Carinyenes at Porrera

In my last 2010 post I explained my views on public wine tasting events and mentioned some of them I had already attended.

 

The Priorat and Montsant Wine Exhibition (Fira del Vi) in Falset mentioned there is a major mass attraction that is surrounded by smaller, more selective events that are worth attending. From Friday April 29th to Tuesday May 2nd the wine lovers (that can spare the time and cost) have their hands full with tastings, pairings, presentations and winery visits. I was able to attend a few of them, and in the upcoming posts I will endeavour to tell you about my experiences.

In the village of Porrera, already mentioned elsewhere in this blog, are located some of the oldest and finest Carinyena vines in the Priorat DO. In many cases, they are processed separately from other grapes, and the coupage is made just before bottling. Few Porrera wines, however, are pure Carinyena; usually the blend contains also Garnatxa and perhaps Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot or Syrah.

 

Porrera wineries offer a unique opportunity every year at the “Carinyenes a Porrera” tasting. They present their best pure, unblended Carinyena wines before the coupage is done. Of course, in many cases the wine comes directly from the cask, without any bottle aging; however, the potential is there, and is very rewarding to taste them and have an inkling of what the wines in which they take part will be like.

One surprising aspect of this event is that is somehow illegal. Not that tasting wine is forbidden in Priorat; rather what is forbidden is the commercial use of the word Carinyena to name the grape varietal, because there is an Aragonese village, Cariñena, in the DO of the same name. Silly enough, but the wineries usually have to resort to the name Samsó, which is in fact another grape (some say the one named as Cinsault in France) or devise misspellings such as Caranyana. But if you ask the old winegrowers basking in the sun in the village square, they will tell you they have farmed Carinyena vines since childhood…

 

There were over twenty-five wines from eighteen different wineries; it was not the time or place to take down detailed notes of each, but I can name the ones that pleased me most:

• Ardévol i Associats
• BalmaPrat 
• Celler de l’Encastell 
• Cims de Porrera, with three different, outstanding wines 
• Clos Dominic 
• Ferrer Bobet 
• Joan Simó 
• Mas Martinet 
• Trosset de Porrera

Many wines, but all of them different, as a result of the microclimates of each plot, the age of the vines and the winemaker skill. A feast for Carinyena lovers, showing that this variety, often despised as unrefined, when in proper conditions can yield great wines.

 

http://www.cellerardevol.com/

http://www.roquers.com/index3.html

http://www.grupperalada.com/cimsdeporrera/index.htm

http://debrujasyvino.blogspot.com/

http://www.ferrerbobet.com/

http://www.cellerjoansimo.com/

http://www.masmartinet.com/

http://www.cellersdeporrera.com/

http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php

 

Selected Clos Dominic Seleccions

I have tasted often the wines of Dominic and Paco (see post) but never before in a session focused on the Clos Dominc Vinyes Altes Seleccions.

In the homely premises of Oscar Gallifa’s oenogarage (thanks for the pic!) a few friends gathered to better know these rare and personal Priorat wines. As a bonus, Dominic, in a wine tasting calendar based on moon phases, had rated that day as top.

We started with Clos Dominic blanc, not actually a Selecció, but also with very limited output. It was a 2008 in Magnum bottle. The old Garnatxa blanca and Macabeu, with a sprinkling of Picapoll and Riesling (sic), vines from La Tena release a deep golden, bright white after 12 months in French oak. In the nose the whole range of low bushes, and a funny tomato whiff now and then. Unctuous in mouth, with still noticeable acidity.

Seleccions, named after their children, represent the top of the winery production: only selected barrels, usually one or two every year, and from special zones of the vineyard are chosen. Twelve to eighteen months in French oak in special corners of the cellar are needed to produce the magic.

The first Selecció tasted was Míriam 2006. In normal 0.75 bottle, Míriam is basically Carinyena, with a small proportion of Garnatxa. It was the oldest of the night, and it showed. Rounded and fruity, with the typical minerality, and still youthful deep cherry colour. The most balanced.

Then came Selecció Ingrid 2007, 100% Garnatxa in Magnum. Closed at the beginning, with bright red colour, slowly released red and black fruit, balsamic notes, toast. Powerful yet rounded tannins, with lively acidity. A wine to keep for a few years more.

