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Priorat, Spain

When a group of idealistic winemakers set up a cooperative among the gnarled, 100-year-old vines on the Priorat’s treacherous hillsides in the late 1980s, the conservative Spanish wine establishment dismissed them as naïve and possibly crazy.

At first glance, this tiny, isolated region nestled into the foothills of the Montsant mountains southwest of Barcelona, didn’t hold much promise. The cliff-side vineyards and crumbling medieval villages were certainly dramatic, but most of the wine produced here was sold for next to nothing, often in big plastic jugs. And while the Carthusian monks had been making wine here since the 12th century, the industry had never recovered from the phylloxera plague that devastated the vineyards in around 1900. Of the few remaining vineyards, many were set on remote, rocky hilltops that were extremely difficult to work.

Undaunted, the pioneering group cited the potential of the rocky slate soil, back-breaking hillsides and harsh Mediterranean climate. A couple of years later, they bottled the first small, hard-fought harvests of their intense, ground-breaking Priorat wines under five different labels – Finca Dofì, Clos Mogador, Clos Martinet, Clos de L’Obac and Clos Erasmus. These powerful red wines, with their impressive combination of body and elegance and their earthy, mineral flavours thrust the region firmly into the international spotlight and remain among Spain’s most prestigious.

Alvaro Palacios, a key member of this enterprising group, then produced his first vintage of l’Ermita and the wine world instantly fell in love. A dense blend of old-vine garnacha (grenache), cabernet sauvignon and cariñena (carignan), the wine is powerful and full-bodied, yet beautifully balanced – a true product of the Priorat’s unique, difficult terrain. American critic Robert Parker couldn’t praise this commanding, complex and terroir-driven wine highly enough. Prices skyrocketed, making this one of Spain’s most expensive drops, and prompting a rapid reversal in the area’s fortunes.

Spain’s biggest winemakers, including giants such as Codorníu and Torres, flooded into the Priorat, followed by businessmen and such diverse investors as locally revered Catalan folk singer Lluís Llach and French film star Gerard Depardieu. The number of plantings rose dramatically, from 700 hectares in 1980 to 1800 hectares in 2009.

But time seems to have stood still here, in the tiny vineyard of ancient cariñena grapes that are harvested for l’Ermita. A lone donkey picks his way along the rocky, vertiginous hillsides. And beyond, the valley unfolds in a patchwork of vines cascading down mountains dotted with ancient stone walls, romantic medieval villages and pockets of native bush – all framed by the towering Montsant mountain range. Speaking from his spectacular modern winery above the now-bustling town of Gratallops, Palacios says it is this timeless beauty that is at the heart of the distinctive Priorat wine. Of course, the Priorat’s unique landscape makes the wine what it is, he says.

Firstly, there is the famous llicorella soil, a mixture of slate and schist that allows the vines’ roots to travel deep into the hillsides, seeking nutrients and moisture trapped in tiny clay pockets. The yields from these soils are extremely low but densely packed with the intense mineral flavour characteristic of the best Priorat wines. Then there are the incredibly steep slopes that make it virtually impossible to work the land with machinery. At the same time, they give the vines maximum exposure to the long, scorching summer days, followed by nights that are cooled by winds blowing in from the nearby coast.

“It’s all here,” says Palacios. “You try to do as little as possible. What is unique is that there is a kind of mysticism that is part of this place.”

He gestures out towards the Scala Dei monastery in the valley below. “When the monks were growing wine here hundreds of years ago, this whole valley was covered with vines. And what the monks did then is still an important part of what we do now. That is what gives the wine its identity. We won’t make it better with fast ideas.”

His enormous respect for tradition and the land are shared by many in the Priorat. He farms organically, working his slopes with donkeys, although he admits such difficult terrain is almost prohibitive for this style of viticulture.

“You have to be on it all the time,” he says. “It’s a very big handicap in your life.”

These romantic ideals and reverence for history and the environment are a common thread among the region’s top winemakers, who all believe that to make the best Priorat wines, you simply allow the grapes to express the land as cleanly and clearly as they can.

