A really good red blend from Priorat DOCa

Sometimes, you just have to run away

No, I'm not entirely done with unpacking yet but life has to go on… 



Today, I’m going to talk about another Spanish wine that we repeatedly enjoyed with my in laws. It is called Mas d'en Compte 2009 (c.21 Euros) and hails from Priorat DOCa (Denominacion de Origen Calificada). 

Priorat (Priorato in Spanish and Priory in English) is a region in Catalonia, located in the north east of Spain (you can see a map of the wine regions in Spain here). Wine production started in the 12^th century by the monks and similar to the situation in France, became disrupted in the 19^th century when insects native to North American (phylloxera) travelled across the Atlantic and killed most of the grape vines. Widespread replanting started in 1950 and took off in the late 1970s/ 1980s and today, the region sits along Rioja and Ribera Del Duero as being a top quality wine appellation (reflected by its DOCa status which is the highest wine classification in Spain).  

Mountains surround Priorat and its ground is rocky: a mixture of black and red slates and quartz also known locally as “llicorella” (I found this write up useful when trying to imagine llicorella). The presence of the llicorella schist is an important factor for this region because it allows the vine to penetrate deep below the surface and retains water during the dry summer. Grenache and carignan/cariñena are the typical grapes planted in this region, usually blended with small quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

The bottles of Mas d'en Compte 2009 we tried really opened up after an hour and provided a complex flavour of black fruits, jam, oak and minerals. Deep ruby in colour, it was full bodied, high in tannin and provided a sweet long finish. The wine had been aged in French and American barrels for 14 months - a blend of grenache (50%), cariñena (45%) and cabernet sauvignon (5%) - of which, the cariñena were derived from a 60 year old vineyard.

2009 bottles (rated 96 Parker points) seem to be sold out everywhere we looked online. However, the 2011s are still available. We have not yet tried them but note that Parker had given it 93 points, suggesting yet another bottle with very good "Euro-Parker points ratio" (to use Emilio Rubio's term). The bodega Celler Cal Pla (website in Catalan only) was founded 200 years ago and has undergone 7 generations of grape growers.

Blind tasting - Barbaresco 2008

Surprise blind tasting: Emilio disoriented me the other day, pulling out a bottle from the basement, heavily disguised with kitchen foil, asking me to taste and guess its country of origin, age and type of grape. Que? It's an almost impossible task under normal circumstances, an outright unmanageable feat with a nose and taste bud that had not entirely recovered from the flu. The best I could do was to offer a kind of description. It looked old-ish (the wine was a shade of red closer to amber than dark ruby at the rim), smelled of fruits and flowers (even with a semi-blocked nose) and tasted moderate on many levels: acidity, level of tannin and body. A nice medium length finish. An 'OK' taste which improved after some rest. (edit: I thought it was Spanish). It turned out to be a 6 year old Barbaresco. One of the many bottles that Emilio had ordered online last July to diversify a little bit away from Spain and expand our Italian collection. 

Barbaresco DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, the best classification for Italian wine), is exclusively made from the Nebbiolo grape harvested not only from the village of Barberesco, but also in the neighbouring ones of Treiso, Neive and Alba. Located in the north west of Italy, in the wine region of Piedmont (also home to my favourite Barolo and the sparkling white wines of Astic), it is about 2 hours drive from Milan and an hour and a half from the French border. Nebbiolo grapes, also used to create Barolo, are finicky to grow and very sensitive to frosts and soil. For this reason, they do not thrive outside their hometown. 

The bottle Emilio wrapped up was named "Riserva Ovella 2008". It is produced by Produttori del Barbaresco.  Riservas from Barberesco DOCG are required to age for 4 years, one of which has to be in an oak barrel (Note: a Barolo Riserva has to age for a minimum of 5 years). Barbaresco typically ages well and needs at least 10 years to flourish and showcase its complex flavour, so in all likelihood we had opened the bottle 4 years too soon. Produttori del Barbaresco was founded in 1958 by the priest of the Barbaresco village, who pooled together 19 small growers to survive economically. The first three vintages were made in the church basement. It has grown since then - they have moved out from the basement and there are now 56 Nebbiolo vineyards in the group, accounting for 1/6 of the vineyards in the Barbaresco wine region.