doq priorat

    Priorat Part 2: The stark land that makes opulent wines
    July 31, 2019

    Some of the regions top wine producers and their best wines are listed in this blog. Visit, or buy a bottle if you get the chance. It will be a worthy spend.

    Just two hours drive from Barcelona, Priorat is a wine region like no other. Steep, stark with a unique terroir. The rapid strides made by the region in the last few decades is a testament to its award winning wines, worthy of ageing and critical appreciation. As pioneering producer René Barbier says, “We think we are on our way to become one of the references for exceptional wines and serious work.”

    Clos Mogador

    If the name sounds French it is because its owner René Barbier, is a French expat in Priorat, acknowledged as being one of the pioneers who triggered the Priorat resurgence in the 1990s along with Alvaro Palacios. Today, the Barbier family makes spectacular premium-only wines in the village of Gratallops.

    Annual production: About 40,000  bottles

    My picks:

    Clos Mogador 2016: 50% Garnacha, 25% Carinena, 16% Syrah, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. 30,000 bottles

    • The wine cellar at Clos Mogador
    • Wine tourism: visitors walk around the Clos Mogador vineyards.
      Main image: Clos Mogador

    Manyetes 2015: 100% Cariñena. 4700 bottles.

    Nelin 2016: Stunning white crianza, proves there is more to Priorat than its red wines. White Garnacha and Macabeo. 7000 bottles

    Barbier explains: “Priorat managed to avoid the chemical aggression of the 60’s, when an aggressive expansive monoculture was mainstream.  Therefore, we kept a balanced flora and environment, and we managed to start planting again just at the time when the eco-friendly sensitivity started.   Priorat is an old region that missed the era of a disastrous, aggressive agriculture.  And it is indeed well-known among the wine specialists, as much as La Rioja.  Our movement in the 90’s meant that a lot of vineyards were replanted, that is why we have about 3/4 vines from those years, and only 1/4 are really old ones, some of them centenary.”

    Although the resurgence has been credited with the foresight of the group (Ed: Occasionionally known as the Famous Five, the pioneers of the 1990s were Rene Barbier of Clos Mogador, Alvaro Palacios of Alvaro Palacios, Dafne Glorian of Clos Erasmus, Carles Pastrana of Clos Oba and Jose Luis Perez of Clos Martinet) dominated by outsiders, Barbier insists, “We know that we are nothing without the deep roots of the Priorat people.  We know that success also depends on competing in  quality, which is our driving force.”


    Camí Manyetes, 43737-Gratallops Spain
    Website:     http://www.closmogador.com

    Mas Doix

    Mas Doix is a family run estate by Doix/Llagostera family known for its award-winning wines made in tiny quantities.

    Says founder Valenti Llagostera, “In the 20th century, our grapes, mainly Garnacha, went to the cooperatives to make a rustic, high acid wine, with a lot of colour. It was used just to improve other wines… in Spain or outside Spain. With the arrival of Rene Barbier and Alvaro Palacios….our wines began to be made very differently, in a different style.We do have a very distinctive soil and terroir! Schist, dry climate, the Mediterranean sun…this means low yields and concentration. Mas Doix’ wines are full of  freshness and elegance.”

    • The founders of Mas Doix
    • Mas Doix wines

    My picks:

    1902 2015: Made of 100% old-vine Cariñena grapes – 110 years old. The vintages have topped 90+ points in reviews since 2009, the first vintage. 850 numbered bottles made.

    Doix 2015: 55% old Cariñena (110 years old), 45% red Garnacha. Also gathering 90 + point scores for its vintages. 6000 bottles made.

    Mas Doix also has a running and hiking route, and are noted for their annual Mas Doix race. (See website)

    Mas Doix, Carrer Major, 56, 43376 Poboleda Spain. Website: http://www.masdoix.com/

    Winery visit and tasting from €20  per person 

    Clos Figueras

    Another expat, Christopher Cannan joined the pioneers when he was persuaded by Barbier and Palacios to buy an abandoned vineyard near Gratallops which was up for sale in 1997. Today, Clos Figueras (“Clos”  because it consisted of 10 hectares all in one piece) wines are highly rated, and Cannan, who had his roots in the Bordeaux wine trade, is known for his excellent range. The vineyard covers about 11 hectares. The total size of the property is 18 hectares, including olive trees and forests. Like many Priorat producers, Clos Figueras produces its own olive oil and honey.

    My picks:

    • Christopher Cannan with his daughter Anne-Josephine
    • The wines of Clos Figueras

    Clos Figueres 85% Grenache and Cariñena (vines are approximately 30-60 years),10% Syrah 5% Mourvedre and Cabernet Sauvignon

     Font de la Figuera white wine : Viognier 60%, White Grenache 35%, Chenin Blanc 5%.

    Total production about 38,000 bottles.

    Clos Figueras, Carrer de la Font, 38, 
    43737 Gratallops Spain. Website:    https://www.closfigueras.info/

    Winery visit from €15 per person 

    Clos Figueras runs a cosy restaurant Les Figueras, in Gratallops specialising in a menu created from local, organic produce. It also has a B&B, rooms from €99 onwards.