At the prestigious Vall Llach in the village of Porrera, oenologist Albert Costa shows us around a winery that sprawls across several stories of a vast, rambling old townhouse in the village of Porrera.

Folk singer Lluís Llach and notario Enric Costa set up this captivating, somewhat eccentric winery to avoid the environmental cost of building in the vineyards, as many producers have done. And it meant they could give something back to a village that had seen a steady decline in population as its young headed elsewhere to find work.

Showing us the vineyards, which are farmed without chemicals or irrigation, Albert proudly points out their best plantings, the 90-year-old cariñena vines cling to the crumbling, un-terraced slopes, which are used for their signature Vall Llach wine.

From the very beginning of the winemaking process, choices at Vall Llach are made according to nature, he says. “When you see the birds eating the grapes, that’s when you know they are ready.”

Costa recently spent a year working in the huge, open vineyards in an Australian winery and said that after the grapes were brought in, he was asked what he would do with the wine. “I didn’t know what to say,” he said. “Here, we do nothing.”

This entirely natural approach isn’t, of course, practiced by everyone in the Priorat. And the flood of investors into a region so closely bound by tradition has many locals worried about the effect on the area’s hard-won reputation and identity. Many of the new wineries work on a larger scale and in their efforts to produce more wine, have built terraces that have damaged the local environment. While many local winemakers can see that producing more affordable wines could be beneficial, they agree these wines need to be good quality.

Salvador Burgos, whose family has made wine in the nearby village of Poboleda for three generations, expressed concern about those who have come to the Priorat for speculation. He has spent his entire life working in the region’s wine industry and practices sustainable organic viticulture at his Burgos-Porta winery.

“You can’t make good wine here if you are just doing it for money,” he says. “For good wine, you need time, effort, history, a culture of making good things. You need perseverance and spirit.”

He dismisses the new bodegas that now dot the landscape as “theme parks” and questions their environmental impact and their effect on the region’s reputation for high-quality wine. “The Priorat has reached an age where it needs to consolidate its identity, to make the most of what it has,” he says. “And many of these newcomers just don’t understand what the Priorat is.”

Sarah Perez, the young winemaker who has taken over from her pioneering father, Lluis Perez, at Mas Martinet, is more philosophical in her view of new wineries producing more affordable wines.

She says the unique conditions of the Priorat mean that while it would be impossible for these wineries to produce wine very cheaply, it would also be difficult to produce wine that wasn’t high quality.

 “Due to the structure and fertility of the soil and the difficult terrain, it’s not possible to offer wines at a very low price,” she says. “Priorat is a small DOQ with magical soil and a vocation for great wines.”

On the question of whether producing less expensive wines would be detrimental to the Priorat, she gave the example of Burgundy that sold affordable wine without damaging its reputation.

At the same time, like most winemakers here, Perez believes that after so many years of change and rapid expansion, the Priorat’s winemakers need to pause, reflect, explore their rich history and decide exactly which path they want to take from here.

“We need to put our heads down and look at our own soil,” she says. “We have a winemaking culture of more then 700 years, we need to recuperate part of this history ... and bottle it.”

WINERIES TO VISIT
The Priorat covers a very small area, so it is possible to explore the entire region within a couple of days. However, while the distances are short, the roads are particularly windy and can be slow. Many wineries cluster around Gratallops, where the Priorat’s revival began and this is a good base for visits as it is central and is an interesting town in itself. A number of the wineries are relatively new to wine tourism, a fact that makes your time there all the more personal.

All the villages have their unique charms, as does the diverse landscape, but one drive that shouldn’t be missed takes you from the monastery of Scala Dei, through the mountains to the spectacular hilltop village of Siurana.

Costers de Siurana/Clos de l’Obac
Camí Manyanetes s/n, Gratallops 43737, +34 977 839 276.
The Pastrana Jarque family, proprietors of the Costers de Siurana winery, were the true pioneers of the astonishing Priorat revival. They came to the little-known area in the 1970s, already seeing the potential in the terrain, the climate and the centuries-old winemaking traditions. Their wines have since drawn worldwide acclaim. Robert Parker is among their fans – he awarded the 1994 Clos de l’Obac 95 points. Tours can be made of the impressive Mas d’en Bruno vineyards. This beautiful masia, or villa, has been the base for cultivating vines since the 13th century. It is surrounded by picturesque vineyards, which have no irrigation, no insecticides and no synthetic products. Carles Pastrana, one the five young winemakers at the heart of the Priorat resurgence, and known as one of the Priorat’s biggest personalities, presides over the modern winery in Gratallops.

