Celler de Capçanes in Spain’s Montsant wine region is a cooperative winery, founded by several families back in 1933 and currently home to one of the world’s best female oenologists.

The Location

Montsant is a Spanish Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP) (Denominació d’Origen Protegida in Catalan) for wine located in the province of Tarragona, Catalonia. It covers 12 municipalities and takes its name from the Montsant Mountains in the area. The vineyards extend along the mountainsides among olive groves, forests and rocky outcrops. Priorat which is famous for its top ranked wines is just a few kilometers away, so its a little bit of a paradise for true wine lovers. 

Celler de Capçanes is about two hours from Barcelona and an hour from the coast (Tarragona). The drive from just north of Tarragona up to Capçanes village takes about 50 minutes and the winery is one of the first things you see when you arrive at this charming little town. The surrounding landscape is very green and undulating, not as rough and mountainous as neighbouring Priorat.

The Capçanes vineyards offer a great variety of terroirs and soils, protected by the Sierra de Llaberia, which give complexity and depth to the wines. The majority varieties are the autochthonous Garnacha Negra and Cariñena, which are found at a considerable altitude and are, in some cases, over 110 years old. The soils – clay, limestone and slate – give the wines a high concentration and a unique intensity; the limestone is freshness, the clay pure fruit and, and the slate minerality. In addition, the sandy plots, locally called honeycomb, offer wines that are easy to drink, thanks to the presence of calcium in the subsoil.

The Story 

Celler de Capçanes was founded almost a century ago in 1933 by five families. They soon realised the company needed to grow to stay in business and thus brought 80 people from the village in to invest in this co-operative.

The cooperative processed the village’s production and the wine was sold off in bulk until 1980 when they started to sell their grapes off prior to fermentation. This continued until 1998 when the decision was taken to process all the village’s grapes at the cooperative.

In 1995 the winery also began making kosher wine, a unique feature that has brought a lot of recognition.

The winery bottles a wide arrange of young, semi crianza and higher end wines. They say that they love to put the best expression of the village of Capçanes in these bottles, which they accomplish with an incredible team, among whom Anna Rovira who is considered the best female winemaker in Spain and the third best in the world, as well as Jürgen Wagner, having studied at Geisenheim and University of Tarragona, brings his experience to composing and styling the blends. “From the farmers working the vineyards, to the staff at the cellar and the winemaker, Anna Rovira, they make possible the magic of our wines, without forgetting of course, the dedication and passion that all of us put in what we do.” Celler de Capçanes

The Wine

We are impressed and amazed by the price quality ratio in general of wines celler de Capçanes who has rightfully garnered more awards internationally than most other wine co-ops in Spain. The winery produces a range of different wines, including kosher – which arguably put Capçanes on the map back in 1995 – and biological, as well as olive oil.

Cabrida 

One of the winery’s best, Cabrida, has been awarded 92+ Points by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and 94 by James Suckling.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate: “The 2009 Cabrida is 100% Garnacha sourced from 85- to 105-year-old vines and aged for 14 months in a mix of new and used French barrels of various sizes. It sports an alluring bouquet of exotic spices, mineral, lavender, incense, and black cherry. In the glass it is dense and mouth-filling with succulent black cherry and spicy flavors and 6-8 years of aging potential. It will be at its best from 2015 to 2024. Rating: 92+ points.”

James Suckling: (Cabrida 2016) “Joyful nose of fresh raspberries, summer flowers and a hint of clove. Concentrated ripe fruit, beautifully crafted tannins that sit so neatly within this wide frame. Great balance of sweet and dry, warm and cool elements. Delicious now, but with very good aging potential.” 94 Points

Cabrida 2020 was crowned the best wine in Catalonia at the prestigious Catalan Wines competition Vinari 2022 Awards. The contest thus positioned a cooperative wine, a Garnacha from the Montsant region and the know-how of farmers and viticulturists over dozens of years in a deeply wine-producing environment that has a long tradition within the historical context of Catalan wine.

Sales rep and sommelier Vanessa Diaz Meyer has said after winning the Vinari award: “The key to success, in my view, has to do with the professional quality that defines each element of the chain: from the farmer to the person who puts the wines on the market.” She further explains  that Capçanes is an atypical cooperative, due to the fact that it works collaboratively between members, but following a business model. “It is as if we were three wineries in one, with three differentiated lines of action.”

La Nit de les Garnatxes

This special issue contains four different bottles of red 100% Garnacha wine planted on four different soils – sand, clay, limestone and shale – to experience the influence of the soil on the taste as explained in the video below:

Our personal favourite is the Slate, awarded 93 Points by James Suckling in 2018: “La Nit de les Garnatxes Slate/Llicorella 2016: 93p. Plenty of flowers and wild herbs in the most sophisticated of this terroir series from an excellent cooperative winery. This medium-to full-bodied grenache has elegantly dry tannins that push the crisp finish along at a brisk clip.”

Kosher wines

Since 1995, Celler Capçanes has been producing its kosher wine which is currently considered to be one of the best in the world; a high quality red whose production takes place under the strict supervision of a rabbi from the Jewish community of Barcelona. Wine has a unique status in Jewish Law, which places extra restrictions on its making and handling. The production and handling of kosher wine must be done exclusively by Jews. From the moment the grapes arrive at the winery, the Rabbi’s hands become the winemaker’s hands. The Rabbi performs all the instructions given by the winemaker, and the wine once made, may be approved as a kosher wine. This is thus quite an elaborate process.

Among Celler de Capçanes’ range of seven kosher wines is the Peraj Ha’abib/Flor de Primavera which James Suckling has awarded an impressive 95 Points: “Just beginning to mature, this has a very complex nose of spice, licorice and hot stones, as well as great black fruit. Concentration, warmth and drive in this rich red that has a very long, polished finish. Kosher wine. Drink or hold.”

Finally, a special mention goes out to the Olive oil ‘Mas Donis’ which is absolutely delicious, intensely flavourful and fruity with aromas of arbequina variety, freshly cut grass, tomato, almonds and green walnuts. Just perfect to accompany a mediterranean dish and your Celler de Capçanes wine of choice.