Why it matters
The producer
Celler de L'Encastell sits in Porrera, one of the villages at the heart of the DOQ Priorat appellation in southern Catalonia. Carme Figuerola and Raimon Castellví founded it in 1999 on 10 hectares of the broken slate soils that define almost everything Priorat does well. The winery is now a second-generation project: Isabel Castellví and Marta Conde are the winemakers today, running an estate that turns out between 25,000 and 30,000 bottles a year.
That is a deliberately modest scale. In an appellation where reputation is built on scarcity and site, ten hectares on llicorella keeps the range focused rather than stretched. Marge is the wine the estate is known for, a Garnacha-led red blend that has been the consistent output since the beginning.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
DOQ Priorat is a small, landlocked appellation in the Tarragona province, enclosed by mountains and cut through with steep terraced slopes. It holds one of only two DOQ designations in Catalonia, the higher level of Spanish appellation law, which requires measurably lower yields and stricter controls than the standard DO tier.
Porrera is a village in the northern part of the appellation, and the slopes surrounding it carry the llicorella soils that Priorat is built on. Llicorella is a fractured slate and quartzite rock, dark grey to black, which drains rapidly, forces vine roots deep, and returns very little back to the surface in yield. The consequence in the glass is concentration: low-volume fruit grown under stress on mineral-rich rock, which is why Priorat reds almost always read as dense, dark and structured rather than light or fruit-forward.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
For Marge, the grapes are destemmed on arrival and macerated on their skins for 15 days. Skin contact at that length draws colour, tannin and the aromatic compounds from the grape solids into the juice: the soft tannin and dark fruit character in Marge across vintages is partly a consequence of that extraction window. The juice ferments at a controlled temperature in stainless steel, which preserves aromatic freshness, and then passes through malolactic fermentation, converting sharp malic acid to softer lactic acid and smoothing the wine's texture.
After that, Marge goes into a combination of French and American oak barrels for 12 months. French oak tends to add fine-grained tannin and restrained wood spice; American oak contributes more coconut and vanilla character. Using both keeps the oak from dominating the fruit and produces the spice and integrated tannin balance that the wine consistently shows.
Wines to know
The range in view
Marge is the estate's documented flagship, a Garnacha-led red blend that draws on Garnatxa, Cariñena, Cabernet Sauvignon and in some vintages Merlot and Syrah. The Garnacha component anchors the blend: in Priorat, Garnacha on slate builds ripe dark fruit, body and warmth, with the mineral grip from the rock holding the wine from becoming loose or overripe. Cariñena adds acidity and tannic backbone, and the international varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah in the 2020, fill out the mid-palate and add darker spice.
The blend percentages shift between vintages. The 2020 was 50% Garnacha, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, 10% Cariñena and 5% Syrah. The 2021 simplified toward Garnatxa, Cariñena and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Garnacha lead and the mixed-oak maturation remain constant. Production stays within 25,000 to 30,000 bottles annually across the range.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Marge is the bottle to start with, and the current vintage is the right choice. It is a Garnacha-led red from 10 hectares of Priorat slate, macerated for 15 days on the skins, fermented in stainless steel and matured for 12 months in French and American oak. The fruit is dark and concentrated, the tannins soft, the finish long and mineral. It is approachable from release but holds for a few years.