2020 Castell del Remei Gotim Bru Costers del Segre 750 ml

Winegrowing in Costers del Segre is about navigating extremes. Hot summers. Freezing winters. Scant rainfall. But find an ideal high-elevation perch in its wildly varied landscape, and you’ve struck viticultural gold. 

Just ask Castell del Remei.  

They’re one of the oldest and most important estates in Costers del Segre. Founded in 1780, they farm vines organically on the mountainsides around a picturesque castle, where they leverage the region’s climatic tensions to turn out expressive, ageworthy wines. 

Gotim Bru is their flagship, and the 2020 vintage is impeccably balanced—both lush and graceful, energetic and polished, with layers of dark fruit, spice, and cedar buttressed by generous tannins. It’s a fascinating blend that pairs the Spanish Garnacha Tinta and Tempranillo with the French varieties Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Many Spanish-wine lovers know Priorat, but Costers del Segre to the north deserves some attention too. It’s an intriguing and diverse region, comprising seven disparate subzones with various soils and elevations. Castell del Remei’s vineyards occupy some of the region’s higher altitudes. They were the first Catalan estate to use the Bordeaux model of a winery surrounded by vineyards, and they planted most of their vines in gravel-rich soils around 2,300–2,600 feet above sea level. Here, winds temper the summer heat and cooler nights preserve vibrant acidity. 

That focus on mountain terroir comes from winemaker Tomàs Cusiné, one of the region’s stalwart enologists. His family purchased the winery in the 80s, and he took over full operations in 2014. Equipped with Remei’s exceptional terroir and an enviable talent for blending, his 2020 Gotim Bru is a lush, graceful winner from an under-the-radar region.