Scala Dei Masdeu
Masdeu is a wine made from a single vineyard with red Grenache planted in goblet style in 1974. The soil is limestone clay and the vineyard reaches an altitude of 800 metres in in its highest part with a south easterly orientation. Made using traditional methods and aged for around 18 months in a mixture of cement tanks and oak foudres.
- Robert Parker: 96 points (Masdeu 2011 and 2014)
- Robert Parker: 95 points (Masdeu 2012/13)
- Robert Parker: 96 points (Masdeu 2011 and 2014)
- Robert Parker: 95 points (Masdeu 2012/13)
- Peñín Guide: 92 points (Masdeu 2012)
- Peñin Guide: 95 points (Masdeu 2013/14)
- Guide to Catalonia wines 2015: 98 points (Masdeu 2011) best wine from Catalonia
- Wine Spectator 2017: 94 points (Masdeu 2013)
- Wine Spectator 2018: 94 points (Masdeu 2014)
- Wine & Spirits: 95 points (Masdeu 2013)
- Guide to Catalonia wines 2019: 98 points
- Andreas Larson 2018: 95 points (Masdeu 2014)
- Varieties: 100% Red Grenache
- Alcohol degree: 15.5
- Total tartaric acid: 5.5 g / l
- Ph: 3,4
- Contains sulphites
Masdeu is a vineyard planted in terraces, vines are goblet style and located on the slope of the Montsant mountain, it is Cellers de Scala Dei’s highest vineyard reaching around 800 meters on the highest terrace. The soil is red clay at the lower end, gradually increasing the limestone content until we reach the higher terrace with a totally limestone soil. Orientation is southeast and was replanted during the twentieth century, in 1974. It is one of the vineyards that the monks had planted with Grenache centuries before.
With this wine we wanted to recover a heritage that existed in the Priorat and that took us to the first bottling from Cellers de Scala Dei. So, having thoroughly investigated how those bottles of the 70s had been made we started making Masdeu. Its harvest takes place during the third week of October, in small boxes, using all of the stems during its fermentation, and crushed grapes (not whole). It is fermented in small cement deposits of 3,500 litres, imitating the temperature peaks of the last century’s fermentations, without adding any commercial yeast. It is then pressed in the same cement tank.