For the second year in a row, I made it to the Fira del Vi festival in Falset, and tasted my way around some of the best wines being produced in Catalunya. The festival itself is an annual celebration of wines from both DO Montsant and DOQ Priorat, and usually takes place over the first weekend of May. Over the years this has become a popular event, attended by some 15,000 people over the weekend, and so the opportunity to visit after the madness at the much quieter ‘professional’ event is a big plus for me. Despite still sticking out quite a bit it turns out quite a few producers recognised me from my blog and social media posts, plus every year I spend in wine means that people are slowly getting to know me, although I really should spend a bit more time networking. Ho hum.

Like my post on the Fira del Vi festival in 2017, I’m going to write about the highlights of the event rather than every wine tasted; even though we were only tasting for around 3 hours, we must have tasted around 35 wines or so, and that’s an awful lot of tasting notes. I typically go to a producers stall, taste all the wines and if a certain wine really stands out, I’ll write a note and dig into it.

Most memorable wine: Sangenis I Vaque Clos Monlleo 2007

This could quite well have fallen into my ‘biggest surprise’ category as well, as prior to this tasting I’d never come across these wines; quite unforgivable when you consider they’ve been making wine here since 1978! Pere Sangenis is the owner of the estate, but explaining the wines were two of his lovely daughters, Maria and Nuria, who are both as hands-on at the estate as anyone and were proud to present their entire line-up. Porrera based and one of the first wineries to begin bottling their own wines, they’re quite traditional in style with only a touch of international varieties creeping in, with most of their reds produced from a Grenache/Carignan blend. Interestingly, many of their wines are cellared for a long period of time before being released; quite typical in the more traditional estates of Rioja but not common in Priorat. The Monlleo 2007 detailed below, for example, is apparently their most recent release, which puts it on the same time frame as the 904 Gran Reserva range by La Rioja Alta!

Monlleo 2007
50% Grenache and 50% Carignan from 50 year old vines from their estate. Aged for 18 months in new French oak and bottled without any fining or filtering. 15% ABV

Here’s a wine for anyone doubting whether well-made Priorat can age; at 11 years old, this is blossoming into something quite lovely. Deeply coloured with some obvious bricking towards the rim and an inviting, complex and very pronounced nose. Ripe, slightly dried plums, blackberries and bramble fruits are layered over hints of sweet vanilla, soft leather, crushed slate and ferrous earth. There’s a lot of tannin here but it’s softened over the years and has a finely grained texture to it, whilst the acidity is still more than a match for the burly alcohol. A lovely, complete wine that is drinking wonderfully right now, yet will likely hold for a good few years yet. Better yet, it smells and tastes exactly how I want a Priorat to taste: masses of flavour and texture yet without a hint of fruit-sweetness, well integrated oak and the dark, iron-tinged mineral sensation that speaks so strongly of its llicorella strewn origins. 93Pts.

Best Value Wine: Vinyes d’en Gabriel Plan’Elle 2014

It could be argued that Montsant and Priorat aren’t obvious hunting grounds for bargains, simply due to the reality of producing wine there. Many of the vines are old, gnarled bush vines with incredibly low yields, planted on slopes that necessitate manual labour throughout the year and often aged in expensive French oak. It’s no surprise that the production capabilities of most wineries are small as a result and prices often high, particularly from Priorat. If value is to be had, it usually hails from Montsant and this again proved to be true.

The tasting at Vinyes d’en Gabriel was fascinating as we tasted Josep’s new range from his recently acquired vineyards in La Figuera. He produces 4 wines from this land specifically, separating them by varietal and soil type. One varietal Grenache and one varietal Carignan from limestone based soils, and the same again for heavier clay and basalt. The difference really is remarkable and in both cases, the limestone based wines were fresher, lighter and more aromatic whilst the clay and basalt based wines were burlier, more structured and quite brooding. Whilst his Plan’Elle isn’t close to being cheap at €25 a bottle, it’s my ‘best value wine’ by virtue of being a varietal Carignan (very low yields, apparently a bit of a pain to work with as a grape) and absolutely delicious.

Plan’Elle 2014
100% Carignan from vineyards around La Figuera, vinified in wooden vats and aged for a further 11 months in older French oak. 15% ABV

Lighter than its twin-brother, Coma Valda 2014 from the heavier clay soils, and fresher on the nose. Ripe plums and damson fruits are complimented by a hint of graphite, orange rind, restrained violets and fresh earth. Lively on the palate with lots of acidity and soft, supple tannins; this is a very different style of Carignan to most you’ll find in neighbouring Priorat. For all its playfulness, it doesn’t lack flavour intensity and the finish is quite long as well. Perhaps not a wine to last for decades but it’s a lot of fun right now, and quite a serious expression of Carignan for all that. Very good value for low-yielding Carignan, despite the €25 price tag. 91Pts

Biggest surprise –Mas Martinet Cami Pesseroles Blanc 2016

Now, this really was a surprise. No-one in the Catalan wine industry needs an introduction to the work of Sara Perez, the current owner of Mas Martinet and one of the most exciting and respected voices within the region. Under her leadership, Mas Martinet has been at the forefront of some particularly interesting innovations over the years, including the acquisition of some particularly striking single vineyards, a move to organic viticulture, the use of ambient yeasts and perhaps most tellingly, the use of concrete and amphorae for vinifications. Tasting through the range of 2016 wines on show was an interesting experience, especially the single vineyards of Cami Pesseroles and El Escurcons. Then we noticed an unmarked bottle containing what appeared to be an orange wine. “What’s that?” we asked. Only the first ever vintage of Cami Pesseroles Blanc, an ‘brissat’ wine made from Garnacha Blanca, Picpoul and Pedro Ximenez.

