From the atlas
Celler Comunica
At A Glance
Producer: Celler Comunica People: Pep Aguilar and Patri Morillo Estate: Mas d'en Cosme, Falset Appellation: D.O. Montsant, Catalonia, Spain Grapes: Garnatxa Negra (red Grenache), Garnatxa Peluda (downy Grenache), Carinyena (Carignan), Syrah Farming: Organic Style: Unfined, unfiltered reds aged on fine lees in stainless steel, without oak
The Producer
Pep Aguilar and Patri Morillo run Celler Comunica from Mas d'en Cosme, a granite-soiled estate in Falset, within the D.O. Montsant appellation in Catalonia. The project is built around a deliberate premise: that granite, in Montsant, produces a particular kind of wine, and that farming the right parcels carefully enough is how you get there. Aguilar and Morillo say they spend more time in the vineyards than in the winery. The range is short and direct. Both main wines come to the bottle unfined, unfiltered, and without any oak contact.
The grapes are red Grenache, downy Grenache, Carignan, and a small planting of Syrah. Farming is organic across the estate. The wines carry no classification beyond the D.O. Montsant designation, but the site and the cellar approach tell the story more plainly than any hierarchy would.
Place
Falset is the main town and administrative centre of the D.O. Montsant appellation, a circular zone that surrounds the better-known D.O.Q. Priorat without overlapping it. Montsant covers a wide range of soils and elevations across the Priorat comarca, from lower limestone and clay ground to higher granite and schist parcels. Falset itself sits at the heart of the appellation, and the Mas d'en Cosme estate lies between the Baboixos and Fontanals areas of the village, with views toward the Mola de Colldejou ridge.
The distinction that matters here is soil. The heavier schist soils more often associated with Priorat, to the immediate south, produce wines with considerable weight, extraction, and concentration. The granite-dominant soils of Mas d'en Cosme, at 370 metres, behave differently: they drain freely, hold less water, and push the vines toward lower yields and leaner, more mineral fruit. Granite in Montsant is not universal; it is found in specific pockets, and Aguilar and Morillo chose their estate because of it.
Soil And Site
Mas d'en Cosme has principally granite-based soils. The local Catalan term for this ground is sauló: decomposed granitic sand, free-draining, low in organic matter and nutrients, warm in the day and cool at night at altitude. Vines on sauló tend to produce smaller berries with concentrated flavour and firm acidity rather than the deep, jammy weight that clay and schist can encourage. The Suc de Sauló vineyards sit at 370 metres above sea level. Vine ages range from 25 to 70 years, old enough to develop deep root systems and regulate water stress without irrigation.
Story
Aguilar and Morillo describe the founding of Celler Comunica as a search: they knew the kind of wine they wanted to make before they had the estate to make it from. Granite was the criterion. Sauló ground in Montsant was the answer. Mas d'en Cosme, between Baboixos and Fontanals in Falset, was the specific piece of land that met it.
The wines that followed are built around that original decision. No oak enters the cellar. Extended lees ageing in stainless steel takes the place of wood. The cellar work does not add flavour so much as preserve and clarify what the granite and the old vines produced in the vineyard.
Vineyards And Cellar
All farming at Mas d'en Cosme is organic. The vines are harvested by hand. For Suc de Sauló, the main wine, maceration and fermentation take place in basket-style vessels over 12 to 18 days, followed by basket pressing. The wine then ages on its fine lees in stainless steel for 22 months before bottling, unfined and unfiltered. The lees contact adds texture and a faint savouriness to the mid-palate without adding any of the vanilla or wood tannin that barrel ageing brings.
Vi del Mas follows a shorter path: eight months on fine lees in stainless steel, then bottling unfined, unfiltered, and without oak. The process is the same in principle, compressed in time, producing a lighter, earlier-drinking bottle.
For the limited Haggan Vino Tinto, vinification took a different route: 40% of the fruit fermented as whole clusters alongside 60% destemmed fruit, in open 1,000-litre vats with natural yeast. Maceration ran two to four days with daily foot-treading before fermentation continued in small stainless-steel tanks after pressing. The approach produced more colour extraction and spice character than the standard range.
