Winemaker Notes
Arbossar is a steep, north-facing vineyard near Torroja where Dominik farms 90-year-old Carinyena on schist and granite soils. He discovered this site while riding his motorbike around the village. Despite the conventional wisdom against northern exposure and Carinyena when power and extraction were preferred in the Priorat, he could sense that this was a unique site and the perfect complement to the nearby and south-facing Dits del Terra.
Professional Ratings
-
James Suckling
This is very aromatic with crushed cloves, dried flowers, red fruit and black pepper. Medium-bodied, firm and fine-tannined with a delicious, persistent finish. Drink now or hold.
-
Wine & Spirits
This grows at a north-facing parcel of 90-year-old carignan, a steep slope of schist and granite near the village of Torroja. Organically farmed, fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged in concrete tanks for 20 months, this is a floral, bright cherry beauty. With cool scents of jasmine and a brisk mineral feel, its simple lines give it a sense of truth and honesty, a carignan stark naked to it soil. Decant it for lean game, like grilled venison kebabs.
Responsible for some of the most stunning old vine red wine on the planet, Carignan has an amazing capacity to survive dry, arid climates and still produce lovely, mouthwatering wine. In Spain it goes by the name of Mazuelo or Cariñena and while it may have originated there in the province of Aragón, its popularity lies elsewhere, particularly in Languedoc-Roussillon. Somm Secret—Historically Carignan did not enjoy the respect that it does today. In the mid 20th century, Carignan covered nearly 140,000 ha in Algeria, where it was made into low quality bulk and blending wine to supply mass-market demand.
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.