Cellers Sant Rafel

Cellers Sant Rafel is the life project of Xavi Peñas, an engineer from Reus, and his wife Pilar Just. In 1996 they bought for a nominal price the Mas d'en Rafel — a 46-hectare farmstead in Pradell de la Teixeta that had been abandoned for half a century. While still working in the city, they spent years of weekends clearing the scrubland, restoring the centuries-old dry-stone terraces ("marges") by hand, and planting 11 hectares of vines on the hillside. They have been making and bottling their own production since 2007.

Pradell de la Teixeta is the easternmost and coolest corner of D.O. Montsant. At between 300 and 500 metres on calcareous "panal" soils, the vineyards receive every afternoon the Garbinada — the south-easterly sea breeze from the nearby Mediterranean — which moderates summer temperatures and allows slow, complete ripening without sacrificing acidity or freshness. The oldest vines are over 60 years old. Xavi also owns a second 2-hectare plot of Carignan on granite near Falset, where the variety gets the extra warmth it needs that the cooler Pradell site cannot provide.

The wines are grouped under the name Solpost — "sunset" in Catalan — covering the classical, terroir-driven range: the Solpost Garnatxa, a single-variety Red Grenache from limestone soils; the Solpost Blanc, 100% White Grenache; and the Solpost Carinyena from the Falset vines. The philosophy is minimal intervention: sincere wines that reflect the vineyard and the work in the field, without technological correction. Wine Spectator rated the 2004 Solpost 92 points; Robert Parker placed it among the 28 Catalan wines scoring over 90.