The Capafons-Ossó cellar, named after Francesc Capafons (pictured left) and his wife Montserrat Ossó, is based just outside the town of Falset (pictured right). The cellar has vineyards in both the D.O. Tarragona (Falset subzone) and in the D.O. Priorat. and elaborates wines from both regions. Like many of the cellars in this area, the Capafons family had been making wine for generations, but only started bottling their wine in recent years. In the Priorat area, they have been making Mas de Masos since 1991, and have a number of new vineyards which will come into production in the next few years. Francesc Capafons' idea is to continue to make different single vineyard wines rather than simply increase the production of Mas de Masos.

Their vineyards in the Falset area (pictured on this page) are all in a single estate called Masia Esplanes, also the name of their leading wine from this region. The estate is around 350 metres above sea level, and was replanted between 10 and 12 years ago with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Garnatxa, Syrah and Viognier, in a series of small vineyards characterised by different soil types. In this single 10 hectare estate there are as many as nine differentiated soil types ranging from sandy through lime based soils to clay. The entire estate was levelled into different vineyards according to soil type, with productions of around 1.8kg of grapes per vine, whereas the Mas de Masos (Priorat) vineyard produces only 1kg per vine. The Masia Esplanes estate currently produces four wines: the top of the range Masia Esplanes, a red with a shorter criança period called Vessants, a Syrah-based rose, Roigenc, and a barrel fermented white based on Viognier, released for the first time this year on an experimental basis.

All the vines at Masia Esplanes are trellised, and looked after with minimal mechanisation. Whilst the vineyard is not classified as organic, much of the work is in line with organic practises, with no use of herbicides. In the steeper Mas de Masos vineyard they have even stopped ploughing the vineyard to avoid degrading the soil, and control growth of weeds and grasses by cutting them back with a strimmer. On the left you can see a typical row which has just been green pruned and tied back to ensure the grapes sufficient exposure to the sun.

In the cellar the grapes are pressed using a traditional vertical press. In the left hand photograph you can see the small black hand press used for the first vintages of the cellar. The first small stainless steel fermenting tanks were actually made by the cellar themselves, along with the cooling system both for the fermenting tanks, and the cellar itself (a converted chicken farm which would otherwise be too hot in the summer).

Mas de Masos is aged in new oak barrels (French Allier) for around 14 months, whilst the Masia Esplanes uses a combination of American and French oak. The cellar pictured left is underneath the Masia (farmhouse) itself, whilst the rest of the cellar is in an adjacent building. The wines are fined with egg whites before bottling, and then aged in the bottle before release in a specially built temperature controlled room (see right). This lack of haste is typical of the cellar's philosophy as a whole, placing primary importance on the quality of the product. Of all the new Priorat wines, Capafons-Ossó is unique in holding the wines in the cellar before release. Whilst at the time of writing most cellars are about to release their 1998 wines, the next release of Mas de Masos will be the 1996 vintage, whilst the Masia Esplanes 1997 has just come out, due to the extra time held ageing the wine in the bottle.