Sara Pérez of Mas Martinet and Cims de Porrera is among the accomplished Priorat winemakers branching out into Montsant, a DO whose future she deems "brilliant" if producers avoid falling into the trap of making "facile" wines. Photo: Gerry Dawes
Old Tarragona's powerful new-age redsBy Gerry DawesOver the last 20 years, I have traveled to the region at least a half-dozen times. Every return visit underscores the fact that, despite its lack of size, Tarragona - and Priorat in particular - clearly has the potential to compete with Europe's greatest warm-weather wine-producing areas, including the best from the Rhône Valley and the whole of Italy.
Christopher Canaan - president of Bordeaux-based Europvin, an importing company and wine merchant that has taken a strong position in both Priorat and Montsant (another of Tarragona's prime wine areas) by adding such names as Clos Mogador, Clos Martinet, Laurona and Cims de Porrera to an already enviable portfolio of Spanish wines that includes Vega Sicilia, Rioja Alta and Lustau - says without hesitation, "Priorat already ranks with the great wine regions of the Mediterranean."
Now Priorat and the newly created Montsant Denominación de Origen (DO) are turning out dark, powerful, oak-lashed wines from old vines, and drawing international attention to this once-slumbering backcountry region. In fact, these two Tarragona DOs (Priorat and Rioja hold Spain's only DOC designations - the "C" stands
for calificada, and it connotes a stature similar to Italy's DOCG) can be credited with growing the sexiest Spanish wines on the market. Yet one person's blockbuster is another's fruit bomb, which brings up the debate that has raged for several years among Spanish and American wine critics, who have either gushed deep purple-black-fruit-infused prose about these wines or bashed them with equal gusto.
The more ardent admirers of the big and concentrated Tarragona-bred wines seem to prefer those with opaque color, very ripe fruit, high alcohol and loads of new French oak. As heavy-handed as these sometimes massive wines can be, however, even the most lavish are still not quite as powerful as many California reds. Despite what smitten critics are saying, some of the wines from Tarragona's DOs can suffer from low-acid, high alcohol and overripe fruit - deficiencies often exacerbated by inexperienced winemaking. Others, though, are starting to come into their own as the more gifted winemakers, especially in Priorat and to some degree in Montsant, come of age. There are also flashes of promise in Terra Alta and even similar glimmers in the wines of the Tarragona DO, the other two major wine areas in the province.
Wine pundit Robert M. Parker, Jr., a considerably more influential critic than Pliny, recently predicted that Priorat (Priorato in Spanish) would, within a decade, surpass both La Rioja and Ribera del Duero as the top wine region in Spain. Due to its small size, however, and the geographical limits of Priorat's slate soil (licorella in Catalan; pizarra in Spanish), which accounts for its famous terroir, that forecast may not actually come to fruition. Priorat has just 4,000 acres of registered vineyards. Rioja, by contrast, has more than 150,000, which, if you count only ten percent - a conservative estimate - as producing top-quality wine, is still nearly four times what Priorat is capable of putting out, even if every last drop were rated 90 points or more. Nonetheless, there is much worth reporting about in Tarragona.
In ancient times, Tarragona was a major Roman colony, and the capital city from which the province takes its name is filled with significant Roman ruins, including a seaside amphitheater. The Romans, and prior to their tenure the Greeks, made wine here, but the "modern" winemaking history of the region dates to the 12th century and the Carthusian monastery, or priory (priorat in Catalan), from which the Priorat area takes its name. The Scala Dei (Ladder to God) winery was founded in 1973 on the grounds of the once-magnificent monastery. For nearly two decades, its rustic but palatable wines were the only ones from the region known to the outside world.
What has happened in the province of Tarragona over a short span of years is nothing short of mind-boggling. Rather than mere change, there has been upheaval every bit as dramatic as the ancient geological events that created the region's strikingly beautiful landscape. "I do not know of any other district that has come from near oblivion to world-wide recognition in such a short time," Canaan says. "Immense progress has been made in the Tarragona area, especially in Priorat and Montsant, over the past 15 years."
The surge in quality can be credited largely to five once-fledgling producers whose names are now well known, with some approaching cult status - René Barbier (Clos Mogador), Carles Pastrana (Clos de L'Obac), Josep Lluís Pérez (Mas Martinet), Daphne Glorian (Clos Erasmus) and Alvaro Palacios (L'Ermita). They descended upon Priorat in 1989 to make wine together. Their exceptional achievements caused a ripple effect that spurred the momentum. Canaan notes: "The reasons are multiple - the quality revolution led by the wines of the 'new wave' Priorat winemakers; recognition by the press of progress being made thanks to a concerted commercial effort by such producers as René Barbier and Alvaro Palacios; the establishment of the Montsant DO, from what was originally the Tarragona-Falset subzone; and the world thirst for red wines in particular, especially those of a Mediterranean style that are approachable when young, but also have power and concentration."
