A deep and complex nose of black cherry and raspberry, with some subtle chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon and hot rocks. Structured, but very much open for business on the palate with excellent balance and minerally acid. On the palate the step up in complexity shows up again, with layered notes of raspberry, dark cherry, mulberry, a little sage leaf, white pepper and a shake of anise. It’s smooth and lithe, but with a deep and intense core of high quality fruit. Impressive stuff. 93 Pts.

Source: Heart and Soil Price: $70 Closure: Conventional Cork

There are two wines in the range, this being the ‘entry level’. Both of the wines are from old vines, the Samso (Carinena) and Granacha vines for this wine are 35 to 65 years old . It’s aged in 1 and 2 year old oak. You can tell that these wines are made with a fair bit of attention to detail, nothing sticks out, the balance is unbelievable, overall it’s complex very enjoyable. If Roda made a wine in Monsant, this is what it would be like.

The colour is quite dark red, but don’t let that fool you. The nose is subtle and complex with raspberry leaf, red currants and raspberry, a few toasty notes with a bit of white pepper. Fine and smooth in the mouth, its round with a few edges to provide contrast. It’s calm and confidant, but with an impish side. Juicy raspberry and and cola with some hot cinnamon, mulberry and the odd musk stick here or there. Fine chalky tannins turn up on the long finish. This is joyous stuff. 91 Pts.

Source: Heart and Soil Price: $40 Closure: Conventional Cork

The nose starts things off punchy with strawberries and raspberries, rocky minerals and bunch of wild herbs.  In the mouth you’ll find a silky, but broad texture.  A long dry finish with a touch of soft tannin.  More raspberry and strawberry with a red apple skin note. A difficult wine to really describe well, but excellent rosado. 91 Pts.

Source: The Spanish Acquisition Cost: $23 Closure:Screwcap

Web: www.cellercapcanes.com

Other Vintages: 2006

Garnacha rosados tend to be a bit spicer and herby than most, it’s one of the reasons I like them. Just a bit more interesting. The nose on this is full of raspberries and strawberries, a bit of toffee and herby undergrowth.  As usual, it’s dry and has plenty of acid to clean up any fatty food you may be eating at the time.  This does show some light tannins on the finish, which gives it a bit of grip. More of the same on the palate, with a bit of added spice and apple. Nice. 87 Pts.

Source:Woods Wines/Toro Wines Price: Around $18 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.bodegasaragonesas.com

Other Vintages: 2005

Earthy raspberry fruit on the nose with what I’m calling a Dr. Pepper/cola note, so that would be spearmint, wild sage, hot cinnamon and loads of pepper. Long with sandy tannins on the finish, the acid drives things along. A very spicy palate with plenty of pepper, light wood notes, more mint with raspberry and cola. This all leads to a kind of medicinal character, that I think matches the fruit, but a couple of people that I drank this with found it a bit too much. I like it, a solid wine from a hot vintage. 90 Pts.

Source: Bibendum Wine Co. Price: $57  Closure: Conventional Cork

A bit of coco, cherry and sappy plums with a bit of pez and sawdust. A bit more air show raspberry, slight violets, white pepper and sooty earth. Yeah its complex and enjoyable on the nose. Unfortunately, its a bit flat and clinical on the palate. The tannins are a bit hard on the finish, but overall it has good balance. A bit medicinal tasting with some clove and pepper, plum and rosella, cola. There’s plenty there to like and its quite a good wine for the vintage, but it just doesn’t come together for the big points. 89 Pts.

Source: Broadway Liquor Distributors Price: $90 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.masdengil.com

I’ve been a big fan of Priorat in the past, but the price rises over the past couple of vintages have pushed these wines into a whole new price bracket. Plus they can be challenging, confronting wines that are more for the head than the heart. That doesn’t sound like fun, does it? Well, maybe in a fetish kind of way. Actually, the cheaper wines can be much more enjoyable than ultra expensive ones. At times I think you get much better value over the other side of the Iberian Peninsula in the Douro Valley.

