EN 
DE 
FR 
IT Showing all 2 results
Vinyes d'en Gabriel
A century and a half without a drop of chemicals. What is considered a revolution today was simply normality for Casa Gabriel in Darmós. Vinyes d'en Gabriel has been cultivating its Samsó vines since the 19th century, just as Joan Rofes taught his grandson: with hands that trust the soil. Josep Maria Anguera continues this legacy - on limestone and clay, between almond trees and olive groves, where the Mediterranean air caresses the grapes and the vines are older than some village churches.
More about Vinyes d'en Gabriel
The legacy of Joan Rofes
The story begins in the 19th century, when Joan Rofes took over Casa Gabriel de Darmós and planted the first vines. His legacy: four generations later, no one in the family has ever used herbicides or synthetic fertilisers. What does that mean? Soils that breathe. Roots that go eight metres deep into the Limestone and clay take hold. Microorganisms that populate vineyards like cities.
Josep Maria Anguera talks about his great-grandfather as if he was still walking through the vines yesterday. The philosophy has remained the same: The soil knows better than any oenologist what the vine needs. Since 2004, the winery has been working according to biodynamic principles - a logical continuation of what has always been the case here anyway.
Samsó: The soul of the Montsant
Samsó - that's what they call the Carignan-Traube, and it is more than just a local dialect. It is a confession. The oldest vines are over 90 years old, their berries small and concentrated like dried blueberries. Next to them are Garnacha vines that are 80 years old and younger Syrah that captures the heat of the south.
A single centenary Tempranillo grows next to one of the old wells - a silent witness to the family history that still bears grapes every year. The vineyards lie at an altitude of 125 to 250 metres, less than twenty miles from the Mediterranean. The breeze cools the summer nights, the temperature differences between day and night preserve acidity and flavour.
Between almond trees and olive groves
The terroir of the Montsant is special here: granular limestone, interspersed with clay and chalk, barren enough to challenge the vines. The neighbours are not other vineyards, but almond and olive groves - a mosaic that creates biodiversity and enables natural pest control.
Similar conditions can be found further up in the mountains, where Vins Nus works on even steeper slopes. Both wineries share the conviction that Montsant is one of the most exciting terroirs in Spain - without the price premium of neighbouring Priorat.
The wines: Handcrafted in bottles
The Mans de Samsó is the flagship: pure Carignan from the oldest plots, spontaneously fermented, matured for twelve months in French oak. Only a few hundred bottles are produced each year. A wine from dark minerality, which smells of wet slate and wild herbs.
The L'Heravi shows the everyday face of the winery: more accessible, but no less full of character. Samsó meets Garnacha and Syrah, the maturity is shorter, the expression more direct. Wines that show what happens when you listen to the soil for a century and a half.