When I first visited Tarragona in the 1980s, and subsequently reported on Priorat as a region to watch, there were only a few cooperatives making primarily bulk wines for blending. One memorable enterprise, Masia Barril, was owned by an affable, extremely garrulous Madrid bureaucrat who transported his harvest of old-vine grapes by burro, and whose idea of temperature control was to circulate the wine through a plastic hose submerged in a pool of water next to the rustic winery.
Yet, during that same trip, a visit to Celler Cecilio, a small winery in Gratallops, one of the main towns of Priorat, which actually dates to 1954 as a DO, was an epiphany. The owner, August Vicent Robert, didn't bottle his wines at that time; he sold them in bulk to locals out of a picturesque but somewhat unkempt cellar in a stone building in the center of the village. The wines were flawed by poor winemaking techniques and were aging in barrels that were less than optimum, to put it charitably. In spite of their flaws, however, it was evident that the base wine from these old oak vats and barrels was extraordinary.
It was raw material such as this that ultimately drew those five gifted winemakers to Gratallops, now the most important wine village in the region. Palacios, from an old Rioja Baja winemaking family and today the superstar winemaker of L'Ermita fame, observes that much has changed in the 15 years since his arrival. "We have come a long way in a short time," he says. "For instance, when we began, the ambient temperature in our wineries was not controlled. Now Priorat has become one of the most dignified wine regions in the world."
He was drawn here, in part, to join René Barbier, who could well be called the godfather of modern Priorat wine because of his profound influence on the winemaking style there (as well as in Montsant). Barbier has family roots in the Rhône Valley, is related to the original René Barbier of Penedès (whose winery is now owned by Freixenet) and is a former employee of the Palacios Remondo winery in Rioja. Though distinctive, Barbier claims his style is not about making "vinos de autor," or winemaker signature wines, but "vinos de terroir," wines characterized by their site specificity and prominent mineral flavors.
Barbier and Palacios formed a cooperative team - which by 1992 had split apart - with Josep Lluís Pérez, who, since 1981 had been director of an enological school in Falset and is now one of the most respected enologists and viticulturists of Cataluña; Carles Pastana, who was until recently mayor of Gratallops and his wife, Mariona Jarque, the founders of Clos de L'Obac; and Daphne Glorian, a French-born, Swiss woman with a sophisticated, commercially tuned palate. Several years ago, Glorian married Eric Solomon, whose U.S. firm, European Cellars-Eric Solomon Selections, imports wines from several properties in Priorat and Montsant, many of which are said to be made with an eye toward the American market/palate.
In Priorat, with its potential for producing big, ripe, high-alcohol, terroir-driven wines, this talented cast of winemakers found nirvana in an era when power, extraction and new oak were gaining cachet. Pérez recalls the formative years: "From 1989 until 1993, we were all making our wines in the same facility and striving to make Bordeaux-style wines. It was René Barbier, who finally articulated the philosophy that is the basis for the modern wines of Priorat. He pointed out that we had to leave the grapes to ripen to full maturity. And we thought we should be trying to make wines primarily with foreign varieties, but it was the native garnacha and cariñena that have proven to be the foundation for the greatest wines of the region." They rediscovered the old vines native varieties, he relates, which were planted on steep hillsides, and also learned to use the foreign varieties - cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah - "to give our wines the structure to allow them to age in bottle."
Pérez's recollections illustrate the ongoing evolution of the top wines of Priorat. The editors of the popular Spanish-centric Web site Verema.com assert that "The wines of the most renowned bodegas of the Priorat, the ones that began with the modern epoch in the 1990s - Clos Mogador, Alvaro Palacios L'Ermita and Finca Dofí, Clos de L'Obac, Clos Martinet and Clos Erasmus - are all now undergoing a change in their winemaking philosophy and in winemaking techniques, searching, perhaps, for a greater balance between power and elegance." They add that in the coming years, the aforementioned wines "will undergo a process of evolution, because none of the wineries in question are content to remain static."
Sara Pérez, winemaker at Mas Martinet and Cims de Porrera, concurs. "We can achieve true greatness because we have true grandes pagos [grand cru vineyards] here, but this will require more research in refining our winemaking techniques in both our vineyards and our wineries. We are lucky because most of the winemakers have very good relationships with one another and exchange ideas and techniques. In the future, the best wines of Priorat will be fresher and more elegant in style."