Celler La Conreria d’Scala Dei
Mitja Galta, 32, Scala Dei 43379, +34 977 827 055.
The romantic origins of this winery are more than matched by the fantastic wines – including some of the Priorat’s best whites, made from garnacha blanca. Celler La Conreria d’Scala Dei was set up by three friends, a winemaker, a schoolteacher and a priest who built the winery on his property in the ancient village of Scala Dei. The winery is set at the foot of the Montsant mountains, by the ruins of the 12th century Cartoixa d’Scala Dei monastery. The winery is worth visiting for the location alone, and when combined with the wines, this is a highly recommended visit.

Celler Torres, Priorat
El Lloar, Finca La Solteta s/n, +34 938 177 487.
The vast Torres winemaking empire that so dominates Catalan wine seems somewhat at odds with the small-scale Priorat operations. And on approach, the modern, steel and glass bodega suggests trademark Torres grandeur. But the Priorat isn’t the place for large-scale ventures and the solar panel-clad winery here is surprisingly hands on and in tune with the local environment. Winemaker Jordi Foraster runs El Lloar separately from the Torres empire and his passion for the Priorat is obvious. All grapes are picked by hand, no herbicides or pesticides are used and Foraster even admits to following the lunar calendar. Views from the solar panel-clad bodega are spectacular.

Celler Burgos-Porta
Finca Mas Sinén s/n, Poboleda 43376, +34 696 094 509.
Salvador Burgos has worked all his life in the tiny village of Poboleda, where his family has lived for three generations. Touring the vertiginous vineyards in his ute is not for the faint-hearted but the views out to the mountain ranges of Montsant, Siurana are spectacular. Burgos’s vines are grown on terraces as the land was previously terraced for almonds, but his approach is strictly ecological – without chemicals, pesticides or herbicides and is supervised by the Catalan Council for Ecological Agrarian Production. A natural spring, which he describes as “our jewel”, surges out of the mountain and it is this pristine water that carries the unique flavour of the llicorella soil, which he believes gives his wine its unique character. The rustic exterior of the meticulously restored 17th century Mas Sinén disguises a state-of-the-art winery set in an idyllic rural setting.

Mas Blanc – Bodegas Pinord
Ctra de Falset-Bellmunt del Priorat, km 3, 43730, +34 938 903 066.
The first certified-biodynamic winery in the Priorat is in an offshoot of another big Penedes operation. The winery has been intricately designed to ensure that the latest technology leaves the winemaking process as natural and traditional as possible. Their two wines: Balcons, a blend of garnacha, cariñena, cabernet sauvignon and merlot; and +7, with sauvignon, syrah and garnacha are excellent.

Celler Cecilio
Piró 28, Gratallops 43737, +34 977 839 507.
A true family enterprise, Celler Cecilio has been producing wine in the Priorat since Cecilio Vicent started his winery in an unused stable here in 1942. The winery maintains a family ambience and while a modern winemaking facility has been built, the original winery is still used and displays the older machinery and equipment.

Celler Buil & Giné
Ctra de Gratallops, La Vilella Baixa (T-170), km 11.5, Gratallops 43737, +34 977 839 810.
This winery is one of the few in the Priorat that have invested heavily in wine tourism. The building is set back into the hillside to allow it to blend into the surroundings and the majority of the surface is covered by soil. Visitors can choose between a variety of visits, some of which include introductions to winemaking or trips around the winery on a segway, an electric buggy that moves with the movement of your body. The winery is a classic example of a gravity-fed operation and tours take you from the top floor where the grapes are received to where they are stored four floors below.

TEXT AMY EGAN PHOTOGRAPHY CELLER LA CONRERIA D'SCALA

This article is from the June/July 2010 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.