Cami Pesseroles Blanc 2016
Garnacha Blanca, Picapoll and Pedro Ximenez in undefined quantities (I’m not sure they’ve even settled on a name yet!) vinified for 3 months with the whole grapes and then aged for a further year. Undefined ABV

My apologies for the lack of reliable technical data, but such is the way with new wines (Sara wasn’t there herself to clarify). Quite pale orange in colour and delicately perfumed on the nose, with notes of mandarin oranges, golden apple skin, light quince and almonds. Lots of persistent, mouth-watering acidity on the palate and a lovely, gentle tannic grip from the extended skin contact. A subtle wine yet not without intensity, and the finish is long indeed. No bitterness or intrusive tannins, which is remarkable for the first attempt at a wine like this; it’s very easy indeed to extract too much from the skins and create quite an aggressive wine that needs careful food pairing. There will be miniscule amounts made but I can see this being an immediate success. Sara does it again. 93Pts

General thoughts

These were just 3 highlights from a very strong showing overall. Whilst there are some stands I always find myself drawn to, I do try and visit a few producers I’m not familiar with as well to try and discover something new; the Monlleo from Sangeis I Vaque is a great example of when that goes right! In addition to discovering some new wines and producers, these events always inspire some thoughts about the region and often, wine-making in general:

High alcohol levels – I’ve complained about the new, fashionable distaste for high ABV levels before, and I’ll do it again. The vast majority of the wines we tasted were between 14.5 and 15.5% ABV, which are high in the global context of table wine, yet the occasions where I felt the alcohol was out of balance were few and far between indeed. Both regions, but especially Priorat, produce incredibly low yields of fully ripe grapes from rugged, sun-kissed slopes, often too steep to use equipment. Those dense, powerful and often intensely mineral flavours so characteristic of the region come hand-in-hand with high levels of alcohol, balancing one another out in a way that so few other regions can. There’s no obvious sweetness here like a similarly powerful Australian Shiraz, or a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Like everything, it’s a question of balance and if these wines were anything to go by, Priorat has that particular act nailed down well.

Cabernet Sauvignon – I love a well made Cabernet Sauvignon but increasingly, I’m finding it to be something of a nuisance in the wines of Priorat. Cabernet Sauvignon is often added to increase levels of tannin, acidity, colour and lush blackcurrant flavours in a blend yet it’s so hard to manage this without the Cabernet taking over completely. Even at very low % levels, the inclusion was so noticeable that I often found the wines to be atypical of the region. Conversely, Garnacha/Carignan blends were most likely to bring a smile to my face, with the dark smokiness and earthy aromas of the region completely transparent in the glass. With the ageing potential of low-yielding Carignan well documented now, is the extra Cabernet Sauvignon really necessary?

Ageability – This follows on nicely from my previous point, as it seems that many traditional examples of these wines were ageing magnificently well. I think there’s a fair argument to avoid ageing varietal Grenache for much longer than 10 years, notable exceptions aside, but the inclusion of Carignan seems to change this completely. We tried a few wines that were 10 years or older throughout the day, and none were even close to full maturity. The aforementioned Clos Monlleo 2007 was singing, Ferrer Bobet’s Seleccio Especial 2005 was still emerging from its tannins with a long way to go, La Creu Alta 2007 was drinking nicely and Mas Doix Salanques 2007 was perhaps in its prime drinking window.

Soil types – I found the comparative tasting with Vinyes d’en Gabriel to be particularly interesting, especially as Montsant has such a variety of soil types. Within Priorat, it’s a fair assumption that the famous llicorella soil is likely to dominate most vineyards, yet with DO Montsant, vines could be planted on clay, limestone, gravel or even iron-tinged, red soils. I’d love to see more producers showcasing wines that were grown on a particular soil type – I believe Celler Capcanes are also producing wines differentiated by this.

We finished with a celebratory lunch to officially sign off on completing my WSET Diploma at nearby Aspic, complete with some superb German Riesling, Emrich Schonleber’s Halenberg Grosse Gewachs 2009, and a wonderfully fresh bottle of Terroir Al Limit Les Tosses 2012. It’s taken me a couple of days to recover from the experience (despite spitting all day!) yet I will certainly aim to be back in 2019. It’s a well organised event that seems to attract big names from across the regions, and unlike wine events elsewhere, it seems that they’re all quite happy to be there. This feeling of good-will may account for the magnums of older vintages that seem to appear from behind counters on a regular basis, which is something I’ll never stop appreciating!