lluís. His absolutely scientific approach (he had figures and ratios for everything) left us speechless, especially those with scientific background. He spoke, among other things, of vigour, production limitation, watering, leaf surface, bag-in-box wines…always with this scientific yet practical approach.

Some of the happy participants

A phone call from his daughter Sara pulled us back to reality and the winery. There we met her laying the last glasses for the tasting.

The grapes-to-be

I (most of us, perhaps) had several goals in mind:

• The most obvious, enjoy a bunch of excellent wines 
• Meet Sara and Josep Lluís and benefit from their knowledge and personality 
• Last but not least: check whether great Priorat wines age well. This was a big discussion from the beginning of Priorat’s new era, and many voices had cast doubts on the aging potential of wines with a high proportion of Garnatxa.

Let us start with the wines.

The first was 1990. This was in fact still a wine made together with Rene Barbier, Alvaro Palacios and Carles Pastrana, and bottled under different labels for each of them. Very much alive, with utter elegance.

The second bottle was 1993, the second year than Josep Lluís made his wine independently. I was a little bit disappointed; I had looked forward to tasting again a 1992, the first Clos Martinet I had, but never look a gift horse etc…And 1993 did compensate: big, flowery, long, one of the best.

1996, said Josep Lluís, was his last wine. Sara answered back instantly: “It was my first, not your last. You still have a lot of wines in you!” It was great to witness the play between the two personalities, sometimes agreeing, sometimes not; after all, as explained in my previous post, if he is the scientist, she is the philosopher, or perhaps the mystic (thanks, Oriol!).

The lineup

1998 was a wine in turmoil. Sara explained that, after some 12 years, their wines undergo a transformation from big, youthful puppies to more elegant, sedate adults. 1998 had just done this, and showed still many primary and secondary aromas, but the tertiaries had started to appear. A great wine nevertheless; racing with 2000 in the preference of many.

2000 was perhaps the most appetizing for me. Still young, very fresh, fruity, big, but starting to migrate to the senior status.

2004 was in comparison young and, although it showed plenty of potential, needed time to show its hand.

As Sara and Josep Lluís explained, with aging, after the twelfth year transformation, wines smoothed the differences between vintages and tended to homogenize, showing the minerality and common terroir underneath. 

I have now little doubt that Priorat wines can age well, and will have to seriously plan ahead to be able to taste these memorable wines at a riper age than I am doing now.

Explanations by the two winemakers were both precise and emotional. They remembered the details of each year in terms of weather and coupage (there was a trend to increase Carinyena and decrease Cabernet) and seemed very happy to share these memories and their wines with us. It was a real pleasure to be invited to this event, which will be one of my most remarkable wine memories so far.

Sara and Josep Lluís

But the day was not over. In the afternoon, after a quick but rewarding visit to Mas Sinén to taste, just before bottling, their Coster 2009, Mas Sinén Negre 2009 and a surprise they have up their sleeve (I am looking forward to it!), I was back home in time to see FC Barcelona beat Manchester Utd to our fourth Champions League title.

It sure was a great day!!

http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php

http://www.masmartinet-ass.com/eng/index.html
http://www.massinen.com/

Lo Jaume’s wines

Jaume Balaguer (Lo Jaume, The Jaume (James) in Western Catalan parlance) is a many faceted man. He runs Bonviure, a wine and delicatessen shop in Gratallops (Priorat), and Celler Balaguer Cabré, a boutique winery in the same village; helps in Piró, the family restaurant; and sells to restaurants and wine shops wines from a number of small Catalan wineries. Apart from these trifling tasks, he writes a blog and is great in proposing wine-food pairings. What he does in his spare time, such as it may be, is something I have never dared to ask him.

It is about this last capacity that I wanted to tell you about. After the Tast amb Llops, my wife and I attended a pairing in his restaurant. By (lucky) chance, a few days later I enjoyed a similar occasion in a restaurant in Barcelona. That will come in my next post, to allow proper labelling of wines tasted.