Of course, as soon as I take such a bold position this wine turns up on the tasting bench. It’s $150 a bottle, which is by no means cheap, but it’s a spanking, complex wine that is worth the money if you like you’re into wine from Priorat. This is clearly up there with the top wines of the very good 2001 vintage and is drinking really well right now.

A classic Priorat nose of soot, hot rocks, raspberry, cherry pie, plum and bramble. Its a pleasure in the mouth, its well integrated and shows superior balance. Subtle tannins towards the finish and none of the heat that you can find in some Priorats, but it does weigh in at 15%. The palate shows plenty of minerals with some clove, raspberry and plum, cola, hot cinnamon and musk sticks. There’s enough here to restore my faith, its a little wild but that’s the point. 94 Pts.

Source: Broadway Liquor Distributors Price: $150 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.masdengil.com

I've had a couple of requests to open a bottle of this wine, so I ducked into Boccaccio Cellars on Sunday and picked up a bottle. I went home decanted for an hour or so while I cooked up a couple of good steaks. It looked a bit odd to start with and really not pleasant to drink, so I had a glass and put the rest away for the next night. So you get two notes for the price of one here, one on the first night and on on the second. There may be a third note after tonight. This is a very intriguing wine, but not much fun at this stage of its life and something for the wine obsessed rather than hedonistic drinking. I'd love to try another bottle each year for the next 10 years to see where it goes, but given the price rise (about double the price of the 2001, an extra $50 on the 04) I'll only be buying a few.

Night 1: A very odd nose with vanilla pancake mix, barnyard, soot, aniseed powder, raspberry with some sawdust. With more air some notes of roast meats, sage and cheese. Lets just say it's extremely complex and confused at this stage. Not particularly nice in the mouth, angular with big, blocky tannins and confronting acidity. On the palate it shows sarsaparilla, dark fruits with mocha, plenty of cinnamon and clove. Very complex, for many this would be overly complex. A wine for the S&M fetishist, there is some great pleasure to be had here, but you have to be willing to put up with the pain too. Perhaps cellaring will sort it out, however there are some extreme balance issues. 91+ Pts.

Night 2: Looking better, but still a odd on the nose: varnish and coconut with barnyard, but the fruit has arrived with beautiful raspberry and cherry with some woody mocha and pipe tobacco notes. The usual soot and minerals is in there as well. The mouth feel has come up and shows excellent balance with soft fruit tannins and a shot of acid down the centre. Very powerful on the palate with rocks and minerals with cherry, plum and raspberry, and mocha. Not as spicy as last night, which is good. A very intense, complex and intellectual wine, with plenty of time in the cellar needed to show its best. Leave for 5 years before attemping. 94+ Pts.

Source: Boccaccio Cellars RRP: $190 Closure: Conventional Cork

Other Vintages: 1996, 2003, 2004

The problem with long weekends is that you end up trying to fit 5 days of work into 4. I had one of those this week, loads on at work, plus an unexpected trip to Adelaide and the 35+ degree days have made it a fairly slow week for wine tasting.  Anyway, I managed to get to this one on Wednesday night when it was a bit cooler. Its a blend of Garnarcha, Crineña and Cabernet Sauvignon from 5 to 30 year old vines. No mention of the oak treatment, but I'd say a mostly older American oak is in use here.

 
Source: Ce Soir Imports Price: $59 Closure: Conventional Cork

You may have seen a story about this wine in Epicure if you're in Melbourne, perhaps on theage.com if not. If not here's a quick summary: Don Lewis of Mitchelton fame and his partner, Narelle King, scored a gig making wine for Merum Priorati and in 2004 could get their hands on some fruit to make this wine. And its a beauty, and one of the most cost effective ways to introduce yourself to Priorat from the very good 2004 vintage. I've gone with with my raw tasting note here, it just seems to work for this wine.

