Priorat, one of Spain’s most inspiring red wines made in an isolated zone in catalunya inland from Tarragona (see map under spain) that is one of the country’s only two to qualify as a doca. (Its Spanish rather than native Catalan name is Priorato.) In the 1990s, a true revolution engulfed the region, where production methods for Priorat had barely altered since the 12th century when the Carthusian monks first established the priory after which the wine is named. Priorat is one of the world’s few first-class wines to be made from Garnacha (grenache) and Mazuelo/Cariñena (carignan) vines. The age of the vines and concomitantly extremely low yields, which average just 5 or 6 hl/ha (0.3 ton/acre), undoubtedly contribute to the intensity and strength of Priorat.
Poor, stony soils derived from the underlying slate and quartz, called locally llicorella, support only the most meagre of crops. mechanization is almost impossible and many steeply terraced smallholdings had been abandoned as the rural population left to find work on the coast. The success of new wave Priorat has been reviving viticulture, however.
The region was long dominated by co-operatives but there is an increasing number of well-equipped estates, traditionally led by Scala Dei, while De Müller makes some good generoso. In the 1980s, René Barbier, the scion of the Franco-Spanish winemaking family (whose eponymous firm in Penedès belongs to freixenet), recognizing Priorat’s potential for top-quality red wines, located some particularly promising vineyard sites, renaming them clos. Such French vine varieties as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and some Pinot Noir were planted. A group of private growers took over. The wines of René Barbier (Clos Mogador), Costers del Siurana (Clos de l’Obac), Álvaro Palacios (Finca Dofí, L’Ermita), Mas Martinet (Clos Martinet), and Clos & Terrasses (Clos Erasmus) had won worldwide acclaim by the late 1990s with L’Ermita one of Spain’s most expensive wines. Complex blends including small proportions of French varieties, careful winemaking, and ageing in new French oak barrels were the key innovations. Other small estates jumped on the bandwagon and by the mid 2000s there were more than 50 bodegas in Priorat, with a growing number now producing white wines too from Garnacha Blanca, Macabeo, Pedro Ximénez, and some Viognier.