Though new oak is still widely used, she endorses restraint. "Every year, many of us are working to diminish the effects of oak on our wines. Using 100 percent new oak, and new oak that has not been properly envinado [broken in by using lesser red wines or white wines to pre-condition the barrels], is an abuse." Instead, she uses epoxy-lined cement vats (once almost universal in Spain, then out of fashion, and now coming back), wooden tinos (upright vats) and only 50 percent new oak. "I break it in by fermenting our Martinet Bru [her excellent second wine] for two months and the rest is second-year oak and 10 percent is aged in the tinos," she explains.
While aging regimens are evolving, the most important factor confronting winemakers in Tarragona, the weather, is beyond their control. It is important to understand that the climates of the top Spanish wine regions of Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Toro, Rias Baixas, Rueda and Bierzo are primarily influenced by the colder waters of the Atlantic Ocean, not the Mediterranean, and often achieve natural balance of fruit, acid and alcohol seldom seen in warm-country wines such as those from Tarragona. Yet Priorat's exceptional promise is found in its unique terroir - a complex equation that includes the quality of the indigenous garnacha and cariñena grapes growing on its steep slopes; its distinctive slate soil; a growing season consisting largely of warm days, but considerably cooler nights; and the maturation of foreign varieties (cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah) planted more than a decade ago.
In Priorat, the hillsides are often precipitously steep, so most are terraced (some terraces date to the Roman occupation) and covered with shards or even finer pieces of slate, which are scattered across the landscape like the broken remnants of a primeval world. This organically poor, well-drained land can impart persistent mineral flavors to the wines.
Palacios notes that there is a "richness" imparted by the licorella soils. "In our old vineyards, the roots go very deep looking for moisture, so we get a surprising freshness in our wines, along with adequate PH. We have all the conditions to make truly great wines," he says.
Some of the native garnacha negra, garnacha peluda and cariñena growing in a handful of non-irrigated vineyards date back a century, while 50- to 60-year-old vines are common. Just over a decade ago, planting foreign varieties was the prevailing wisdom, which could be attributed in part to what some observers recognized as Spain's post-Franco inferiority complex - anything foreign and new must be superior to homegrown.
The maximum allowable yield according to Priorat DOC rules is about 2.7 tons of grapes per acre, but among the best producers, yields are often as low as two to four pounds per plant because of sparsely producing old vines. The soils are largely composed of grayish-brown licorella, which is poor in organic material, high in acid and offers excellent drainage. Rainfall averages 24 inches per year, which is almost as much as Rioja gets, but summers are dry and hot, though nights are often quite cool. Temperatures can fluctuate from 110 degrees during the day to 50 degrees at night (similar to Napa Valley).
Many of the wines of Priorat show excellent promise and some, at least for lovers of big, terroir-laden wines, are superb examples of the genre.
When making his flagship wine, L'Ermita, Palacios says the winemaker's hand has a minor role compared to "the licorella soil and old vines, which are farmed organically. [And] because L'Ermita is 80 percent garnacha, a grape that can evolve rapidly, I have to be more precise than with other varieties and manage the vines very well."
The quality of Palacios's L'Ermita ($295 and up) and Clos Erasmus ($200), for example, coupled with glowing reviews, can justify their retail prices to some degree, but many lesser lights, more than a few mere works-in-progress at this point, are priced at $50 to $100 retail, which makes them even more pricey on restaurant wine lists. (One Madrid wine merchant recently told me that "too many newbies are trying to sell very ordinary stuff at very high prices, and noted that sales of such wines have slowed dramatically in the Spanish market.)
In many Tarragona wines, the overuse of new French oak (and possibly Romanian, Bulgarian and Russian as well) tends to obliterate the splendid mineral terroir of the region. Allier is the current preference, and for far too many producers oak seems as important as the grape variety. A number of these wines from Priorat and Montsant have enormous potential. They come from some of the world's greatest single-vineyard sites and are made from superb old vines grown in sites rich in the minerals that supply the terroir component that was, until recently, missing in most Spanish wines.
But there are some encouraging signs afoot. The Verema.com team reported to me that many winemakers are rethinking the use of new oak, especially the invasive levels of toast and that they are noticing a moderation in the taste of oak by some of the veteran winemakers. And my tastings over the years have confirmed this move toward more moderate oak treatment, at least from the more savvy producers.
