Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Very dark smoke and tar character. Extremely concentrated and ripe, yet cool and and mineral with a long, super-clean finish that is also fresh.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 Purgatori is the second vintage of a blend of Cariñena, Garnacha and Syrah from high altitude vineyards in the Pallars subzone of Costers del Segre; it matured for 15-18 months in barrique, 40% of them new. It's a dark, ripe and concentrated red with aromas of dark fruit and judicious oak that seems more noticeable in the flavors. It's a powerful wine with some Mediterranean notes in a cooler vintage that provided good freshness.
Spanish red wine is known for being bold, heady, rustic and age-worthy, Spain is truly a one-of-a-kind wine-producing nation. A great majority of the country is hot, arid and drought-ridden, and since irrigation has only been recently introduced and (controversially) accepted, viticulture has sustained—and flourished—only through a great understanding of Spain’s particular conditions. Large spacing between vines allows each enough resources to survive and as a result, the country has the most acreage under vine compared to any other country, but is usually third in production.
Of the Spanish red wines, the most planted and respected grape variety is Tempranillo, the star of Spain’s Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions. Priorat specializes in bold red blends, Jumilla has gained global recognition for its single varietal Monastrell and Utiel-Requena has garnered recent attention for its reds made of Bobal.