Spain · Priorat

Costers del Siurana

A founding Priorat estate that helped build the region's modern reputation from scratch, making mineral-driven reds from 50 hectares of old-vine parcels on a 13th-century property in Gratallops.

The producer

Carles Pastrana arrived in Gratallops in the 1980s when Priorat was a forgotten slate-hill region producing bulk wine with almost no commercial infrastructure. He was one of four producers who changed that. Together with Mariona Jarque, Pastrana built Costers del Siurana around the Mas d'En Bruno estate, a 13th-century working farm with approximately 50 hectares of vineyard and vines ranging from 10 to 100 years old. The Montsant mountains rise to 1,166 metres along the northern boundary, moderating temperatures and extending the growing season across the hillside parcels below.

The wines run against the heaviest end of the Priorat style spectrum. Where many producers in the DOCa push toward maximum extraction and dense tannin, Costers del Siurana holds to mineral character and firm acidity, a deliberate choice carried from the founding years through to the current winemaking team of Isidre Sanahujes and Joan Jarque. Clos de l'Obac, the founding red blend from estate parcels in Gratallops, remains the commercial anchor: dark berry and ripe plum fruit, a background of warm spice, firm acidity that keeps the wine forward rather than heavy, and tannins built for proportion rather than power.

Known for

Mineral-driven red blends from old-vine Priorat DOCa parcels, led by Clos de l'Obac

Notable facts

The story

The Eight-Year Winery

In 1979, Carles Pastrana was 27 years old and Mariona Jarque was 19 when they started farming in Priorat. There was almost nothing to build on: no established négociant network, no modern winery infrastructure, no international market for the region's wine. They worked the Mas d'En Bruno parcels for eight years before the operation had a formal name. When Costers del Siurana was registered in 1987 and Clos de l'Obac went to market, the wine carried a producer that had been quietly farming the same hillside since before Priorat meant anything to anyone outside a small circle of Catalan growers.

From the atlas

Costers del Siurana

At A Glance

The Producer

Carles Pastrana arrived in Gratallops in the 1980s when Priorat was a largely forgotten slate-hill region in southern Catalonia, producing rough bulk wine with almost no commercial winemaking infrastructure. He was one of four producers who changed that. Together with Mariona Jarque, Pastrana founded Costers del Siurana in 1987, built their operation around the Mas d'En Bruno estate, and introduced a style that ran against what would become the dominant Priorat register: their wines lean toward mineral character and clean acidity rather than the high-extraction, deeply concentrated end of the appellation. Clos de l'Obac, the estate's founding red blend, became the commercial anchor and still carries the producer's name into international markets. Current winemaking falls to Isidre Sanahujes and Joan Jarque.

Place

Priorat DOCa sits in the province of Tarragona, roughly 45 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean coast. It is one of only two Denominació d'Origen Qualificada zones in Spain, a classification shared with Rioja, reserved for appellations with legally defined quality controls beyond the standard DO framework. Gratallops is a small village at the interior of that zone, surrounded by steep hillside vineyards and the kind of terrain that keeps yields low and forces vines to work hard. Bottles labelled Priorat DOCa come from this territory, and the classification on the label is a signal that the wine meets a higher regulatory threshold than most Spanish red. At Costers del Siurana, that label marks wines from their own parcels around Gratallops, grown under natural farming practices.

Soil And Site

The Montsant mountains, rising to 1,166 metres, form the northern boundary of the Priorat zone and moderate temperatures across the vineyards below. They act as a barrier against cold air descending from the Catalonian interior, extending the growing season and preventing abrupt temperature swings that would push grapes toward either under-ripeness or sharp heat stress. The Mas d'En Bruno estate, the main vineyard property, is a 13th-century working farm with vines that have been cultivated on the same land for centuries. The holding covers approximately 50 hectares, with vine age ranging from 10 to 100 years. Older vines in the Priorat landscape produce smaller, more concentrated fruit clusters, which feeds directly into the extract and weight of the finished wine.