Palacios is said to be easing up on the use of new oak with each passing year (at one point, he was a barrel salesman). In January, he provided some credence to the speculation at the Madrid Fusión conference: "The wood for my barrels is air-dried for two years, and I am going for wood that is only lightly toasted. I am using barrels up to three years," he told me. "My aim is to make oak a neutral factor in my wines; I am moving away from too much concentration and new oak, and striving to achieve elegance, balance and complexity." Furthermore, he stressed that he is "not making this style expecting to always achieve high scores, and not everyone will like or understand these wines in the beginning, but this type of wine is where many of us in Priorat are going."
Even younger winemakers like Diego Durán, who works at Cims de Porrera with the Pérez family of Mas Martinet fame, confided at the Tarragona Garnacha Conference in April 2003 that he, too, was tiring of new oak.
In the face of these style debates - ones that can be said to be raging all over the wine world - there are plenty of notable wines from Priorat and some from Montsant. The best of which show a deep, pretty black raspberry color; exhibit sweet, ripe blackberry, black cherry and black currant flavors; are laced with tarry licorice and Valrhona bittersweet chocolate flavors; and, especially in Priorat, have a graphite-like mineral presence inherited from vineyards strewn with shards of slate. The most captivating among them have lingering, hauntingly exotic finishes. Unfortunately, however, many potentially very good wines are being sacrificed on the high altar of crass commercialism.
The most important thing for consumers to understand about the majority of the Priorat wines is that they need time. It's advisable to look for any remaining bottlings from the 2001 and 2000 vintages. Both have now had enough time to soften up to some degree, yet will benefit even more from additional bottle age; after several years, their flavors should be better integrated and their new oak more muted. Many of the top Priorat wines are simply far more rewarding and delicious with a few years in a proper cellar. Prime examples are De Muller's excellent Lo Cabalò Reserva and some of the wines of Rotllán Torra that, like Rioja reservas and gran reservas, are aged for several years at the bodega, a regimen that imparts added polish to the wines.
According to Jordi Benito, De Muller's enologist (who studied at UC-Davis and worked at Mirassou in California), "We only make 8,500 bottles [of Lo Cabalò], which we age in 80 percent new French oak barrels that have previously been conditioned with our Chardonnay. We age the wine before release [the 1997 is currently in the U.S. market and 1998 is now available in Spain, soon in the U.S.]. Because we use garnacha and cariñena, two varieties that tend to oxidize, the color is not as deep as some early release Priorats, but our wines still age well - up to 20 years if properly kept."
It is widely recognized now that garnacha and cariñena, both native Spanish grapes, reach their apogee in the province of Tarragona. (The Slow Food-sponsored 3rd International Conference on Garnacha was even held in Tarragona in April 2003). Although Spanish tempranillo - and a tiny bit of pinot noir - is planted in Priorat, even that grape is a newcomer and is not even listed among authorized varieties for the Priorat DOC. The small amount of white wine produced here is made mostly from garnacha blanca. As the area gains in popularity, there is a distinct possibility that the depth of flavor and sense of terroir attributed to Priorat reds will be diluted as many of the newer, drip-irrigated vineyards begin to bear fruit.
Also showing off the province's potential is the newly minted Montsant DO which curves around Priorat like a croissant. Until it was officially demarcated in 2001, Montsant was part of the much larger Tarragona DO and its epicenter was Falset. Much of the wine was sold in bulk, though bottled wines were sold under the Tarragona-Falset subzone classification. Enterprising winemakers from Priorat have branched out into Montsant: Notables include René Barbier and his partner, Christopher Canaan (Laurona); Daphne Glorian and Eric Solomon (the cooperative Celler de Capçanes and Cellers Capafons-Ossó); and Sara Pérez (Orbita Venus La Universal).
They have joined such family bodegas as the quality-oriented Joan D'Anguera in Darmós, a few important cooperatives - at Marça, Masroig and Els Guiamets - and a number of other new operations, such as the Grupo Galiciano Clos del Codols project (guided by Joan Milá, a veteran "flying enologist" based in Penedès), in raising the quality bar for wines from this region. "The potential of Montsant is buenisimo and the future can be brilliant because of the climate and the rich variety of soils. Many of the winemakers are young, but with roots in the modern history of Priorat. But if we let ourselves fall into the trap of making facile wines, we may not realize the full potential of the region," Sara Pérez notes.
Juan Such of Verema.com views the wines of Montsant as relative bargains: "One now has to take into account the quality of the wines from Montsant. Although they have less market recognition, they have reached significant quality advances at prices well below those of Priorat. It remains to be seen how long this dual price structure will last."
