Nearly 15 years ago, I was on holiday in Barcelona eating at a restaurant with my dad and sister. We didn’t know too much about wine then, other than that you should always try and drink local. We asked the waiter for a recommendation and he said there was a nearby region called Priorat that people didn’t know that much about but was producing exciting wine. In fact, Priorat had been the darling of wine critics since the 1990s but tasting the wine for the first time was a revelatory experience for us.

where

Priorat is about an hour and half’s drive inland from Barcelona. This means it has a Mediterranean climate, with warm, dry summers. However, it is slightly cut off from the balmy influence of the Mediterranean by the Serra Alta mountain. To the north, another mountain, Serra Montsant, rises into the arid plains of the rest of Catalunya. Therefore, the climate has some continental influence, with warmer summers and colder winters than coastal regions such as Penedès. These mountains create different levels of elevation (up to 800m) for plantings, and therefore a varied terroir.

history

A good way of describing the character of Spain is that there is a constant pull between history and tradition and the contemporary and the modern. There’s also a pull between language and regional identity (in northern Asturias there’s currently a big debate over whether Asturian should be considered a language or a dialect). All of this is true of Priorat, where Catalan rather than Spanish is the predominant language.

Priorat’s winemaking history goes back centuries, with wine first made by Carthusian monks in the 1200s. There is therefore a long experience in where to plant and which varieties to cultivate.

However, the first wines to be bottled was not until 1878 for the Universal Exhibition in Paris and again in 1888 for another Exhibition in Barcelona. Just as Priorat was entering the modern winemaking world, phylloxera devastated the region and it further failed to recover due to the Civil War in the 1930s.

Cut to the 1980s, when vines had been abandoned—but which also meant there were plenty of old vines left to work with. A group of winemakers moved to the region determined to make quality wines from these old vines.

And they did just that. As early as 1991, Priorat was made a DOCa (DOQa in Catalan), only the second region to receive the classification after Rioja. Wine critics loved the wines, in part because of the trend in the 90s for higher-alcohol, fuller-bodied red wines. Priorat went from a forgotten region to one of the most dynamic in the world.

soils

Priorat is famous for its llicorella soils, which is thin slate which allows the vine’s roots to dig deep in search of water. (Irrigation is not allowed except when permitted in exceptional conditions or for the cultivation of young vines.) This soil differs Priorat from Montsant which surrounds Priorat like a doughnut. There, the soils are clay and limestone which arguably means less concentrated wines. However, the style and quality of the wines in both regions depends as much on elevation as soil type, with fruitier wines lower down and ageworthy, more restrained wines further up.

grape varieties

Priorat is known for two black grapes, Garnacha (Garnatxa in Catalan and Grenache in French) and Cariñena (sometimes Samsó in Catalan and Carignan in French), which together make up most of the blend. Garnacha is undergoing something of a revival across Spain (and the rest of the world), but for a long time it was considered inferior, with high yields, low acidity, and low tannin. As with any other variety, where it’s planted makes all the difference. In Priorat, it’s on slate soils which slow down the ripening, naturally building sugar while maintaining acidity and tannin.

Likewise with Cariñena which back in the 1970s was by far the most planted grape in France. It has high yields, which can lead to insipid wines with astringent tannins although with usefully high acidity. But where Cariñena becomes important and of high quality is when the vines are old which limits yields and allows the wine to be balanced, tannic, yet still fresh.

Besides the llicorella soil, Priorat is known for old vines. That’s because when wine started being remade in the late 1980s, the vines had been pretty much abandoned. This allowed the producers to make wine with a distinct identity, and also to study why the monks had chosen certain varieties for certain sites. Since the rise of Priorat, younger vines have also been planted, as old vines won’t live and produce forever, but for the best producers working with the old vines is a hallmark of quality Priorat.

In the 1990s, international varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah, were planted to give Priorat more of a global appeal as to most consumers these are far more familiar than Garnacha and Cariñena. They can also add some colour, tannin, and black fruits. However, as Priorat has established itself as a premium region, with a reputation based on old vines, these international varieties are beginning to be replaced by the local varieties.

scala dei podcast

For my podcast, I recently interviewed Ricard Rofes, winemaker at Scala Dei, the oldest winery in Priorat. The name comes from the priory or monastery established in the 1200s by Carthusian monks, who, like most monasteries across Europe, made wine. The story goes that the monks built the monastery on a site where a local man claimed he had a vision of an angel above a pine tree every night. Hence the name, Scala Dei, which means stairway to God.

Scala Dei returned to a commitment to quality in the 1990s, as they saw the new producers were making great, acclaimed wine. Their approach is a bit more traditional than the international style of the 1990s, which fits in with their being the oldest winery. However, the wines remain clean, approachable, structured, and very tasty. We tasted the following three wines:

“Prior” 2017 (c. $40; ✪✪✪✪✪)

This is their introduction to the Scala Dei style, not too fruity or heavy, with a firm but smooth texture, and a pretty floral character. It’s a blend of 55% Garnacha, 20% Cariñena, plus Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah—the Bordeaux varieties a leftover from the trends of the 1990s but still of high quality. The name, “Prior,” is exactly the same in English, referring to the original monks who founded the monastery.

“Cartoixa” 2017 ($55; ✪✪✪✪✪✪)

This was my favourite of the three. 80% Garnacha and 20% Cariñena, it has a wonderful floral, perfumed nose with crunchy red fruit on the palate complemented by vibrant acidity and smooth tannins. The name, “Cartoixa,” is the Catalan for Carthusian, again referring to the original monks.

“Masdeu” 2012 ($100; ✪✪✪✪✪✪)

This wine is rare for a few things, and not just its price. It’s 100% Garnacha, which is usually, even in Priorat, considered necessary to be in a blend. It comes from clay-limestone soils, which is very unusual for Priorat (only 5% of the region is clay-limestone, which is usually found in neighbouring Montsant). It’s also a single vineyard, whose origins can be traced back centuries. With that unique history, the wine is made as it would have been before the reinvention of Priorat in the late 1980s and 90s, with little sulphur and the use of large, oak casks. An expressive, ageworthy wine which may make you rethink what Grenache around the world is capable of.

If you’re ever fortunate enough to do a blind tasting of global Grenache, you’ll notice just how differently it expresses where it comes from—other areas across Spain, south of France, California, South Africa, Australia, and Priorat. This is a region with so much history, going back centuries, and it is that history that wineries such as Scala Dei are drawing on to create a new future for the region.