Region: Montsant, Spain

Varietal: 100% Garnacha

Tasting notes: The unoaked Garnacha red 2019 Sindicat La Figuera is produced in a very simple and traditional way—fermented with a short maceration in underground concrete vats where the wine matured with abundant rackings in the beginning. It's pure Garnacha from vines planted at 400 to 600 meters in altitude, mostly on white clay soils. There are notes of flowers and ripe fruit and an earthy touch. It's juicy, has ripe flavors without excess and some dusty tannins.

Producer: Sindicat La Figuera is a small co-operative in the Montsant Mountains founded in 1932, producing wines of brightness and integrity. One must navigate very narrow, winding roads up the mountainside to reach the town of La Figuera, which sits at 6oom elevation and has a mere 80 residents. The town appears to rise up out of the peak of the mountain, with the surrounding mountains and the Priorat region in view in all directions. Garnatxa, as the Catalans call it, has always been planted around La Figuera and has always been the primary grape used for Sindicat’s flagship wine. While Cariñena is typically blended with Garnatxa in Montsant, La Figuera is known for the beauty and elegance of their pure Garnatxa wines and is one of the few places where it is bottled on its own.

Vineyard and Winemaking: Surrounding the region of Priorat on all sides, Montsant shares much in common with its neighbor. Though its soils contain less schist than that of Priorat, its old Garnacha and Carinena vineyards produce wines of similar intensity and character. Sindicat La Figuera works with 25 hectares of Garnatxa Fina and vines range in age from 20-70 years. Wines are fermented with wild yeasts in underground concrete tanks with minimum temperature control, where they spend around 9 months aging on fine lees before being bottled with light fining and filtration. Sindicat La Figuera is the recovery of an illusion, a project of 6 farmers from La Figuera. A unique village in Montsant, with very special characteristics: located in the highest point of the region, their garnatxa vines –planted in goblet and with ages between 30 and 80 years old - stand out for their personality and particularity.