The grand Montsant escarpment that gives this region its name thrusts so majestically and abruptly skyward that one gets the impression that it owes its existence to a single cataclysmic geological occurrence. Montsant's 4,500 acres make it larger in area than Priorat and, though the escarpment is precipitous, the region's slopes are rarely as steep as those of Priorat. The vineyards are composed of granitic sand around Falset, compacted calcareous soil in some places, and in others is strewn with codols (pebbles and larger rounded stones, sometimes reminiscent of those identified with Châteauneuf-du-Pape). Some of its vineyards also have the broken slate shards that have made Priorat famous, but the region is not nearly as terroir-blessed as its more famous neighbor. The greater soil diversity in Montsant, coupled with the large number of old vines, can give the wines an element of terroir that adds complexity, but few of the wines to date show the breed of Priorat's best, though the syrah-dominated wines of Joan D'Anguera display notable promise.
Some 30 Montsant bodegas make wines from the main native red grape varietals, garnacha tinta and cariñena, with garnacha peluda, picapol and tempranillo also authorized along with the foreign varieties cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah. The climate of Montsant is similar to Priorat with about the same amount of annual rainfall. The minimum permitted alcohol level is also 13.5 percent, but allowable yields for red wines are about 4.5 tons per acre, much higher than in Priorat.
Montsant is still very new and, despite claims to the contrary, the wines still have a ways to go to find their balance. At this point, few are truly exceptional, though the aforementioned wines of Joan D'Anguera, a handful of the cooperatives being advised by outsiders and the Laurona wines being made by René Barbier are well on their way to proving that Montsant could have an exceptional future alongside Priorat.
While Priorat and Montsant are clearly the stars of the province, ample progress is being made in the Tarragona and Terra Alta DOs. But less than two decades ago, the Tarragona appellation still had the dubious reputation of producing monster vinos de pasta or high-octane, blending wines (some of which reached alcohol levels of 18 percent naturally due to tough, acclimatized native yeasts). These wines were sold in bulk for blending with weaker table wines from more northerly climes. The region also produced sweet, rustic - but sometimes very exotic and delicious - rancio wines, some of which are still made here, along with exceptional vins dolços, sweet reds reminiscent of the Southern Rhône's famed Banyuls. De Muller, reportedly the largest producer of communion wines for the Catholic Church (they actually market a wine called vino de misa or mass wine), and still the leading bodega of the area, is producing very good, very interesting wines, including a more than pleasant, well-made 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2000 Merlot.
From the Terra Alta DO, De Muller also makes a fine, old-style Moscatel Añejo vino de licor, a type of wine made by spiking the must of very sweet, ripe grapes with grape spirits to stop fermentation. This wine is especially unusual because it is aged like old Sherry. The color is like a light oloroso, but the nose and flavor are of honeysuckle, orange and clove. The aptly named De Muller Legitim Priorat 1998, a blend of garnacha, cariñena and cabernet sauvignon, weighing in at only 13.5 percent alcohol (the minimum allowed), is aged in American oak, and is a sweet, fruity, balanced, delicious old-school wine.
Constituted as a DO only in 1972, Terra Alta has nearly 23,000 acres under vine, but until only very recently the region was largely dominated by run-of-the-mill cooperatives (many of which date to the 1960s) and family wineries, a couple of which date to the 1920s. Many of these wineries were dedicated to producing fortified wines (vinos generosos), vermouth and heady bulk wines - mostly whites made from garnacha blanca - for blending. Change has come slowly to Terra Alta, but now, more than a few family bodegas and cooperatives are increasingly opting for quality over mere quantity. The focus is shifting to white table wines made from blends of garnacha blanca and viognier, for example, and reds made with garnacha, cariñena, a local grape called morenito, and newer plantings of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah.
A winery beginning to make a niche for itself in this emerging highland region - Terra Alta is 1,300 feet above sea level - is Bàrbara Forès in Gandesa. Its very good garnacha- and syrah-based Coma d'en Pou red and fine garnacha blanca and viognier white called El Quintà de Bàrbara Forès bode well for the area's potential. Others meriting a look include Celler Vinos Piñol (L'Avi Arrufi, Mather Teresina Selección) in Batea; Altavins Viticultures (Almodí, Tempus), La Germandat (Faristol, Fill de Temps), Villalba dels Arcs (the highly regarded Vall de Berrús blend of garnacha, cariñena and cabernet sauvignon); and Cooperativa Agrícola La Batea (L'Aube Viñas Viejas).
From the age of Pliny to the modern era, the wines of the old Roman province of Tarragona have come a long way, and in the context of its entire history, few would believe the astounding strides the wines have made in just the past two decades.