Piró is a restaurant serving mainly typical Catalan food. As you know, I do not comment on a restaurant’s food unless I am disappointed. This was not the case.

The wines we tasted were the following:

Les Brugueres 2009 is a 100% Garnatxa blanca white from La Conreria de Scala Dei, DOQ Priorat, with a light golden yellow colour. Intense in the nose, with white fruit notes. Well structured in the mouth, with good acidity, and very long.

Humilitat 2008 is a red coupage of Garnatxa and Carinyena, produced by vino, amor y fantasia. Medium bodied, with lighter colour and spicy nose, its winemakers claim to have produced “the Burgundy of Priorat”. Quite true, although not a Grand Cru.

Trio Infernal 1/3 2007 is a Priorat red from 60% Garnatxa and 40 % Carinyena by Trio Infernal. Black fruit, complex nose, powerful but fine tannins.

Petit Gènesi 2009, Garnatxa, Carinyena and Syrah coming from the Vermunver winery in DO Montsant. With six months in different oaks, the nose points to black fruit and balsamic notes. Fresh in the mouth, with adequate structure.

Last but not least, La Guinardera 2006 is a 100% Garnatxa from Celler Balaguer Cabré, owned by Lo Jaume. This is no nepotism; La Guinardera is an elegant, medium bodied wine that comes from the property of the same name, an old vine plot that receives sunshine the whole day. Red fruit in the nose, with tobacco notes. Silky and long.

A perfect end for a day that included the visit to the Falset Wine Exhibition and the Tast amb Llops. Ten days later I was to have another pairing with Lo Jaume; and I was indeed looking forward to it.

http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php

http://www.domontsant.com/

http://bonviure.blogspot.com/

http://www.scaladei.org/

http://www.vinoamoryfantasia.com/

http://www.vermunver-genesi.cat/en/qui_som

http://www.trioinfernal.es/ 

http://cellerbalaguercabre.blogspot.com/

Scratching the wolf: Tast amb Llops

In a previous post I already commented on the fact that Catalan villages with wolves in their names tend to produce excellent wine. This time we will speak about Gratallops.

 

Philologists tell us that Gratallops means the place where wolves sing, but the straightforward translation of the name from Catalan would be scratch wolves.

 

Gratallops was the original place where the five Priorat pioneers set up their wineries and still now are producing their wines, solidly installed among the best in Priorat.

 

In these surroundings the hotel Cal Llop (Wolf House) hosts the Tast amb Llops, Tasting with Wolves. No actual animals around, but rather nine of the twenty-odd wineries active in Gratallops (not bad for a village with 260 people), plus four from other Priorat villages, and a guest from the Rhône valley, Maison Tardieu-Laurent.

 

In the very pleasant plaza in front of the hotel, in a cool afternoon (in many ways), with music and some tasty tapas on offer, I was able to taste and chat, and discover or find again several treasures. These were the wines I enjoyed most:

• Celler Alvaro Palacios, the winery of one of the five pioneers, with their Alvaro Palacios Gratallops Vi de Vila (village wine, a concept resembling the parallel in Burgundy, and now being introduced in many of Priorat villages).
• Celler Clos Mogador, with Rene Barbier, another of the pioneers, explaining his Manyetes and Solertia. 
• Celler Clos i Terrasses, maker of Clos Erasmus, with their second wine, Clos Laurel. 
• Celler Vinya del Vuit, with their Vuit, in its 8th anniversary. This is relevant because Vuit means Eight, the number of people working in this project, which includes names like Sara Pérez, René Barbier Jr. and Ester Nin. 
• Celler Trio Infernal, with their Trio Infernal 2/3.

 

Alas, time flies, and I could not taste all the wines on exhibition. Better luck (or planning) next year. But at least I could scratch the wolf’s fur, tasting some of the best wines from this outstanding village.

