by Victor de la Serna » Wed Aug 27, 2008 6:57 pm
There is no "modern" Priorat, in the sense that quality dry reds were not produced there until the 'gang of five' new producers began modestly their road to fame with their commune-like vinification of the 1989 vintage: René Barbier, Álvaro Palacios, Josep-Lluís Pérez, Carles Pastrana and Daphne Glorian (who would each become famous for producing Clos Mogador, L'Ermita and Finca Dofí, Clos Martinet, Clos de l'Obac and Clos Erasmus). Before that, some rustic dry reds were made by Scala Dei, Masía Barril and some co-ops, but it was the fortified 'rancio' reds that had made the region's fame since the Middle Ages.
It's true that there were concerns about the ageability of non-fortified wines made from the region's two traditional grape varieties, garnacha tinta/grenache and cariñena/carignan. Pérez, who was the scientist in the group (he taught viticulture and oenology at Tarragona University), advised them to plant plots of cabernet sauvignon, merlot and syrah. The idea was to blend small percentages of these French varieties, which all give greater tannic structure than the two native ones, into the wines to give them longer aging and drinking windows, and possibly some extra aromatic complexity.
What has happened in the almost 20 years since then is that producers have become much more familiar with grenache and carignane and have acquired growing confidence in them, so that the percentage of the native grapes in the blends has grown constantly and there are now some leading wines in the 'new generation', such as Trio Infernal 2/3 (made by Laurent Combier, Jean-Michel Gérin and Peter Fischer), which are 100% carignane. Of the three French grape varieties, merlot was not very successful from the start (too hot for it), cabernet sauvignon seldom played more than a minor, supporting role, and syrah was, as could be expected, the most successful one in blending with grenache and carignane and in adapting to the terroir.
The diminishing role of cab is quite obvious. For instance, in the 1998 Mogador it was 40% of the blend, but by 2005 it was down to 28%. For Erasmus, it's now down to 10%, and the cab will eventually be phased out.
Now on this 'vegetative' note, I really don't know this wine descriptor. Do you mean 'vegetal'? In a scorching-hot region with very poor hillside soils made of deep masses of brown schist, overripeness is a more realistic concern and problem than greenness. I personally have found very few cases of greenness in these wines. Minerality is a more frequent characteristic, as is the case of so many schist-based wines - but that could not be confused with vegetal notes. Massive concentration, overripeness and high alcohol are more common problems. IMHO, the truly great Priorat wines avoid those pitfalls - but then, the truly great Priorat wines are made by just seven or eight out of the 90 wineries that have sprouted up in the last 20 years.
Comparisons with the southern Rhône are mostly meaningless. There, the wines are made at sea level on flat soils mostly covered by large 'graves' rocks (which help the ripening process in a rather cooler region than Priorat). Also, the Aragonese-Catalan strains of grenache are quite different from the French strains in that their content in anthocyanins (i.e., dark color) is considerably higher. These are vastly different animals - like a Coonawarra shiraz and a Côte Rôtie syrah.