Tasting BAR
Most of the Tarragona wines that follow are available at retail in the United States; the majority were provided by the importers for review; some were tasted at the source in Spain. European Cellars-Eric Solomon Selections, a U.S. importer of Tarragona wines, declined to send samples. The wines were not tasted blind; the majority were tasted with food.
Priorat
Alvaro Palacios L'Ermita 2002 - $250: Big black currant nose with licorella minerals and well-integrated new French oak notes. Very rich and powerful with concentrated flavors of wild black fruit (cherry, currant, blackberry), licorice, mocha, mountain herbs and graphite. Despite its power, its acid levels and restrained oak augur well for a promising future; it will improve considerably over the next five years. Score: 93
Alvaro Palacios L'Ermita 2000 - $300: For its weight and power, a good balance of fruit, oak and minerals in the nose, with very ripe, wild black fruit, graphite and new French oak notes. Very rich, pure, concentrated essence of wild black fruit, licorice, chocolate, mountain herbs and graphite. For all its concentration and power, it is still a delicious wine, stylishly wrapped in French oak tannins. Score: 95
Alvaro Palacios Finca Dofí 2002 - $55: Tight black fruit, perfumed French oak and minerals in the nose. This wine is still very young and needs time, food and aeration. After decanting and drunk with food, it shows a complex core of ripe black fruit and a great mineral finish that is still bound in fruit and oak tannins. Score: 89
Alvaro Palacios Finca Dofí 2000 - $70: Big, ripe, plummy blackberry and new French oak nose. Lots of rich, juicy black raspberry, black currant and blackberry flavors, garrigue-like herbal hints, licorice and graphite, but marred in the finish by too much new French oak. Potentially much better if the oak softens with time, which it should. Score: 90
Alvaro Palacios Les Terrasses 2001 - $26: Integrated nose of graphite, new French oak and black raspberry. Heady and rich, but lively, juicy and complex with lots of black raspberry, cherry, blueberry and chocolate flavors and a lead pencil note in the finish that is somewhat covered by the alcohol and tannic new oak bite. Score: 92
Celler del Pont Lo Givot 2000 - $46: New oak and graphite nose. Wild black fruit, chocolate and carob flavors with good structure and an incredible sense of terroir. Score: 90
Celler Joan Sangenís Planots 2000 - $60: Ripe black fruit and lots of new French oak in the nose. Loads of attractive, rich, sweet blackberry, black cherry and black currant fruit flavors with dark chocolate and graphite notes, all of which are marred by new oak and the hot finish. Score: 87
Cellar Mas Doix, Doix Costers de Vinyes Velles 2000 - $75: Flavors of deep black fruit, sweet French oak and graphite in the very heady nose. Powerful but silky and very rich with blackberry, cherry, currant, chocolate, pronounced tarry licorice and graphite flavors. A bombshell. Score: 92
Cims de Porrera Solanes 2001 - $17: Very fruity, ripe blackberry and cherry nose. Quite rich and powerful with lots of intriguing sweet blackberry, garrigue and pronounced graphite-mineral flavors. Score: 90
Cims de Porrera 2001 - $50: Deeply fruity, mineral nose not dominated by oak. Very, very rich and concentrated, then lots of fruit, new oak tannins and graphite in the finish, but the new oak does not overwhelm the wine. Tasted from barrel. Score: 92
Clos Figueres 2001 - $65: New oak, coffee, licorice, graphite and stewed plum aromas. Tight, tannic and in need of bottle age to ameliorate the new oak, but approachable with food. Not overly concentrated flavors of wild berry, plum and chocolate laced with licorella graphite. Score: 88
Clos Figueres 2000 - $63: Big, perfumed black raspberry nose with a hint of chocolate. Needs a bit more acid and has a touch too much oak, but it is not overwhelming. Sweet, delicious, black raspberry and black currant flavors with a clear, intense presence of minerals and even a touch of elegance. Well made. Score: 89
Clos i Terrasses España Laurel 2000 - $25: Exotic, heady, singeing nose with forceful reduction aromas of creosote, licorice and stewed prunes. A very funky, very heady, hot-finishing wine with tarry, chocolaty, jammy, stewed fruit flavors and a load of new oak. Smooths out considerably with food (lamb, morels and asparagus), but is a wine that shows a very personal winemaking style.
