Why it matters
The producer
Cellers Can Blau joined Gil Family Estates' expansion in 2005 as its Montsant winery. The house works with three grapes instead of building its red wines around one dominant variety: tannin-rich Cariñena from clay valleys, Syrah from limestone slopes and Garnacha from dark slate. Their different growing places give the blend several sources of fruit and tannin before the wine reaches the cellar.
Blau carries that three-grape idea into a clearly defined bottle. It is a dry Montsant red, with medium body and oak recorded as part of the style. The name sits inside a larger family group, but the wine's character begins with the relationship between grape, slope and soil.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Montsant is the appellation on the label, and Catalonia is the wider region. That distinction keeps Can Blau separate from Priorat, which appears here only in the description of the dark slate associated with Garnacha. The legal place is Montsant; one of the grape's described sites reaches toward Priorat's slate landscape.
The appellation and the grape choices work together. A Montsant red can bring Cariñena, Syrah and Garnacha into one bottle, allowing tannin from Cariñena, the steep limestone setting of Syrah and slate-grown Garnacha to sit within the same regional frame.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Gil Family Estates stated in 2021 that its indigenous-variety, dry-farmed estate vineyards used chemical-free ecological methods. More than 500 acres of the group's estate vineyards were certified organic at that point, with further expansion planned. Those figures describe the group as a whole, not a separate organic certification for every Can Blau plot.
Cellers Can Blau was also identified in 2021 as one of three Gil Family Estates wineries already operating on solar power. The documented winery practice sits beside the group's ecological vineyard approach, while the wine itself remains anchored in the three grapes and their contrasting growing places.
Wines to know
The range in view
Can Blau's red wines are built around Cariñena, Syrah and Garnacha in changing proportions. Cariñena contributes a tannin-rich component from clay valleys. Syrah comes from steep limestone slopes, while Garnacha is tied to old, dark slate. The range's basic shape is therefore a dry red style assembled from three grapes, three site associations and several kinds of fruit and grip.
Blau is the named reference bottle for this style. Decanter classifies the 2021 wine as a dry, oaked, medium-bodied red from Montsant, with 14.5 percent alcohol. The wine has enough body for oak to register as part of its profile, while the dry palate and present acidity keep the red category clear and the finish active.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with Blau. It is the clearest named expression of Can Blau's Montsant red style, bringing the house's Cariñena, Syrah and Garnacha combination into one dry, medium-bodied, oaked bottle. The tasted 2022 profile offers black cherry, raspberry, blackberry and spice, with present acidity and discreet oak. It puts the three-grape idea, the Montsant appellation and the house's intended drinking shape in the same glass.