And last of all Selecció Andreu 2007, 100% Carinyena in Magnum. Dominic and Paco have probably special love for Andreu (he is the youngest child) as Selecció Andreu was the best of them. Still very closed, after decanting of four hours (as all others), it opened gradually with a lot of wristwork with the glass. Very deep red, with red fruit, mineral, spices . Enormous structure yet velvety feel, with long finish. Again, a wine to be retasted in five years.

An event to remember. Unfortunately, given the scarcity and cost of these wines (Andreu sells for 220 EUR the Magnum bottle) this pleasure cannot be repeated easily, unless Dr. Jay Miller declares them unfit to be drunk in his next review, something I personally tend to doubt...

http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php
http://debrujasyvino.blogspot.com/
http://oscargallifa.com/

Espectacle by Selecció Ingrid at Auditori

Fifteen months ago I had the luck to be invited to enter the GMT, which has nothing to do with Greenwich or time, but rather surprisingly stands for Grup de Matemàtics Tastavins, or Mathematician Winetasting Group. The other five members are Maths Professors in the Autonomous University of Barcelona (I am a pharmacist by training). I had longed for years to become part of a tasting group, but somehow the expected background of its members did not include this specific profile. Nevertheless, no formulas or equations are needed for the tasting we do: it is basically hedonistic (three different bottles for six people), and we do not rate the wines apart from an informal “Which one do you like best?”

Led by a master wine blogger, Jaume Aguadé of Vins de Catalunya, we have had some memorable sessions; among them the one last week. We tasted three wines that had in common coming from very old Garnatxa negra vines:

• Auditori 2008, Acústic Celler, DO Montsant
• Espectacle 2006, Espectacle Vins, DO Montsant
• Vinyes Altes Selecció Ingrid 2005, Clos Dominic, DOQ Priorat

All three were decanted one hour before the tasting. An additional hour would have been welcome.

Albert Jané, from the family that owns Jané Ventura in DO Penedès, moved to DO Montsant to start his own project, Acústic Celler, in the village of Els Guiamets. Using 60+ year old garnatxa vines (aptly described as “magical old vines” in the label) coming from three small plots with poor sandy soils, and with thirteen months in French oak, Auditori is the top product of the winery.  

It was the youngest of the three wines; it showed in its dark, intense colour with still bluish overtones in the rim, and the comparative lack of tertiary aromas. But anyway the nose was overwhelming, kaleidoscopic, with lots of fruit (mainly red) and spice (at one moment it positively smelt like a pepper-pot) developing over the two hours that we enjoyed tasting. In the mouth acidity and tannins were very present, but rounded and integrated, with length and width. A great wine, and no doubt that a few years in the bottle will help to develop its full potential.

Espectacle Vins is a joint venture of the Barbier and Cannan families, of Clos Mogador and Clos Figueras fame, to make wine from a centenary Garnatxa vineyard in Montsant. The wine is actually produced in the Celler Laurona winery, partially owned also by the Barbiers. Once the fruit is ripe, it is harvested manually in small boxes and kept for one day at 4ºC. After berry selection and gentle pressing the grapes go to a new French oak vat where both alcoholic and malolactic fermentations take place; afterwards the wine is aged for some fifteen months. 

Cherry to crimson in colour, with medium intensity, the nose is extremely complex, with layers of black and red fruit, tobacco, balsamic notes. It fills the mouth but silkily, with great elegance and finesse. 

Espectacle is an intellectual wine. This is a nectar to enjoy reflectively, putting forth all one’s senses, not carelessly. Supremely subtle and elegant, it needs time and wrist work to release its complexity. 

As explained in a previous post, Clos Dominic is a small family-run winery in Porrera, DOQ Priorat. The best cask from its century old Garnatxa vines in La Tena vineyard goes into the Vinyes Altes Selecció Ingrid, named after one of the daughters of the owners, Dominic Bairaguet and Paco Castillo. Fermented with its own wild yeasts, it is aged for eighteen months in French oak. 

Colour is similar to Espectacle, but with higher intensity. The nose is very particular, probably in part due to the non-standard yeasts. Red and black fruit, wild balsamic herbs (rosemary, thyme, all those that grow in and around La Tena), spices, liquorice, cigar box, cocoa, the lot. 