Score: 86
Clos Mogador 2000 Isabelle y René Barbier - $68: Ripe black currant, licorice, graphite and soil scents. One of the most interesting, complex and exotic wines in Spain with lots of graphite and other mineral traces, black currant and licorice flavors. Tight and closed at first but with food, shows complex, sweet, exotic flavors. Score: 91
Clos Mogador 2001 - $85: Complex nose of black and red currant, graphite and licorice. Loaded with black fruit, licorice and mineral flavors. Deep and profound. Score: 93
Clos Mogador 2002 - $53: More advanced than other wines of 2002 with aromas of leather, chocolate, tobacco, wild black fruit and violets. Rich, round and well-knit with none of the nasties found in the finishes of other 2002 wines. Minerally flavors with notes of exotic wild fruit and herbs; reminiscent of a Côte-Rôtie. Best so far of the vintage. Score: 90
Costers del Suirana Clos de L'Obac 2002 - $65: Tight nose of new oak and minerals. Always long-lived and austere early, this wine still shows good balance, though a touch of greenness detracts. Its typically subdued black raspberry, currant, mint and eucalyptus flavors laced with graphite are even more restrained in this vintage. Score: 89
De Muller Lo Cabalò Reserva 1997 - $55: Beautiful, ripe blackberry nose. Silky, sweet, balanced and heady with cocoa, cherry, cola, coffee, vanilla bean, herbs, graphite and no harsh new oak in the finish. What a difference bottle aging makes. A relatively good value. Score: 91
Genium Celler Ecológic 2003 - $40: Tight, but showing some sweet fruit and nice floral tones with minerals in the nose. Powerful and a little brassy in the finish, but with a core of delicious chocolate, cherry and blackberry flavors. Needs food. Score: 87
Mas D'En Gil Clos Fontà 2000 - $60: Great nose of sweet fruit, minerals and pleasant new oak. Exotic, with ripe black fruit, chocolate and lots of graphite in the finish. Powerful but balanced. Score: 89
Mas Martinet, Martinet Bru 2002 - $30: Perfumed sweet black fruit and mineral nose. Lots of graphite and fruit. Though young, this wine drinks very well. Score: 88
Mas Martinet, Clos Martinet 2001 - $75: Big aromas of ripe fruit, graphite and iron. Rich, sweet black fruit flavors with lots of mineral terroir in the finish. Great balance of fruit, oak, minerals, acids and grip. Score: 94
Mas Martinet, Clos Martinet 2000 - $65: Ripe fruit and new oak with a big hit of graphite and iron in the nose. Sweet, relatively soft wild black fruit flavors and haunting mineral traces wrapped in a tight oak glove. Needs two to three years to open. Score: 94
Morlanda Criança 2001 - $48: Nice mix of cherry, chalk, pencil, coffee and glove leather aromas. Lively, clean flavors of raspberry, licorice, minerals and brown spice. Score: 90
Pasanau Finca La Planeta 2001 - $39: Pleasant cabernet sauvignon aromas with new French oak notes. Mineral-laced flavors of blackberry and black currant. Though atypical of Priorat, this wine is well balanced and very well made. Score: 89
Rotllán Torra Reserva 1998 - $19: Big and pleasant ripe wild black fruit and licorice aromas. Rich blackberry and black currant flavors, but juicy and fairly well balanced with an exotic finish that shows licorice and cola with graphite-mineral tones. Score: 88
Rotllán Torra Amadís 2000 - $60: Rustic, spicy, oaky, mineral nose. Sweet, wild black fruit flavors and a long graphite finish are in harmony with the lower alcohol levels; still needs a few years of cellaring. Score: 89
Rotllán Torra Amadís 1999 - $60: Pleasant, ripe nose shows good balance of fruit and oak with hints of blackberry, stewed prune, mocha and graphite. Big, rich and ripe with juicy acids. Blackberry and black cherry flavors with some stewed fruit, mocha, cola, licorice and exotic mineral traces. Not as weighty as many Priorats, which is not a bad thing. Score: 89
Rotllán Torra Reserva 1997 - $19: Big, clean aromas of ripe wild black fruit and licorice. Quite rich and ripe, but very juicy and fairly well balanced, with mature, exotic, complex flavors of blackberry, black currant, lots of licorice and some cola and graphite-mineral tones. Finishes a little short due to the oak. Score: 88
Scala Dei Cartoixa Reserva 2000 - $30: Pleasant aromas of ripe fruit, clove, spices and new oak. Though still showing lots of new oak, this wine has a good balance of sweet plum fruit, chocolate, licorice and mineral flavors. Score: 87
Vall Llach Embruix 2002 - $25: Nose of new French oak, graphite and wild black fruit. Round, very rich flavors of plum, leather, cedar and carob but mouth puckering in the finish. Score: 87
