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| Written by David of Vinocamino.com | |
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The Montsant Last month I kicked off my series of wine articles by talking about the world famous Priorat, a small region close to Tarragona, so following on from that, this time I am going to take a look at the surrounding area, the DO Montsant. Think of it as a fried egg, with the yolk being the Priorat and the Montsant the white bit, actually to be really accurate somebody has had a nibble at the white around about 4 o’clock. The region takes its name from the surrounding mountain range, Serra del Montsant (sacred mountain) an impressive escarpment not dissimilar to Table mountain, currently forming the backdrop to the world cup in South Africa, the area is beautiful and diverse with a wide range of vegetation and a spectacular network of ravines and gorges scattered with ancient ruins and hermitages. The drastic countryside produces areas of complex microclimates - but basically it’s very hot and dry. You have a variety of soil types, all-important when making wine of course, and not surprisingly some of which is the same licorella slate found in the Priorat. It also has some ancient Grenache and Cariñena vines which has often led people to think that the Montsant is a poor man´s Priorat, a label which is not really true or fair, yes the wines are sometimes similar in character but a key difference is the price, Montsant wines typically are a lot cheaper and offer fantastic value for money. In fact it is one of the most interesting and young wine appellations in Spain (it split from the DO Tarragona in 2002) and so are the winemakers, many of whom are under 40 years old. A prestigious US wine expert once observed: “when you visit France, you see a lot of winemakers of advancing age, yet here, in Montsant, they are all young and wearing jeans!” A lot of the wines produced here are young too, so rather than aging them in barrels they are quickly bottled and ready for consumption straight away, so forget about laying them down to collect dust and mature, they won’t improve, far from it, they will lose there freshness and character, so drink them. Typically the wines are high alcohol reds but you wouldn’t necessarily notice, as they can be very elegant, subtle and fruity and just because the wines and producers tend to be young, don’t be fooled into thinking they don’t know what they are doing, in 2009 the American wine guru Robert Parker produced a list of the best 100 value Spanish wines, 10% of them came from the Montsant, no other region had such a high presence, pretty impressive stuff considering the region has only been on the map 8 years. Actually that’s a bit deceptive because wine has of course been made here for centuries it’s just in recent years it’s really found its feet and identity. One of the crown jewels of the Montsant is the Cellar Masroig, a small village of the same name overlooking the mountain range, if you ever happen to be driving from Mora la Nova to Falset it’s that village on your left that stands out. It really does epitomise everything that the Montsant is about. It is a model co-operative, so the local farmers in the village all work together closely towards a single goal and there’s a very strong community and feeling of togetherness about the place. Although the co-operative is an old building inside it´s new and seemingly constantly in the process of being modernized, and there’s a real buzz about the place the people making the wine are young, energetic and ambitious. The walls are covered with awards from all corners of the globe and the range of wines is impressive, yes lots of young reds but also some excellent matured reds and some whites too. Really a name to remember and one to look out for, we’re a massive fan of this producer so this month we have put a selection of 3 of their wines together. 2 of these wines appeared on the previously mentioned best 100 Spanish value wines which we’re offering at a discounted price of 19,95 Euro, see ofertas/offers at www.vinocamino.com for details. |
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