Nose: Soot, blackberry,raspberry, roasted meats. Light nose, but well flavoured palate. Juicy fruit on the palate: blackberry, raspberry, rosella, mint, liquorice jelly beans, cocoa, fine dusty tannins good length and acid.  Pepper. Smooth mellow and refined, chilled out rather than tough and manic. Medium bodied.  Needs at least a couple of hours in a decanter to show its best. A great value intro Priorat. 91 Pts

Source: Rathdowne Cellars Price: $44 Closure: Conventional Cork

 The second of my Priorat auction purchases went much better. One of the problems with buying wine at auction is you never really know whats happened to it before it got to the auction house.  I've had good luck so far and have usually picked up very well stored bottles.  While there is still a very small amount of Spanish wine sold at auction, it is growing and the prices seem to be quite good.

The nose is almost non-existent on pouring, a lot of vigorous swirling bought it up a bit, however I think it needed more time in the decanter. A touch of rose, raspberry leaf, ripe red and black fruits with some hot rocks. In the mouth its a glorious drink, plenty of soft, refined tannins, well structured and balanced with an acid backbone. notes of dark cherry, raspberry and plum with black pepper, sage and loads of minerals. A long finish with more of those lovely minerals. Right in its drinking window now, but will last another 5 years in the cellar with no problems.  

Source: Auction Price Range: $55-$70 Closure: Conventional Cork

I picked up this wine and a bottle of 2000 Finca Dofi from auction to see how they were looking and to test the theory that these wines from Priorat can age well and develop additional complexity. While there is quite a bit of old vine material in the region, modern methods have only been used in the last 20 years, so its a fairly young region that's in a constant state of innovation. Plus its not an easy working environment: the hills are all shisty rocks on steep slopes and it can be bloody hot here so keeping everything from the picked grapes to the bottles in the cellar cool is very important. I have noticed that from around 2000 onward there has been a big jump in quality from many producers, so I was interested to see what this bottle looked like.

Opened up quite mousey and earthy, a touch of old raspberry leaf with subtle red and black fruits. None of the classic soot character. Disappointing, there were a few questions about TCA on the nose, but I don't think so. A touch of brett perhaps. The palate is much better showing some trademark minerals and rocks, raspberry, dark cherry and plums. A touch of old leather and barnyard but really quite simple.  Quiet pleasant to drink but nothing special. I went back to it a couple of hours later and it was looking much better, it had lost that mousy character and was not showing some mountain herbs, richer fruit and more complexity.  So if you've got some in the cellar, a couple of hours decant at minimum. 

Source: Auction Price Range: $55-75 Closure: Conventional Cork

There has been a bit of discussion on some of the wine forum about the cellaring potential of the wines from Priorat lately.  The main question is do they gain complexity? or does the fruit just fade and they are better drunk young?.  They seem to have everything in place for a long life, but the area is fairly young and really the answer is that no one knows yet.  I haven't had the chance to taste that many older vintages, but I've got a couple lined up for some of Melbourne's leading booze artists in a couple of weeks. Well, see how they go.

Sooty, earthy and rocky are the first things I notice on the nose, this moves on to blackberry and spice with some raspberry and chocolate.  This isn't your supercharged, balls-to-the-wall blockbuster, its very subtle and suave.  Tightly wound at the moment with a spine of acid and sandy tannins that keep it humming along. More dark and red fruit on the palate with a touch of pepper and herbs, clove and liquorice. It looks like 2005 will be good in Priorat, as expected.  Better than 2004?  Who knows, but two good vintages are better than one.  92+ Pts.

Source: The Spanish Acquisition Cost: Around $60 Closure: Conventional Cork

Other vintages: 2004 

This is a real go to wine, its great drinking shows real character and doesn't break the bank.  The 2005 is the best to date and has a great mix of flavours and is just serious enough for your wine geek mates to be impressed, but not too serious or expensive for the non-wine geek to get into. 

Coffee, earthy raspberry, a touch of mint, hot rocks. Smooth and supple in the mouth, balanced and savoury with a tart fruit finish. Good concentration. Sour cherries and raspberries on the palate with sage and other mountain herbs and roasted meat juices. Some sappy plums and white pepper from the syrah. You can almost taste the hot summer days in the quality of the fruit. Light dusty tannins show up on the finish. A joy to drink. 91 Pts.

Source: The Spanish Acquisition RRP: $35 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.cellercapcanes.com

Other Vintages: 2000, 2004