Why it matters
The producer
Celler el Masroig is a cooperative in the village of El Masroig, inside the Montsant DO of inland Catalonia. It has been farming the same clay-heavy hills since 1917 and is the largest winery in the denomination. The village counts just over 500 inhabitants, and most families draw their livelihood from vineyards and olive groves on the same land the cooperative works. That alignment between producer and place is not incidental: for more than a century, the cooperative has functioned as the economic and social engine of a community that would otherwise have no commercial channel for its fruit.
The cooperative was founded in 1917, at a moment when small farming families in a remote Catalan village had no practical route to sell their wine at a reasonable price without banding together. The cooperative has continued since 1917. The members still pool fruit from scattered parcels across the Montsant hills, and the winery still bears the name of the village rather than a family or founder.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Montsant DO is a Catalan appellation that wraps around the more famous Priorat DO in a rough arc through the inland Tarragona hills. The two appellations share terrain: mountain ridges, clay and slate soils, old-vine Carignan and Grenache. The difference is administrative and commercial. Priorat occupies a tighter, higher zone and carries a price premium. Montsant sits lower, covers more ground, and bottles at prices closer to what a weeknight drinker will pay.
El Masroig is inside the Serra de Montsant Natural Park boundary. The village name and the winery name are the same, which is an accurate reflection of how closely the two are bound. Vineyards here grow on clay-rich soils that hold heat and give the red varieties their characteristic dark fruit weight and body. The cooperative's parcels spread across the denomination rather than concentrating on a single hillside, so the wines draw from a wide collection of clay-heavy ground at varying exposures.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Fruit for the Les Sorts range comes from member parcels across more than 500 hectares of cooperative vineyards. The principal varieties are Carignan, Grenache, and Syrah, all suited to the dry inland heat of the Montsant hills.
For Les Sorts Selecció, each variety is vinified separately before blending. The wine is then aged in oak. Separate vinification allows the winemaking team to assess each variety's contribution before the blend is fixed, which gives the final wine a layered fruit character rather than the uniformity of a co-fermented blend. Organic treatments are used in the vineyard for pest management, and winery water is recirculated back to irrigate the vines rather than discharged.
Wines to know
The range in view
The Les Sorts range is the producer's main label, described on the winery's own pages as stylistically broad. The anchor wine is Les Sorts Selecció, a blend of Carignan, Grenache, and Syrah from clay parcels across the denomination, vinified separately and aged in oak. The 2022 vintage was noted for firm acidity, dark fruit character, and mid-weight body. The 2023 confirmed the same three-variety composition and the same approach of separate vinification followed by blending and élevage.
The blend proportions and the variety of parcels feeding into the cooperative give Les Sorts Selecció a richer, more layered character than a single-variety or single-parcel wine would produce. Carignan brings acidity and darker fruit. Grenache contributes warmth and body. Syrah adds depth and a hint of savory character at the mid-palate. Other range tiers within the Les Sorts lineup were not verified at the time of research and are not described here.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Les Sorts Selecció is the right first bottle. It is a blend of Carignan, Grenache, and Syrah from cooperative parcels across the Montsant hills, vinified separately and aged in oak before blending. The wine is mid-weight, with firm acidity, dark fruit, and a modest oak frame. It is priced at the accessible end of Catalan red wine and shows clearly what clay-soil Carignan and Grenache produce in this inland corner of the appellation. Start here to understand the cooperative's character and the Montsant style before moving to Priorat.