Taste: This wine is a blend of traditional and modern varieties aged in older American and French oak barrels and bottle-aged before release. The resulting wine is an intense, bracken-fruit style with prominent notes of ripe blackberries and baked blueberries. It is almost as if the slate and mineral aromas transport you to Priorat. The low-yielding vines have ensured chewy flavors on the palate, with concentrated fruit slowly making way for velvet tannins derived from both the berry and the barrel. The warmth of the wine persists and makes for a great pairing for a traditional food such as oven-baked goat or lamb. Also, due to the minimalist handling of the wine, an hour or so of decanting prior to serving will benefit.
Cameron Confidential: Often, it is the most valuable things sitting on your back doorstep that you fail to recognize. So it is for the Spanish with wine of Priorat. Wine has been made in this region since the 12th century and flourished for many years until the 20th century, when the region was devastated by the dreaded vine louse phylloxera. Most of the region was never replanted, and the remaining vineyards quietly went about their lot, producing low-yielding, concentrated red wines. Recently, the revival of Priorat has been nothing short of spectacular, with the wine world clamoring for the limited supply and causing prices to skyrocket.
The region has a special schist soil base known as llicorella, a brown slate-and-rock base. The locals believe that it absorbs the warmth of the daytime sun and releases it during the cold mountain nights to mysteriously aid the ripening of the grapes. The region is isolated and wild, and all vineyards are tended by hand on traditional terrace platforms amongst some of the most spectacular views imaginable.
The 2004 vintage was one of the best vintages for many years in the region thanks to the cooler summer and light rain falling before harvest, allowing for extended ripening and picking each variety just as the fullness of the flavor hit its peak.
The main varietals in the area are Grenache (Garnacha) and Carignan (Carinena). However, there have been some good plantings of more international varieties on the old sites, and these are complementing the traditional flavors beautifully.
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