A little village of 400 people hidden in the hills of the Catalan countryside inland from Tarragona, exists mostly for its co-operative. Growing olives and a little cereal, but mostly grapes with around 220 hectares of vineyard, Capçanes, alone in the Montsant DO almost certainly has more old vine Garnacha than the whole of Priorato. Lauded some years ago by the International Herald Tribune as one of the best co-ops in the world, Capçanes was at the forefront of the movement to revitalise the wine production and economy of the Priorato region. There are around 70 families involved in the co-op and the management take their well being to heart. They have run educational programmes to convince the growers to cultivate organically, more to persuade the growers to minimise the risks they run while handling potentially dangerous chemicals as much as to preserve the environment. Nowadays over 50% of the vineyards are organic while around 90ha's have been certified.
