Winemaking at Montgó

Since obtaining his cellar master's degree in 1995, our winemaker, David Tofterup, has made wine in California, Chile, France, South Africa and, since 2001, with the Montgó Collection in the southeast of Spain.

When harvest starts, each varietal in each block of each vineyard is monitored. When it is ready, it is picked by hand and brought to the winery for its own, separate vinification. By doing this that we have a wide range of aromas, flavors, textures and colors from which we assemble the final blends.

Controlling the temperature of the fermenting wines is critical - for our Montgó Chardonnay, we need to conserve the delicate aromas and the acidity that makes them refreshing. This is also true to some extent for red wines - we control the fermentation temperatures throughout the process, but allow them to rise towards the end of fermentation to fully extract the color and tannins.

Our Montgó Chardonnay is aged "sur lie" (on the yeast lees) in stainless steel tanks for four months, which add to the fullness of the wine. Our Montgó Rosada is not aged at all - we want the fresh fruit flavors to stand out. Our Montgó Monastrell-Shiraz is aged for six months in small, French (70%) and American (30%) oak barrels that are one or three years old, just enough for the oak flavors to enhance, not overwhelm the natural fruit aromas and flavors of the wines. Our barrel-select Picos del Montgó ages in new French oak barrels for 10 to 12 months - the power of the old-vine wine is well matched by the oak flavors and tannins. Our philosophy is that we do not want to over use the oak, in all wines we want a delicate, yet ripe and recognizable fruit aroma and flavour supported by well balanced notes of good quality oak, therefore our oak barrels are from selected cooperages (Seguin Moreau, François Freres, Dargaud Jaggle, Radoux, Taransaud).