Ingrid Castillo Bairaguet ready to pour for Jay Miller

The mouth is packed with flavour, good acidity, ripe tannins, and the minerality coming from the slatey soil. Round, very long. A wine that impacts the senses. A wine to be enjoyed shamelessly, boisterously.

Towards the end of the tasting, as mentioned before, the question of which was the best of the three came up. As a backdrop, Parker ratings: 94 for Auditori 2008, 96 for Espectacle 2006, and no rating for Clos Dominic Selecció Ingrid…yet.

Auditori was handicapped by its youth, and the jury is still out about the other two. Espectacle or Ingrid? As somebody said, Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe? George Clooney or Brad Pitt? Rolls Royce or Lamborghini? Probably depends on when, where, with whom, with what…although I have always loved Lambos…

  

http://www.domontsant.com/
http://www.espectaclevins.com/default.asp?pag=230

http://www.acusticceller.com/

http://debrujasyvino.blogspot.com/
http://www.cellerlaurona.com/index.php?i=1
http://www.closmogador.com/
http://closfigueras.com./site/?lang=en

Clos Dominic, vines on the face of the pyramid

Porrera is one of the leading Priorat villages. Placed in the East of the DO, its labyrinthic streets hide more than a dozen of wineries and, for whatever reason, a similar number of sundials.

One of the more singular of these wineries is Clos Dominic. With the (tiny) winemaking facilities in the ground floor and underground of a village house, its real heart lies elsewhere: 2 km away from the streets and sundials, la Tena stands.

Dominic and Paco grew in Priorat. Paco had a tradition of winemaking in his family, but no land. Finally, in 1998 they purchased one of the best properties of Priorat: la Tena.




La Tena from the bottom

 

La Tena is a plot composed mainly of two pieces: a great coster, or sloped vineyard with vines planted unevenly and grown as bushes, with the form of a triangle and resembling the face of a huge pyramid; and a flat part at its feet, close to the riverbed.

The flat vineyard is planted with Garnatxa negra, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, around ten years old. The coster is home to very old vines, from 60 to over 100 years old, mainly Garnatxa and Carinyena, but with a sprinkling of Picapoll negre and white varietals: Garnatxa blanca, Macabeu, and even the odd, newer Riesling. In the sometimes impossible slopes of the coster, the old vines cling precariously to the slatey llicorella soil adopting outlandish shapes, and fighting for dear life as they stubbornly yield an average of 300 grams of grapes per plant. Meagre harvest in quantity, but the quality more than compensates.

Vines in the coster

Farming and winemaking are organic, with biodynamic overtones. Sulphur addition is kept to the lowest levels, and no other additives are used for clarification or other purposes; so much so that an allergy patient association recommends Clos Dominic wine to its associates. Fermentation is achieved with the yeasts naturally present in the grapes. And all the work is undertaken by members of the family.

This non-intervention policy yields wines with a defined personality that highlight the terroir and each vintage circumstances. Indeed, vintage to vintage variation is probably higher than in other wines with more “technology”.

Clos Dominic blanc is a very limited production (300 bottles) of a complex white, made from the white grapes of la Tena. It is fermented and kept for five months on its lees in new French oak.

Reds usually undergo ageing in French oak for 12 to 16 months. That lends them a suitable wood touch, without hiding the intense fruit and the minerality, typical of Priorat.

Younger vines in the flat plot

Clos Petó is the basic red, from Cabernet Sauvignon and Garnatxa negra grown in the lowest plot.



Flat plot at the bottom



Vinyes Baixes (literally Low Vineyards) comes from Merlot from the lower vineyards and some older Garnatxa negra from the coster.

Vinyes Altes (High Vineyards) is Clos Dominic’s top normal wine, the product of the old Carinyena (70 %) and Garnatxa vines of the coster in la Tena.

La Tena from midway up

Paco and Dominic adore their children (one girl is already on track to became Oenologist and Sommelier) and have given their names to special, selected bottles coming from the oldest Carinyena and Garnatxa vines. Look out for Selecció Andreu, Míriam or Ingrid; the production is minuscule and price high, but concentration of colour, aromas and flavours is stunning. Ingrid is Garnatxa negra 100 %; Andreu and Míriam, Carinyena 100 %.

