This reflects Priorat’s rise in reputation and popularity, but also the high cost in farming steep hillsides. In general, Priorat wines are some of Spain’s most expensive offerings. Alcohol levels usually exceed 15% abv, with flavors revolving around ripe black fruits, oak framing and a potent core of minerality. These are predominantly big, dark, powerful wines with minerally depth derived from the region’s decomposed slate soils, known as llicorella.
Regardless of exposure or elevation, there’s an overriding character to Priorat wines, which are largely based on old-vine Garnacha, Carignan and small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Winemakers can opt to make traditionally powerful wines from lower costers (hillsides planted with bush vines), or experiment with lighter, potentially more elegant raw materials taken from cooler vineyards at higher elevations.
The Priorat is one of Spain’s hilliest regions, with vineyard elevations ranging from several hundred feet above sea level to over 2,000 feet. Other microzones pick up drier continental influences, and thus are cooler in the spring and fall, but warmer during the summer. Some portions of the Priorat are influenced entirely by the nearby Mediterranean Sea, with humidity and warm nights factoring into the overall terroir.
What makes the Priorat unique from the rest of Spain and much of the world is that its century-old vineyards, meticulously reclaimed by the aforementioned “Gang of Five” and others, are planted with 360 degrees of exposure. There’s more wine coming from one of Spain’s most blessed terroirs than ever before. To say the Priorat has boomed is an understatement. Today, you can no longer count the region’s vineyards and wineries on your fingers, thanks to the 5,000-plus acres of vineyards now spread throughout this rugged, hilly region. In 1989, however, a group of pioneering winemakers that included René Barbier, Alvaro Palacios, Daphne Glorian, Carles Pastrana and Josep Lluis Pérez-all still active in the region-joined to produce a single high-quality wine from grapes harvested near the town of Gratallops. Photo by Meg Baggott PrioratĪ quarter-century ago, the Priorat, located about 90 miles southwest of Barcelona in Tarragona province, was a collection of dilapidated Roman terraces that had seen centuries of neglect. But Catalonia’s best wines also feature intense minerality derived from vineyards planted on granite, chalk and fractured slate soils.
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There’s also Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Trepat planted throughout Catalonia, as well as the white varieties Parellada and Macabeo (Viura in Rioja) that are primarily used for the production of Cava, Spain’s premier sparkling wine.Ĭatalonian wines tend to be full bodied and high in alcohol, due to the grape varieties and the region’s warm weather conditions. Who knows what the future holds with respect to Catalan independence, but at least for now, the Catalonian provinces of Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona remain part of Spain.īut in the same way that Catalans have a culture that differs greatly from their Castilian, Galician or Andalusian countrymen, Catalonian wines have little in common with those from the rest of Spain.Ĭatalonia’s 10 denominated wine regions focus mostly on so-called Mediterranean grape varieties, primarily Garnacha and Carignan (also called Cariñena or Samsó) among red grapes, and Garnacha Blanca and Xarel-lo among white grapes. A year later, separatist candidates dominated regional elections. In the fall of 2014, four out of every five Catalan voters cast straw-poll ballots favoring secession from Spain. Decorative Wine Racks & Modular Systems.
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