La Cova dels Vins was born in 2002 in Falset, when Francesc Perelló, known as “Sisco,” was helping his father prune old, abandoned vines on a small plot of land between Falset and Capçanes, at an altitude of 200 to 700 metres. The work was so hard it had to be done entirely by hand (no tractor could be used), and the shared afternoon turned sentimental for father and son — out of that cold winter evening came the dream of one day bottling the grapes from that plot separately, under the name La Cova dels Vins.
Sisco Perelló, who works as the winemaker at Celler de Capçanes, runs this small personal project making DO Montsant (and also DO Terra Alta) wines from native varieties such as Garnacha, Samsó/Cariñena and Syrah, sourced from old vines aged 15 to 60 years. The Deler wines (white, red and rosé) are the young-style bottlings, fermented in stainless steel tanks; Ombra and Terròs see more ageing, the latter spending 14 months in 300-litre French oak barrels.
For Sisco, the project is a tribute to his father and to the winemaking traditions of the area, and a return to artisanal, hands-on winemaking aimed at personal wines that express the character of each individual site.
Imatge: Juan Emilio Prades Bel · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Sources: web.archive.org · web.archive.org · web.archive.org