Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Tuesday, March 22, 2022 - This is the second vintage ever of this wine, made mainly with contracted grapes, some from very old - even centenarian - vineyards, harvested between early October and late November. The blend consists of old-vine Cariñena (40%), Cabernet Sauvignon (25%), Merlot (20%), Garnacha (10%) and Syrah (5%). The grapes were crushed and cold-soaked prior to fermentation for 3 days, then fermented for two weeks in stainless steel. After the fermentation the wine was macerated with the skins for another week or so, until it was pressed into stainless steel tanks (50%) and oak casks (50%) for MLF. Finally the wine is aged for 14 months in second use (60%) and new (40%) French oak barrels ranging from 225 to 300 liters in size. Total production 11,760 bottles. Bottled in June 2004. 14,5% alcohol.

Very dark, quite concentrated and rather opaque black cherry color. Evolved, somewhat tertiary nose with rather sweet dried-fruit aromas of raisins, cherry marmalade, some very ripe dark plums, a little bit of blueberry juice, light toasty notes of sweet oak spice, a hint of cranberry sauce and a touch of prunes. The wine is ripe, juicy and somewhat extracted on the palate with a full body and intense flavors of sweet dark plums, some savory wood spice, a little bit of ripe blackcurrant, light blueberry juice notes, a hint of stony minerality and a touch of dried figs. The overall feel is quite firm and muscular, thanks to the rather high acidity and quite ample ripe tannins that slowly pile up on the gums. The finish is juicy, rich and somewhat grippy with a quite lengthy aftertaste of raisins, some prunes, a little bit of dried dates, light gravelly mineral tones, a hint of overripe strawberry and a touch of toasty oak spice.

A rich, firm yet somewhat mellow and quite evolved Priorat that is pretty much peaking now. The wine shows quite good sense of finesse and harmony for such a big and ripe wine, but the overall feel is getting a bit too sweet and pruney for my taste. There's good sense of structure and the wine is brimming with lush fruit, but what remains here, feels quite evolved and raisiny - even if there is some complexity, it still feels a bit one-note. This is tasty and enjoyable stuff, but nothing that would blow my socks off. A nice example of aged Priorat, but the more I taste these, the more I start to think that these wines never were, are or will be particularly interesting - in my experience they are all too often just big, ripe and extracted wines which, at some point, just start to turn pruney, then slowly fall apart. Most likely this wine won't keep for that long before it is goners, so best to drink sooner rather than later.

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