El Tracte 2020 | Bell Cros | Montsant

Bell Cros — Catalan for "beautiful valley" — was founded in 2017 when Swedish entrepreneurs Ann and Peter Skoglund bought seven adjoining plots near the ancient Roman settlement of Marçà in the DO Montsant. The purchase was sealed with a traditional Catalan handshake, a tracte — the word that gave its name to their flagship wine. Organic farming started from that first vintage; CCPAE EU organic certification followed with the 2023 harvest.

Head winemaker Joan Asens was named Winemaker of the Year in Catalonia in 2019. He also teaches lunar cycles and biodynamics at the enology faculty in Falset and is widely regarded as one of the leading biodynamic thinkers in the appellation. The vineyard manager and cellar director both come from Mas Martinet and Terroir al Límit — houses that shaped the modern identity of Montsant and Priorat.

The 17 planted hectares — Carinyena, Garnacha Negra, Garnacha Blanca and Macabeo, ranging from 30 to 80 years old — are managed to regenerative viticulture standards: on-site composting, sexual confusion pheromone traps instead of insecticides, a constructed wetland for wastewater treatment, and cover crops to rebuild soil biology. In heavy mildew years the team accepts crop losses of 50–100% rather than resort to conventional fungicides. The new winery, built for the 2022 harvest, was conceived around biophilic design principles — shaped to belong to the landscape rather than stand apart from it.

Annual production is around 50,000 bottles, including the Ida & Peter Ancestral — a Garnacha Blanca pét nat aged seven months on lees — and El Tracte, a single-variety Carinyena from 45- to 50-year-old vines.