    Cellar Burgos Porta

    Mas Sinen is the name of the 15 hectares of organic vineyards and winery run by Poboleda native Salvador Burgos, a man of incredible energy and enthusiasm. Situated on a steep hillside outside the village, where only mules, not machines, work the land, Mas Sinen produces 4 wines, some from rare pre-phylloxera grapes which yield tiny quantities of juice. His friend, Sergi Mendez shows us around, explaining the mineral-rich content of the water that trickles down the hills through the llicorella soil is potable. (Indeed, we tasted the water – it was sweet and pure.) “We try to put our terroir into the bottle,” says Burgos. The yield is so tiny, that 2 vines yield no more than a glass of wine. The grey  stone-faced winery is small but old, boasting of basket-presses ranged alongside steel tanks. In the tasting room, we taste the 2018 Mas Sinen. It is still a baby, Burgos declares, “It will be ready in 2021, after 6 months in barrel.” Burgos’ wines are ageworthy, but he shrugs this away with “Yes, it can age. But wine is made to be enjoyed, and because Priorat production is so small, its wines are rarely aged. They are drunk very quickly.”

    Watching Burgos whisk around the winery, darting up to the tasting room where visitors await, I comment that he doesn’t walk, he runs. “No, corrects Mendez,” He flies. Priorat demands energy. It is a tough land.”

    • Burgos Porta’s Mas Sinen in Poboleda village
    • Salvador Burgos shows us the pure, sweet water that runs through his vineyards
    • The llicorella soil of Priorat at Mas Sinen
    • Vineyards: Mas Sinen. Pics: Ruma Singh

    My picks:

    Mas Sinen 2010: 40 % Garnacha, 23% Cariñena, 17% Syrah, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. 7000 bottles

    Mas Sinen Coster 2012: 55% Garnacha, 45% Cariñena, 2100 bottles

    Mas Sinen Blanc 2016: 100% Garnacha Blanc. 700 bottles

    Mas Sinen, 43376 Poboleda, Spain. Website: http://massinen.com/

    Winery visit and tasting from person: €12 per person

    Priorat Facts

     La Rioja and Priorat are the only two wine producing areas in Spain which have the label of Denominación de Origen Cualificada, i.e., Qualified  Apellation of Origin. While Rioja is on the radar of wine tourists, Priorat is less so, making it a hidden delight for wine lovers looking for top-rated, elegant, award-winning wines in a quiet, little-explored zone.

    Els Noms de la Terra or the Names of the Land

    An ambitious classification project, the first of its kind in Spain.

    First level: DOQ Priorat level

    Second: Vi de Vila (village),  wines from Priorat’s 12 villages

    Third: Paratge wines – quality wines from specific areas.

    Top classifications: Vinya Classificada – bottlings from exceptional single vineyards – and Gran vinya classificada.

    Unique: The rare Velles Vinyes category for ancient vines over 75 years.

    The Consell Regulador DOQ Priorat has identified each vineyard and plot in an effort to give provenance to every bottle of Priorat wine. This will give authenticity and value to the already-high value Priorat wines.

    There are many more excellent producers in Priorat, both big and small making award-winning wines. This article represents just a few of the ones I had the chance to visit or interact with and are known by reputation. 

    Visitors will find a wealth of excellent wine from the producers of Priorat. For details on visiting Priorat and things to do, see the Priorat Tourism website
    www.turismepriorat.org

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    Tastings

    Priorat: touched by divinity -I
    July 17, 2019

    There is something mystical and magical about the tiny Spanish DOCa of Priorat. From its standout wines to its stark beauty, this is a wine region to wine lovers discover

    Last night I dreamt I was in Priorat again.

    In a four-wheel drive, I was careening down the single winding road linking its tiny villages studded with sharp hairpin bends, on my way to the Espai Priorat conference at the Carthusian Monastery of Scala Dei. I dreamed I was tasting the wines again, feeling their silken weight on my palate; the rich, fresh, fruit-laden notes expressing themselves in wines that were still very young but would grow into beautiful versions of their younger selves.

    Alas, summer is here and Priorat is far away. But no better way to revisit that stark, majestic land than to write up a few notes on the wine producers I met, the wines I tasted. These are places a wine lover must put on his bucket list. Yet, Priorat has small wineries which are simply constructed, there are no tour guides, no Gehry-designed swirling roofs that dazzle visitors as at Marquis de Riscal, that award-winning golden-topped winery in Rioja, which notched up 9th place on the 50 Best Vineyards 2019 list.

    What Priorat does is make friends and influence people through its spectacular wines.

    I wrote a story on my visit to Priorat for The Hindu Weekend. But there is still more information I would like to share. I’m putting it into this series of blogs, where I hope it would be useful to wine lovers intrigued enough to visit this rare gem of a region.

