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Hence the wines can be slow to sell, and there are some less likeable older vintages around. With its tiny vineyards and the difficulty of working them, Priorat will never be cheap. But it does need poor soil, so doesn’t work so well in our Penedès vineyards.’ Says Mireia Torres of the eponymous winery: ‘We love Cariñena – it gives lower alcohol, and ages well. as Valenti llagostera of Mas Doix, puts it: ‘These are wake-up wines, not sofa wines.’Ĭariñena needs to be handled with care. There is often a distinct freshness typical of Garnacha grown at the highest altitudes on red clay. Yet the best Priorat wines share a clear identity, usually with an inky colour and a dense, rich texture. Given the diversity of the land, there is no likelihood of him or anyone producing a textbook or recipe wine. I don’t have any inherited obligation to work it’s just my passion.’ Fresh approach José Mas of Costers del Priorat is typical: a ‘newcomer’ who has settled in and earned his reputation: ‘Some people work in wine because they have family vineyards. ‘as recently as the early 1990s’, according to one producer.Īround the millennium another era began, with a new generation of businesses starting up and winemakers reviving family wineries and old vineyards. Partly as a result of this isolation and abandonment, Priorat has lived through times of serious impoverishment. except perhaps its isolation and glorious mystery.
There’s nothing consistent about the place. (DOQ? That’s the top rating for any DO in Spain, only shared with Rioja, where it’s known as DOC Then there are the dizzyingly different vineyard aspects the slopes, which range from 5% to a precipitous 95% and the average rainfall, which varies from 450mm to 750mm across the DOQ. Yet look at any geological map and you’ll be dazzled by the contrasting selection of soils. Priorat is all about the slate: llicorella. There’s scarcely a straight line in the place. If you want to drive from A to B – no chance.