Like a number of other small wineries, a visit to Clos Dominic, starting with a hike up la Tena among the old vines, ending in tasting their very special wines, and under the enthusiastic guidance of the Castillo family, is one of the “must-have” experiences for a wine lover.

http://debrujasyvino.blogspot.com/





Paco gazing up la Tena

  









Priorat, the hidden phoenix

In the 70’s, when I was in my teens, my father would sometimes bring home a demijohn of Priorat. It contained a dark, strong, sweetish red wine. In a nutshell, that was the definition of Priorat in those years: wines were rough, very alcoholic (perhaps 16 – 19 %) and usually unbottled. And in many cases, exported elsewhere to give body to less muscular wines.

Priorat boasts a long tradition in winemaking; indeed, the name itself comes from the Carthusian Priory at Scala Dei that fostered winemaking in the area since the 12th century. And before that, wines from the Tarraconensis had been on high demand at Imperial Rome’s best tables.

However, Priorat villages, once rich and prosperous when French wine production all but disappeared due to Phylloxera, were sinking steadily into nothingness due to the high cost of vine growing and low prices of the final product, as it was then. Population had shrunk by half in 100 years.

Suddenly, at the end of the 80’s, a small group of pioneers (Barbier, Glorian, Palacios, Pastrana, Pérez), with great winemaking know-how and even greater faith in Priorat’s potential, started 5 tiny cellars and spawned a handful of wines (Clos Mogador, Clos Erasmus, l’Ermita / Dofí, Clos de l’Obac, Clos Martinet) blending grapes of old Garnatxa and Carinyena vines with younger ones of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.

With their winemaking prowess they created wines that were dark, big and strong, but also mineral, well rounded, with the alcohol (13.5 to 15%) well integrated in the structure, and showed that Priorat could supply world class reds that, additionally, had a distinct personality.

Just a remark: I said “world class reds”. Curiously, while in most languages red wine is called red (rouge, rosso, rot...) in Catalan it is called black (negre). Has it something to do with Priorat’s rich colour? Who knows...

After the pioneers others came, mostly following their pattern, which was further blessed with excellent ratings from the international wine gurus.

Twenty years later the initial wines are still among the best, and with the bonus of consistency throughout these years and the fact that the first vintages have aged well. In the meantime, new stars have appeared: for instance, Cims de Porrera, Clos Dominic, Ferrer Bobet, Mas Doix, Mas Sinén, Nin, Terroir al Límit, Trio Infernal, Vall Llach, to name only some of those whose wines I have tasted. And a number of outsiders to be followed with care.

Apart from the reds, some whites are available, usually based on Garnatxa Blanca with the addition of Macabeu, Pedro Ximenez and Moscatell. And a few winemakers produce natural sweets and rancis, reds oxidized for long years in their casks to a golden, complex finish.

The quality factors at work are several:

• poor soils of llicorella (slate pieces that reflect light and give good draining)
• old vines growing in costers (steep slopes in the rocky hills), with optimal sun exposure
• Mediterranean/continental climate with lots of microclimates due to the hilly countryside, but in general with hot summers with big differences in temperature within the day, very cold winters (for the area), and low rainfall

All this combines to yield very low quantities (around of or less than 1 kg of fruit per plant) that have to be harvested by wholly manual methods. Indeed, some growers still use mules for some of the steepest properties.

With this quality potential and the high costs associated with such kind of vine growing, the best value is found, as I see it, in the upper levels of quality, where production cost is not so critical in final price. However, in the lower quality ranges, although Priorat offerings are excellent, their price makes them comparable to medium-high quality wines of many other regions.

All in all, the development of Priorat has been astonishing for anybody that did not know its potential. My father would have liked to see it now…

http://www.doqpriorat.org/eng/index.php

http://www.closmogador.com/

http://www.costersdelsiurana.com/en/index.asp

http://www.masmartinet.com/

http://debrujasyvino.blogspot.com/

http://www.masdoix.com/english/index.html

http://www.ferrerbobet.com/

http://www.massinen.com/

http://www.terroir-al-limit.com/

http://www.trioinfernal.es/

http://www.vallllach.com/