    • The iconic L’ Ermita vineyard at Gratallops, Priorat.
      (Main picture) Gratallops village seen from Alvaro Palacios’ winery. Pics: Ruma Singh

    Espai Priorat, Priorat’s biannual conference that interfaces its wine producers with the world of wine journalists and sommeliers, was held in Cartoixa d’Escaladei, the 12th-century monastery built by the region’s all-powerful Carthusian monks who set up home in Priorat, recognizing the region’s climate and soil’s great potential. Over centuries, they became influential and rich, owning vineyards as far as the eye could see. Priorat’s close connection with the divine is still evident: the symbol of Priorat is the ‘escaladei’ or ladder of God. Legend has it that a shepherd fell asleep one night on the hills under the magnificent Serra de Montsant, and in his dreams (possibly fuelled by wine?) he saw an angel ascending a ladder up to the heavens. This spot is where the monastery was built and exists even today, much of it in ruins, save for the great hall where the conference was held.

    So the new Priorat, with its gentler, more elegant and restrained wines is barely 30 years old.

    Priorat the wine region juxtaposes both old and new – after the Carthusians, the vines flourished for centuries until the phylloxera devastation of the late 19th century. The Spanish financial crisis worsened the situation. It was only in the 1980s that Priorat was rebuilt by a band of intrepid wine producers, many of them outsiders to the region, who injected fresh life and a new interpretation of the wine. Hitherto, Priorat was known for its massive, high alcohol wines, a reputation that dogs it to the present day.

    Terroir: Located 200 to 600 m above sea level, Priorat is marked by steep hilly slopes which make the vineyards almost unworkable by machine. Mules and horses are the preferred way of tilling the land. Its mineral-rich metamorphic schist soil is known locally as llicorella, the brittle grey, red and black stones lining the hills everywhere. The climate is arid, causing the vines to drive their roots deep into the soil, in search of water and nutrients. Yield is low, and production is often tiny. The difficulty with terrain, the dry continental climate makes water scarce.

    • Alvaro Palacios introduces Els Noms de la Terra at Espai Priorat
    • L’Ermita rests in its foudre at the Alvaro Palacios winery in Gratallops

    Grapes: Garnacha (Grenache) leads the way as the region’s top grape, with Cariñena (Carignan) gaining new popularity for its elegant single varietal wines. Priorat wines are predominantly red, with a small percentage of white grapes planted. International varieties are finding their way there – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah among others.

    The Priorat producers

    Priorat is at the same time old (think the Carthusian monks) and new (the revival in the 1980s), both ancient and modern. The wines are rich, elegant and on par with the world’s best while being far less easily available.

    Should you be keen to plan a visit to Priorat or taste its wines, here are some wine producers you should know about.

    1. Alvaro Palacios
      Polígono Industrial 6, Parcela 26, 43737 Gratallops, Spain

    The only Spanish producer whose wines are snapped up en primeur, making it among the best wine brands known in Spain. Born into a well-known winemaking family in Rioja, he was one of the ‘revivalists’ of the 1980s and 90s responsible for the resurgence of Priorat.

    Alas, his sleek winery in Gratallops is not open for regular winery visits. We drew the lucky short straw, I guess, as our group of somms and journalists was taken around the winery by his cellar master, Oriol Castells I Gasulla. The winery, built in the 1990s is already too small for the growing demand for his wines, virtually impossible to find in retail. The imposing domed chai where the barrels rested, were marked with the names of iconic vineyards. Pre-visit, we were driven around the vineyards (45 hectares bordered by the Erbo river), including the iconic L’Ermita, whose single-vineyard Grenache sells for upwards of €1000. Says Castells, “In Priorat, you can make full-bodies wines that are fresh.” Indeed, ‘fresh’ was a word I heard often from the winemakers and was evident in the wines I tasted.

    Production: 400,000 bottles of all labels.

    Wines:

    Alvaro Palacios Finca Dofi: His oldest vineyard, bought in 1990. 90% Garnacha, 9% Cariñena, 1% white grapes. From €75, 20,000 bottles.

    • The domed chai at Alvaro Palacios (left); Vineyards at Gratallops

    Alvaro Palacios L’Ermita Velles Vinyes 2018:78% Garnacha, 20% Cariñena, 2% white grapes. This iconic 1.5 hectare vineyard and its 80- year-old vines (planted 1939) is Priorat’s first-ever Grand Vinya Classificada, the most prestigious wine made in Priorat, and arguably in Spain. It nails near-perfect scores and prices from €1000. Production about 1000 bottles.

    Alvaro Palacios 2018 Les Aubaguetes: 70% Garnacha, 28% Cariñena, 2% white grapes from a 118-year-old vineyard planted in 1900. From €360, about 1200 bottles.

    Alvaro Palacios Vi de Vila 2018: 74% Garnacha, 25% Cariñena, 1% white grapes. From €50, around 20,000 bottles.

    Alvaro Palacios La Baixada 2018: The latest add on to the portfolio, 98% Garnacha, 2% white grapes 24 year old vines. 2400 bottles made.

    Look out for the next blog Priorat II: Top producers Clos Mogador, Clos Figueras, Mas Doix, Gratavinum, Gran Predicat, Burgos Porta and tips for visiting Priorat

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    Tastings  / Winery Visits