 

 

 

http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php

http://www.tastambllops.com/

http://www.facebook.com/search.php?q=closabatllet&init=quick&tas=0.412739808644216#%21/closabatllet

http://www.bodegasmasalta.com/
http://www.cellercecilio.com/
http://www.closfigueras.com/
http://www.cellerdelpont.com/
http://www.trioinfernal.es/
http://www.vinissimus.com/es/bodegas/index.html?id_bodega=sare
http://saodelcoster.com/
http://www.cellerabadia.com/
http://www.vinissimus.com/es/bodegas/index_html?id_bodega=cmog
http://www.europeancellars.com/portfolio_region.cfm?producer=107
http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/los-oficios-de-la-cultura/los-oficios-de-la-cultura-enologia-alvaro-palacios/1001327/
http://www.cellerpasanau.com/es/index.html

Wines at Torrelles

The village of Torrelles de Llobregat, 20 km west of Barcelona in the first hills of the Garraf massif, is not famous for its wines; rather, its cherries (and those from the surrounding villages) are prized in the Catalan markets. However, and for the second time, David González (Vinoscopio) has gathered a group of winemakers in the Torrelles Wine Fair that amply reward inspection.

Up to four groups of wineries (apart from high quality beer, cheese, cold meats and pastry producers) were available: 

• Natural wine producers 
• Wineries from a selected “special guest” wine zone; from Torroja in Priorat this time 
• Wineries represented by smallish wine distributors 
• Other wineries collaborating with Vinoscopio

All producers were small, some of them still cutting their teeth, and giving a good representation of their terroir. David has a detailed knowledge of the grass-roots wine world, especially Catalan, and a fine nose to detect potential stars.

Unlike more publicized events, this fair has a human scale and allows a short chat with the winery representatives, usually the owner or winemaker, given the size of most enterprises. For an amateur like me, it is a great opportunity to learn and make useful contacts to visit later.

Happy me at the opening tasting Miliarium blanc

I had only three hours and could not taste all wines and meet all winemakers. But I certainly liked some enough to purchase a bottle to be able to enjoy them at home:

Cava Berdié, a young Cava winery in Castellví de la Marca with a modern approach based nonetheless in traditional grape varieties and managed by three enthusiastic siblings. 

Miliarium, an engaging public-private project in Ulldecona that pools vineyards no longer farmed by their owners (usually old people with no children interested in the wine world) and employs young people. In the able hands of oenologist Juan Manuel Gonzalvo, it is a project to track closely. 

Mas de la Caçadora, a Els Guiamets, Montsant winery with a wide range of wines; I especially liked their Garnatxa Blanca sweet wine and a most tasty, enjoyable rosè. 

Rampell, from Torroja, Priorat, the project of Cristian Francès, Trio Infernal oenologist, with a very personal Chenin blanc and also a striking red. 

Celler Aixalà-Alcait from Torroja, Priorat, with highly regarded red wines. 

Celler Sabaté Franquet from Torroja, Priorat, with their first wine, promising coming from young vines.

Llicorella Vins from Torroja, Priorat, with a range of three reds. I took a bottle of the most aged and complex, the one I liked best (perhaps I am aged and complex myself!). 

Celler Ronadelles, a biodynamic winery at Cornudella del Montsant, DO Priorat. I enjoyed especially their red from old vines and a sweet from Garnatxa roja.

There were other wineries I like, but these were for me the highlights of a fair with a very consistent level. Surely an event to write down in the agenda of the seeker of uncommercial, terroir driven wines, looking for nice surprises and a sound QPR.

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

http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php
http://www.domontsant.com/
http://www.cavaberdie.com/
http://pardelasses.blogspot.com/
http://www.llicorellavins.com/
http://www.masdelacasadora.com/index.php/en
http://www.ronadelles.com/en/index.php
http://www.adictosalalujuria.com/

http://www.adictosalalujuria.com/2011/03/vinoscopio.html