Story

Pastrana and Jarque began their venture in 1979, eight years before they formally registered Costers del Siurana as a winery. Those eight years were not idle. The 1980s in Priorat were a period of near-total obscurity: the region had a handful of Carthusian monastery-influenced growers and little else that the international market would recognise. Pastrana committed to the area before there was any commercial logic to doing so, farming parcels at Mas d'En Bruno and working out how to make estate wine in a place with no modern model to follow. By 1987, the winery had a name and a founding red: Clos de l'Obac. Within a decade, Priorat had transformed from an obscure footnote into one of Spain's most discussed wine regions, and Pastrana's early commitment was part of what made that argument credible. The estate has farmed under natural principles across its history, a consistent thread from the founding years through to the current winemaking team.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 50 hectares at Mas d'En Bruno include both indigenous and international grape varieties. Vine age is a practical resource: older vines produce fewer bunches per plant, concentrating flavour into smaller volumes of fruit, and in Priorat's terrain that concentration arrives alongside the mineral character of hillside-grown grapes. The estate farms naturally, which in practice means minimal intervention in the vineyard and a working philosophy that treats the land as a long-term asset rather than a high-output production system. The winemaking approach favours the elegance end of the Priorat spectrum, a deliberate choice that separates Costers del Siurana from producers who push toward maximum extraction and deep tannin.

Wines

Clos de l'Obac is the flagship red blend, grown from estate parcels in Gratallops and the wine that established the producer's market position. It is a dry red that draws on both indigenous and international varieties, carrying dark berry fruit, ripe plum, and a background of warm spice. The acidity is firm enough to give the wine lift and length rather than heaviness, and the tannins are present but not built for shock. Dolç de l'Obac is a sweet wine from the estate; production method and full sensory profile are not confirmed beyond its classification as a dessert wine. Usatg appears as a further label in the range. Across the range, the producer's consistent orientation is toward mineral character and drinkable proportion rather than the biggest possible concentration.

In The Glass

Clos de l'Obac opens with dark berry fruit and ripe plum, followed by a subtle warmth of spice that integrates into the mid-palate rather than sitting on top. The acidity gives the wine a clean, forward movement through the mouth, which keeps the fruit from reading as heavy even at full Priorat ripeness. Tannins are firm and even, providing a backbone without roughness, and the finish holds both fruit and mineral character. The overall register is precise and controlled rather than extracted and dense, a consequence of natural farming, hillside vine age, and a deliberate winemaking choice to preserve freshness.

A Bottle To Understand It

Clos de l'Obac is the first bottle. It is a dry red blend from the estate's own Gratallops parcels, with dark berry and plum fruit, a spice note, firm acidity, and structured tannin. The wine sits clearly within Priorat DOCa without trying to be the appellation's heaviest expression. Buy it to understand what Priorat tastes like when the winemaker is working toward elegance and mineral lift rather than maximum weight.

Anecdote

In 1979, Carles Pastrana was 27 years old and Mariona Jarque was 19 when they decided to make wine in Priorat. There was almost nothing to build on: no established négociant network, no modern winery infrastructure, no international market interest in the region. They farmed the Mas d'En Bruno parcels for eight years before the winery had a formal name. When Costers del Siurana was registered in 1987 and Clos de l'Obac went to market, the wine carried the name of a producer that had been quietly farming the same hillside since before Priorat meant anything to anyone outside Catalonia.

Final Word

Costers del Siurana is one of the four estates that turned Priorat from an obscure bulk-wine region into an internationally traded DOCa. The producer's particular contribution was a style that favoured mineral character and clean acidity over maximum concentration, and it has held that line across nearly four decades. Clos de l'Obac is the entry point: a dry red from century-old and younger vines on a 13th-century estate, shaped by the Montsant mountains to the north and farmed under natural principles from the beginning.

Sources

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