The Region
The Priorat, with about 10,000 inhabitants and an area of 500 km 2 , is essentially an agricultural region located inside the pre-coastal range, between the Camp of Tarragona and Terres de l’Ebre, with a very uneven relief and no plain.
From the geological point of view the central part of the region consists of very old rocks and stone slate, formed during the Paleozoic era. A second area includes the southern sector of the region, the Baix Priorat, a territory that opens and makes the transition to the Ribera d’Ebre. Here the terrain is less rugged with a predominance of calcareous rocks.
In the region coincide the Siurana and the Montsant rivers, both rise in the neighboring mountains of Prades and Montsant range, joining together near Bellmunt of Priorat and finally flowing in the Ebre River.
The climate is typically Mediterranean with a maritime influence, with a small continental climate trend. The marinade comes clearly, but the ranges parallel to the coast make difficult the entrance of maritime temperate air. This relief is responsible of quite cold nights in winter time. Annual precipitations are low, between 500 and 700 mm of annual average. Rain is more abundant in the neighboring mountains of Prades. The rainiest season is fall and the driest summer.
Denomination of Origen Montsant
The Denomination of Origin Montsant was founded in 2001 and consists of the towns and wineries that were part of the subarea of Falset, Denomination of Origin Tarragona. The DO Montsant has experienced spectacular growth since then. At the time of its foundation DO Montsant had 28 wineries, and today the number of wineries is over 50. Almost 70% of the bottled production is exported (mostly to Europe and the United States) and the rest is sold in Catalonia and the rest of Spain. The vineyard area is about two thousand hectares and the production of grapes is around ten million kilograms.
A Passion
In 2008, two enterprising persons with a long and extensive experience in the wine
industry and passionate about their respective professions, the winemaker Salvi Moliner and the sommelier Sergi Montalà, launched a project and created a winery in the Priorat region in order to produce wines with his own style and at the same time identified with the DO Montsant.
Our Wines
The Priorat has different grape varieties, some introduced in recent years and other that are very old and traditional which have been cultivated for long time. In our case, from the moment we launched our project we decided to produce wines with traditional grapes of this land, carignan and grenache.
In a country house of ten acres located in the surrounding area of Falset, we find our grenache vineyards, and from and old vineyard from the municipality of Guiamets, we obtain the carignan of our winery, “Vins of Mas Sersal”.
With these two varieties and after an elaborate blend of wines that have aged thirteen months in French and American oak barrels from first and second year, we bottled our first and second vintage, Secret 2008 and Estones 2009. These wines seek the balance, dominance and expressiveness of the fruit over the wood, in order to obtain a genuine result, typically and distinctively Montsant with a strong personal trademark at the same time. The wines of Mas Sersal are the result and the combination of an exceptional raw material, excellent quality grapes harvested by hand and placed in boxes, and the personality of our winemaker Salvi Moliner. This is the reason that allows us to say that our wines, Vins de Mas Sersal, are unique and Montsant.
Our wines are elaborated in the warehouse located in the industrial area Sort dels Capellans, Falset, and our warehouse is popularly known as Bauhaus.
Musical Synergies
ESTONES DE MISHIMA
For a very long time wine has been a continuous source of inspiration for many artistic expressions. Narrative, poetry, music, painting, sculpture or other cultural representations have always found in wine an ideal reason to express the best art. Throughout the history we have found in our culture constant references related to the wine culture and its capacity to socialize and bring different people together to make them enjoy, share and experience special moments, atmospheres and sensations.
Therefore, wine is a recurring and omnipresent theme in the Mediterranean culture and links the ancient classical tradition with the most recent present. This link has been created over the centuries of our civilization and it’s a special way to understand life and the world itself, convinced that without the presence of wine in our culture, our way of living life would be probably quite different.
Therefore, it is not surprising that David Carabén (Mishima) and Sergi Montalà have found in wine the unifying element and the ideal space to connect and share their experiences. A wine that inspires David Carabén’s poetic and musical repertoire and matches with Sergi’s Montalà’s innovative, modern and contemporary vision to understand the wine world.
In conclusion, David Carabén represents a more urban and intimate way of doing things, and Sergi Montalà represents a broader vision of the wine world. Both concepts together invite you to experience multiple sensations that originate from regions with more than two thousand years of wine tradition.