When you’re about to give a talk at what’s been billed as, “the masterclass of the year in Croatia”, it would be a lie to say it didn’t feel a little daunting. Thankfully, when said talk is about the wines of DOQ Priorat, the heavy lifting has already been done for you by the winemakers of this esteemed region.
Following up on my tastings last year for Corpinnat & Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the organizers of the Vinart Biz Edition (formerly Grand Tasting) invited me back to lead a talk on DOQ Priorat which I was happy to accept as I’m a huge believer in regional tasting exchanges.
Priorat is a small wine region, in fact just about half the size metropolitan Zagreb and it only has about 2,300ha of vineyards. There are also only 120 registered wineries with just under 100 of those actively producing wine. While that may seem small, Priorat is a very complex region and so it’s difficult to decide what chunk makes the most sense to bite off for a one hour talk and guided tasting.
The final decision was to select wines from the “Vi de Vila” level for a couple of reasons. The first one is that unlike the paratges classification which has been around since 2019, the Vi de Vila classification has been in force since 2009. This gives it a bit more evolution and establishment. Secondly, some of the best wineries in Priorat make use of it.
Ultimately, in reaching out to a very selected group, the wineries who participated were, in order of how they were presented:
- Álvaro Palacios – Gratallops Vi de Vila 2022
- Familia Torres Priorat – Salmos Vi de Vila Porrera 2020
- Vall Llach – Porrera Vi de Vila 2023
- Marco Abella – Mas Mallola Vi de Vila Porrera 2021
- Mas Doix – Poboleda Vi de Vila 2023
- Sandra Doix – Pobol Negre Vi de Vila Poboleda 2021
What this offered was a tasting of three distinct villages each with their own profile of wine and from wineries who have been producing these wines in those villages for quite some time.
I’m readily aware that there’s been crticism of this classification previously by my fellow critics and it’s true that not all 12 villages necessarily needed their own named classification.
But, some of the critics have stated that the differences between the wines come down more to variety and winemaking choices as opposed to anything distinct about the villages themselves. Given the fact that I taste more than 300-400 wines from the region each year (not including neighoring DO Montsant), I probably have something of a priviledged vantage. I say this as to me, there’s a marked difference between the villages and if you visit the region, you can readily see this in the landscape.
So, what are the differences?
Gratallops wines I find to have more spiced red fruit, which is often from Grenache being dominant in the wines, but also due to the fact that village is on a hill with most all of the vineyards see a wealth of sun exposure. Porrera on the other had sits at the bottom of a valley and the vineyards all go up, see more shade, sea breeze, and as a result, are more dark fruited. And then there’s Poboleda which is in a broader valley, but still gets a good deal of sea breeze and the wines can be a mix of fruits, but there’s a very zesty acidity to them as the underlying soil is changing as it pushes up to the Montsant bluff.
Do note that the villages themselves are all at around a similar altitude of 300-340m and overall, the winemaking techniques were very similar with only one of the wines not seeing oak aging. So the difference really is in the individual village.
While I was giving the presentation, I could taste each of these villages. But, it was probably made more complex to those attending in the sold-out room that there were wines from: 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. As I covered in my last Priorat report, while the last two vintages are somewhat similar, the first two have nothing in common with the others and so it can make it a bit more irregular.
Despite that, the tasting was very well received and I was fascinated to see what wines people picked out as their favorites given that there was no constant thread. I actually look upon that in a very positive light as it shows that the winemaking is of very high quality (and there were no faults in any of these wines) and a winedrinker can lean into whatever it is that they personally enjoy.
In talking about the Vi de Vila wines and their coming into being, it also offered a chanced to talk about the paratge system that’s arrived as it built upon the this classification of the villages. There was simply too much to go into in such a short amount of time, but hopefully a new tasting can be arranged in the future focusing on these as well and it can be yet another “masterclass of the year in Croatia”.
My many thanks to the wineries who participated in this tasting and below, Classic & Pro Subscribers have access to the most recent reviews of these wines.