Vall Llach 1999 - $75: Intense wild black fruit, licorice, graphite and new French oak in the nose. Explosively rich, sweet, delicious blackberry, black raspberry, black currant fruit and mineral flavors that finishes with the oak in harmony. One of the most spectacular wines of Priorat. Score: 95
Vinícola del Priorat Onix 2003 - $13: Tight nose of plum and red cherry. Plum, cherry, chocolate, licorice and graphite flavors, but still quite young, tannic and tart. Score: 87
Montsant
Fra Guerau 2002 - $12: The warmth of alcohol frames scents of spicy strawberry and cedar. Lean, tart, bright flavors of raspberry and earth. Score: 87
Joan D'Anguera Finca L'Argata 2001 - $26: Closed nose of sweet berry fruit, graphite and new French oak. An exotic mix of ripe cherry, black raspberry, blueberry, licorice and chocolate with a pronounced mineral finish and new oak. Score: 89
Joan D'Anguera El Bugader 2001 - $60: Tight nose of black fruit, licorice, graphite and new French oak. Excellent syrah. Good acid with deep black fruit flavors with a long, mineral and new oak finish. Needs several years of cellaring, food and aeration. Score: 90
Joan D'Anguera La Planella 2003 - $19: Bright berry fruit, pepper and graphite aromas. Deep, quite well-balanced mix of cherry, black raspberry, blueberry, licorice, chocolate and graphite flavors that are not over-oaked. Score: 87
Joan D'Anguera Finca L'Argata 2002 - $26: Pleasant nose of sweet berry fruit, graphite and new French oak. An exotic mix of cherry, black raspberry, blueberry, licorice and chocolate flavors with a long, graphite-mineral finish. Quite delicious with food. Score: 88
Joan D'Anguera El Bugader 2000 - $60: Tight nose shows some blueberry, licorice and new French oak notes. Not terribly complex on the old-school level, but has exceptional balance of fruit, oak, acid and mineral terroir that is elegant for its weight class. A big, gutsy mouthful of ripe crushed blueberry, black fruit, licorice and Valrhona chocolate flavors. Score: 90
Laurona 2001 - $25: Wild blackberry, licorice, graphite and new French oak in the nose. Lots of graphite-mineral flavors along with sweet black fruit, coffee and licorice. Powerful and quite extracted; needs much more time in bottle, but delicious with Catalan food now. Score: 90
Laurona 6 Vinyes Selecció 2000 - $40: Graphite and some reduction aromas that go away with aeration. A powerful, complex but reasonably balanced wine, with intense wild black fruit flavors, some sweetness and lots of mineral notes; still quite young, tannic and oaky. Score: 91
Mas D'En Cosme Viticultors Baboix 2001 - $29: Smoky, pleasant cherry and baking spice nose. Ripe, round, spicy and not too tannic; fairly simple and not heavily extracted carob and mineral flavors. Score: 87
S. C. C. L de Els Guiamets Els Guiamets 2001 - $20: Somewhat tight, but clean, sweet, oaky nose with licorice and graphite traces. A big, rustic country wine that is somewhat hot and tarry, but is really quite pleasant with food and has a good balance of peppery sweet cherry and blackberry fruit. A good value. Score: 87
Terra Alta
Celler Bàrbara Forès, Bàrbara Forès Negre 2001 - $25: Deep wild black fruit and chalk nose with a lightish oak touch. A heady wine with a lot of character and more subdued wild black fruit than most Priorats and Montsants. Score: 86
Celler Bàrbara Forès, Bàrbara Forès Negre 2000 - $25: Intense wild black fruit nose with a soft oak touch. Flavors of wild black fruit, dark chocolate and an almost Graves-like terroir note as well. Although it is smooth in the middle, the finish is more austere; its intriguing mineral flavors are compelling. Score: 89
Celler Bàrbara Forès Coma d'en Pou 2001 - $46: New French oak, wild black fruit, mineral and spice aromas. Smooth entry, then a big, powerful mouthful of concentrated plum, blackberry and chocolate flavors, though overpowered by too much new oak. Score: 87
Celler Bàrbara Forès Coma d'en Pou 2000 - $46: A huge hit of new oak in the nose. Big, powerful, rich, ripe wild blackberry flavors bound up in too much new oak. Score: 87
Tarragona
De Muller Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 - $11: Aromas of mixed berries, plum, spices and oak. Somewhat rustic, but balanced berry fruit, chocolate and cola flavors with harmonious oak. A good value. Score: 87
De Muller Merlot 2000 - $11: Ripe dark fruit and oak aromas. Round, balanced and spicy fruit flavors. Good value. Score: 86
Contributing Editor Gerry Dawes has been traveling to Spain for more than 30 years, and in 2003, was awarded the Marqués de Busianos Spanish National Gastronomy Prize.
