Fiery Priorat wines
I had lunch with my wife Anna and her Excelwines.com colleague Ane-Miren the other day. It was quite an astute affair; some tortillas and pintxos from the bar around the corner from the somewhat-less-than-larger-than-life Excelwines office. The reason I was there was that they had just received some new Priorat wines and they asked me to pass by and share my thoughts about the wine with them.
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Since basically all the Priorats I have drunk so far have been fabulous wines I was more than happy to help them out with this task. This time the wines were not from any bodegas that I have heard about before but since I never really tasted a bad Priorat I looked forward to a nice lunch. For comparison they had also opened 2 Priorats already in their range; Martinet Bru 2005 and Pasanau Finca la Planeta 2003.
In all honesty, I also quietly wondered why they suddenly asked me for my view on this batch of wines. Usually they don’t care too much about my opinion when it comes to wine (or about much else, for that matter). And of course, after the tasting they asked me, since I anyway happened to be in the neighbourhood, if I could move some of the heavier stuff in the warehouse for them. My lingering suspicion is that this was the whole reason for them to invite me. But with a gut semi-full of fiery Priorat I happily toiled away in the back of the warehouse. While I did this I thought about the wines I had just tasted. Usually I, for some reason, equate “fiery” with words like full-bodied or powerful, words that for me are positive when it comes to wine. But I had just found all three new wines in varying degrees inaccessible due to their high alcohol content. The Martinet Bru and Pasanau Finca la Planeta both managed to balance the high alcohol content with smells and tastes you typically encounter in good Priorats; smoke, spices, strawberry, leather, red fruit, coffee. They were really powerful but well balanced (even if I would guess that none of the two will suffer from a decade in the cellar).
The three new wines were a tougher lot. Their labels said that the wines contained 13.5%, 14% and 14.5% alcohol respectively. But I wonder if that really was correct in all cases or something that had been put on the labels to comply with the DOQ rules. Especially the 14.5% bottle was almost ridiculously fiery, something that effectively killed off most potential subtleness. Suspecting that the wines had not been aired sufficiently, the girls brought a bottle each home but, after letting it breathe for several hours, the alcohol was still quite dominating but the wines clearly benefited from the airing.
The new bottles were from 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively and from different producers. When it comes to Priorat they are quite cheap; the prices range from 14€ to 20€ on the street. My unscientific conclusion after this little tasting was that you get what you pay for in Priorat. The better wines are truly magnificent but the cheaper ones (in relative terms, of course) can take a bit of getting used to if your preferred taste is not for really fiery wines.
Come to think about it, there is one exception to this rule and it is a magnificent exception: Finca la Planeta’s “kid brother” Ceps Nous sells for around 10€ but is at least as good as Priorats twice or three times that price.
Fredrik
Tags: Priorat wine
July 14th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I agree with you that Priorat wines are very strong. I personally prefer wine from the newer and lesser known D.O. Montsant. They are similarly styled, but smoother and more balanced, and are typically more elegant than a Priorat wine.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:07 am
I LOVE Priorat wine specially in winter in cold Norway but can not buy here. I bring from my holiday in Malaga for winter not enough. Can I buy from Excel to send here?