Wines
The range at Celler Comunica is compact. Two wines form the core; a third appears as a limited release.
Suc de Sauló is the main red. It draws on organically farmed vines between 25 and 70 years old, planted on granite at 370 metres. After hand harvest and basket pressing, it ages for 22 months on fine lees in stainless steel. The extended lees contact gives the wine a textured mid-palate, while the granite site and the absence of oak keep the acidity bright and the fruit character clean. Garnatxa Negra and Garnatxa Peluda are the backbone grapes, with Carignan contributing darker fruit, firmer tannin, and grip on the finish.
Vi del Mas is made from Garnatxa Negra and Syrah grown on the same granite. Eight months on fine lees in stainless steel, then bottled unfined, unfiltered, and unoaked. Shorter lees contact produces a more open, forward wine: red-fruited, lighter in body, with less mid-palate weight than Suc de Sauló but the same freshness.
Haggan Vino Tinto is a limited release produced for the Swedish market. Whole-cluster fermentation at 40% gives the wine a spiced, herbal note alongside the red and dark fruit from the Grenache-dominant blend. Its composition has been listed as both 70% Garnacha, 30% Syrah and 70% Garnacha, 20% Syrah, 10% Carignan across different sources. The vinification, foot-treading and open-vat natural fermentation, differs from the rest of the range.
In The Glass
Suc de Sauló opens with dried cherry, pomegranate, and a faint mineral lift that reads as warm stone rather than earth. On the palate, the lees ageing adds roundness and a light creaminess to the mid-palate, but the overall register stays lean: the acidity is firm and fresh, the tannins present but fine-grained, and the finish runs longer than the wine's weight might suggest. Carignan's contribution shows in the darker fruit underneath and a slight grippy pull at the back of the palate.
Vi del Mas is softer and more immediate: red cherry and raspberry from the Grenache, a floral lift from the younger profile, and Syrah adding depth and a quiet peppery warmth. The finish is clean and short, without the structural depth of Suc de Sauló.
Across the range, the absence of oak means every aromatic note traces directly to grape or lees. There is no vanilla or toasted wood to soften or distract. What rises from the glass is what the granite and the vine produced.
A Bottle To Understand It
Suc de Sauló is the bottle to begin with. It is a red wine from old vines on granite at 370 metres, aged 22 months on fine lees in stainless steel, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. The palate is textured rather than heavy: fresh acidity, fine tannin, a mineral mid-palate, and a finish that carries the Carignan's grip long after the fruit has faded. No oak has touched it. Start here to understand what Aguilar and Morillo are building at Mas d'en Cosme, what granite produces in Montsant, and what two years on lees does when no barrel is involved.
Anecdote
Pep Aguilar and Patri Morillo did not name their wine after a vineyard or a family. They named it for the soil. Sauló is the Catalan word for the granitic decomposed sand beneath Mas d'en Cosme: sandy, free-draining, low in nutrients, the specific kind of ground they had been looking for before they found the estate. Aguilar and Morillo describe the search for a granite-soiled site as the founding condition of their project. They wanted to make fresh, vibrant wines and understood that granite, in Montsant, was where that style came from. When they finally had the estate and made the wine, the name wrote itself. Suc de Sauló, juice of the granite sand, is their stated aim pressed into a label. Every bottle carries it.
Final Word
Celler Comunica makes a short range of organic reds from Falset that deliberately run against the richer, more extracted style common in Montsant. The freshness comes from the granite, the vine age, and the decision to age on lees without any oak. Suc de Sauló is the fullest argument for what Aguilar and Morillo are doing at Mas d'en Cosme.
Sources
- https://www.cellercomunica.com/en/who-we-are/
- https://www.villagewineimports.com/producer/celler-comunica/
- https://wineguide.wein.plus/celler-comunica/
- https://www.vinhaggorna.se/vin/haggan-vino-tinto
- https://www.cellercomunica.com/en/