Winemaker Notes
“La Grande Dame”, the jewel in the Mas d’en Gil crown. A white wine for drinking after reds. Complex, with deep nuances and a lingering finish. This wine starts to get interesting in its fourth year.
Great with hot seafood dishes such as lobster and king prawns. It also combines well with grilled white fish (plaice, gilthead and sea bass). It also works well with white meat such as roasted chicken cocotte and also with creamy cheese such as Torta del Casar.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The elegant white 2016 Coma Blanca is a nuanced and subtle blend of 60% Macabeo and 40% Garnacha Blanca from the older vineyards of the estate on slate, alluvial and sandy soils (the property has a diversity of soils unmatched in Priorat). It fermented in stainless steel and matured in 500-liter oak barrels for six months, and the bottles were kept for a couple of years before the wine was released into the market. There is unusual finesse in this vintage, unmatched purity and superb texture. It's a Mediterranean white with good body, the texture of a Grand Cru Burgundy, pungent but subtle flavors and a dry and faintly bitter finish.
With hundreds of white grape varieties to choose from, winemakers have the freedom to create a virtually endless assortment of blended white wines. In many European regions, strict laws are in place determining the set of varieties that may be used in white wine blends, but in the New World, experimentation is permitted and encouraged. Blending can be utilized to enhance balance or create complexity, lending different layers of flavors and aromas. For example, a variety that creates a soft and full-bodied white wine blend, like Chardonnay, would do well combined with one that is more fragrant and naturally high in acidity. 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.
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.