Winemaker Notes
Strikingly perfumed bouquet encompasses the red and dark fruit spectrum, fresh flowers, oak spices and licorice. Black cherry, mineral, spicy and chocolate flavors. Subtle, dense and harmonious Dense and silky tannins, good balance, and a long, fresh finish. Pickled oysters, Iberian ham, pork feet with mushrooms, grilled beef, venison loin with mushrooms, turnip and parsnip.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Deep, complex aromas of lovely, developing, perfumed fruit, the palate has real drive and focus, with lovely persistent ripe blackberry fruit great structure, delicious persistent finish with fantastic hints of liquorice and graphite.
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Vinous
The 2013 Clos Abella, a blend of 70% Cariñena and 30% Garnatxa from Priorat, was fermented and aged in French oak barrels for 15 months. This garnet wine reveals evolved notes of thyme, tar and oak, set against a ripe, marmalade-like backdrop. Dry and rich on the palate, it offers a fairly compact texture and lingers with a juicy.
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Wine Enthusiast
A saturated color and deep aromas of darkberry fruits open this blend of 70% Carignan and 30% Garnacha. A pulpy palate is chewy and powerful, with minerally notes of Priorato schist poking through the pulsing fruit. Ripe blackberry and cassis flavors are brightened by acidity and finish with firm tannins and a note of wild herbs. Drink now–2025.
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James Suckling
Some handy focus and a finer cut of tannins. Fruits are in the summer berry zone, some red, some dark. Smooth tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Definitively riper, more concentrated and oakier, the 2013 Clos Abella is the top of the range. It's produced with 70% Cariñena and 30% Garnacha from younger and older vines in Porrera. It fermented in oak vat and barriques and aged in French barriques, 30% of them new, which obviously marked the wine with plenty of oak aromas and flavors and especially a texture from the tannins. It's a powerful, well-oaked and modern version of Priorat. For fans of the style.
With hundreds of red grape varieties to choose from, winemakers have the freedom to create a virtually endless assortment of blended red wines. In many European regions, strict laws are in place determining the set of varieties that may be used, but in the New World, experimentation is permitted and encouraged resulting in a wide variety of red wine styles. Blending can be utilized to enhance balance or create complexity, lending different layers of flavors and aromas. For example, a red wine blend variety that creates a fruity and full-bodied wine would do well combined with one that is naturally high in acidity and tannins. Sometimes small amounts of a particular variety are added to boost color or aromatics. Blending can take place before or after fermentation, with the latter, more popular option giving more control to the winemaker over the final qualities of the wine.
How to Serve Red Wine
A common piece of advice is to serve red wine at “room temperature,” but this suggestion is imprecise. After all, room temperature in January is likely to be quite different than in August, even considering the possible effect of central heating and air conditioning systems. The proper temperature to aim for is 55° F to 60° F for lighter-bodied reds and 60° F to 65° F for fuller-bodied wines.
How Long Does Red Wine Last?
Once opened and re-corked, a bottle stored in a cool, dark environment (like your fridge) will stay fresh and nicely drinkable for a day or two. There are products available that can extend that period by a couple of days. As for unopened bottles, optimal storage means keeping them on their sides in a moderately humid environment at about 57° F. Red wines stored in this manner will stay good – and possibly improve – for anywhere from one year to multiple decades. Assessing how long to hold on to a bottle is a complicated science. If you are planning long-term storage of your reds, seek the advice of a wine professional.
Tiny and entirely composed of craggy, jagged and deeply terraced vineyards, Priorat is a Catalan wine-producing region that was virtually abandoned until the early 1990s. This Spanish wine's renaissance came with the arrival of one man, René Barbier, who recognized the region’s forgotten potential. He banded with five friends to create five “Clos” in the village of Gratallops. Their aim was to revive some of Priorat’s ancient Carignan vines, as well as plant new—mainly French—varieties. These winemakers were technically skilled, well-trained and locally inspired; not surprisingly their results were a far cry from the few rustic and overly fermented wines already produced.
This movement escalated Priorat’s popularity for a few reasons. Its new wines were modern and made with well-recognized varieties, namely old Carignan and Grenache blended with Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. When the demand arrived, scarcity commanded higher prices and as the region discovered its new acclaim, investors came running from near and far. Within ten years, the area under vine practically doubled.
Priorat’s steep slopes of licorella (brown and black slate) and quartzite soils, protection from the cold winds of the Siera de Monstant and a lack of water, leading to incredibly low vine yields, all work together to make the region’s wines unique. While similar blends could and are produced elsewhere, the mineral essence and unprecedented concentration of a Priorat wine is unmistakable.