REGIONAL FOCUS
who took a punt on the region, as told in the documentary Priorat, Dreaming of Wine. In the film, Thomas
Matthews, then executive editor of Wine Spectator, says, “Priorat was re-energised by these hippie outsiders with a dream and a dollar.” Among them was Rene Barbier who built the now famous wine brand Clos Mogador.
A rich history There’s a convoluted story behind the wines of Priorat where wine has actually been produced for more than 2,000 years – starting with the Romans who made the old port of Tarraco into the equivalent of what Hong Kong was to the British empire: today’s Tarragona – the capital of the eponymous province where the Priorat is set – exported wine, almonds and olive oil for the delight of the Roman emperors. Hundreds of amphoras, made with a pointy bottom so they could stand in the sand, were left on the Tarraco beaches ready to be loaded onto Roman ships. The glory days across the
Mare Nostrum (the Roman name for the Mediterranean), disappeared with the decline of the Roman Empire, only to take off again in the 12th century in the same way that most ancient Greek and Roman culture was revived: by the church.
The order of Carthusian
monks settled in the region and started producing wine next to its monasteries. One of them, the Charterhouse of Escaladei can be visited. Similarly, Cistercian
“Priorat is a region with a long wine tradition, but for historical reasons it is one of several regions that were forgotten”
monks started cultivating wine in the nearby monastery of Poblet. The area’s unique, mineral, red soil is these days used by the Torres family to produce its excellent Grans Muralles in the manicured vineyard next to the monastery’s medieval walls (Grans Muralles means ‘great walls’ in Catalan). This religious tradition is what gave the region its name – priorat means priory in English. The area’s winemaking and olive oil production continued to develop up to the 20th century, when cooperatives were formed in the 1930s during Spain’s Second Republic. Following Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudí’s style, some cooperatives built modernist headquarters, such as the one in Falset, still today capital of the Priorat region.
Neglect, then revival The region’s growth, however, suffered the same fate as the rest of Catalonia following General Franco’s victory in the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. The last region to stand against the dictator, Catalans suffered four decades of repression and low investment that finally ended with the general’s death and
Spain’s return to democracy. In 1989, Rioja winemaker
Álvaro Palacios settled in Priorat – he was in search of somewhere less industrialized to produce wine and was attracted by the potential of the mineral soil. He started working alongside Rene Barbier and his colleagues. “Priorat is a region with a long wine tradition, but for historical reasons it is one of several regions that were forgotten. Essentially, after the civil war, only the Rioja region was known for its wine, the rest were forgotten and only for national consumption,” he said in a 2013 interview with wine writer Piero Sini, explaining why he made the move to Priorat.
Treasures to discover
The mountainous landscape and remote location made it a difficult and expensive project, but his first vintages achieved such quality that many followed. Gratallops, (once the name Catalans used to indicate somewhere remote – like Timbuktu), became a magnet to food and wine entrepreneurs who moved to the area to open gourmet shops and rural-cool restaurants.
“Through my travels I realized that Spain had many treasures to discover and that is why I went to Priorat,” reflected Palacios. “When I tasted the wine, I thought, there is a rough diamond here.” The wines of Priorat are
getting plenty of international attention. As recently as 2021, the Wine Spectator’s list of
85
EAME
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132
