Tarragona - Day 1

10-Jun-09 - So where is Torroja del Priorat (pop. 143)? Well, it's about 35 km west of Reus in the most mountainous part of Priorat, with spectacular scenery, wild hairpin bends, fabulous llicorella soils and ancient plantations of Garnacha and Cariñena (which they have to call Samsó to avoid confusion with the DO Cariñena although, this being Spain, not everybody takes any notice of the regulation). The village itself is kind of stacked, higgledy-piggledy up the hillside (most villages in Priorat seem to be in the same style) and we were lodged at the hotel Cal Compte on the Carrer Major, another grand old building in course of restoration by Anna Figueres and Joaquim Calvo, a bookish couple who have made it their life's work to return the old house to its former splendour.

The Carrer Major - too narrow for the minibus to get down. The big door on the left is the hotel entrance.

The trip was to culminate in the Reus Wine Festival and was sponsored by the Reus Chamber of Commerce. The UK/Ireland end had been arranged by Gerald Lawson-Tancred of Hispanic Consulting (see posts passim) and he very kindly carried my large bag up the four flights of stairs to my room: there is a lift but it hasn't been commissioned yet. The house has a terrace where my fellow-travellers were having lunch and I was invited to join them, although, of course, I had lunched extremely well at Cavas Vilarnau, so I merely nibbled at a pan con tomate and had a glass of wine.

One advantage of a fourth-floor room - wonderful views

My fellow travellers were Clive Platman (Birmingham Post), Andrew Catchpole (freelance, formerly of Harper's), Helen Savage (The Journal - Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Ernie Whalley (Sunday Independent, Ireland), Patricia Langton (freelance, formerly of OLN) and Rebecca Gibb (freelance, formerly of Harper's and 2006 Young Wine Writer of the Year). We were expertly hosted by Rachel Ritchie, who is English but has lived in these parts for many years, and acts as a tourist guide for visitors - she appears to know the region, and everyone in it, like the back of her hand .

Our first visit was that evening, to Mas Doix in Poboleda. The village is so close to Torroja that you can see it from the road above, but the terrain means a 13km drive around those endless hairpins - fab scenery, though: wild, untamed slopes, with those grey stone, pantiled villages clinging for dear life to the mountainsides. The winery is very small and we were hosted by the winemaker, Ramon Llagostera, scion of one of the two families which own the company, who farms 30 ha of vineyards, but only crops at 500-1,000 kg/ha (against the legal maximum of 6,000). We tasted four of his wines, all of which were excellent:

2006 Salanques (the bodega's 'second wine') - 65/20/15 Garnacha/Cariñena/Cabernet and Merlot - 12 months French. Dark purple with lovely big, concentrated, dark fruit on the nose and big extraction, power and fruit on the palate. The fruit breaks through the tannins on mid and leaves a musky finish. Needs 1-2 years. 17/20

2006 Doix - 50/50 Garnacha/Cariñena - 12 months French. Dark purple again with rich, warm 'rubbery' fruit and dark chocolate on the nose. Big, 'chewy' musky fruit on the palate but with fresh acidity. Austere on the finish: this needs time, too. 17/20

2003 Doix - as above - so this is how it will develop: perfumed summer fruit starting to emerge along with some wood-oil on the nose. Big tannins on the palate are starting to mellow out, with concentration and power on the mid and a musky-fruit finish. 18/20

1999 Doix - as above but with 3% Merlot - This is the one we were waiting for: big, dark, gamey, powerful and yet elegant on the nose. Rich and powerful on the palate, still some tannins working but the structure is coming together well. Long, long finish. This still has plenty of life left in it. 18½/20

This was an excellent introduction to the region - classic Priorat style and quality.

Then it was back to the hotel for a pre-dinner generic tasting, for which our schedule had allowed 30 minutes, and we were a little taken aback to discover that they'd laid out 80 wines for us on the upstairs terrace, arranged by village, which I thought was a little odd. The tasting was hosted by Jordi Vidal from the Scala Dei winery, and he explained the 'village' bit. There are moves afoot to put the village name on the labels, on the basis that some villages are, quite naturally, more favoured than others. You'll remember in the old days the Rhône used to do something similar with such as Côtes du Rhône-Chusclan and Côtes du Rhône-Gigondas before the villages got their own appellations. So, expect to see such as Priorat-Gratallops, Priorat-Cims de Porrera, etc. in the future. Not everyone is happy about this development, especially as many bodegas own small, scattered plots of vines which may be in several villages, so it tends to work in favour of those with larger plots. My personal view is that it's frankly unnecessary. In my lectures and presentations I have enough trouble explaining to people where and what Priorat is, without delving into the individual villages. We shall see.

80 wines arranged by village - and half an hour to taste them!

Onward, then, to the tasting. There was no means by which I was going to get through 80 wines, and I decided that this was a rare opportunity try some Priorat white wines, which are hard to find outside the region. The grape is predominantly old-vines Garnacha Blanca and the style tends to have the same structured power as the reds. There were only half a dozen, and only two worth a mention:

2008 Les Brugueres, Scala Dei - 14% abv, made without malolactic - pale straw, hints of herby fruit on the nose but a lovely fresh acidity on the palate, a strong 'meaty' fruit on the mid and a long 'savoury' finish. 17/20

Roureda Llicorella, Cellers Unió - 14% abv, barrel-fermented with 7 months on the lees - This one didn't really make the cut but I mention it as it's made with 100% PX, of which you don't see a lot in Catalunya: on the nose it really does have that Priorat rich, savoury fruit, but it's much softer on the palate, very pleasant and with a long, soft finish. 16/20

Then it was on to the reds, and in general terms I was quite surprised to see so many fairly ordinary wines - well made, good quality, but a lot of 15/20 and I recalled something that Steven Spurrier said when we had a dispute over a wine at the DECANTER World Wine Awards: "Priorat can do much better than this". It is sad but true that every region in the world which makes truly great wine also makes truly dismal wine (think Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy) and whilst these were not in any way dismal, they weren't what I have come to expect from Priorat. With some of them it seemed that the winemaker had been trying too hard to get the legendary Priorat concentration, and in so doing sacrified the hallmark Priorat elegance. As I wasn't able to taste more than a dozen or so I think I'll draw a veil over the exact details: it would hardly be fair to single a producer out with such a small sample.

During the tasting some of us were interviewed by Reus Digital, the regional internet magazine (it's in Catalan) and I had to smile at the description the writer gave of Rebecca Gibb. Having established that she is one of the youngest MW students in the world the writer of the article dubbed her 'La Jovenissima'.

Dinner was a leisurely affair and we cheerfully finished off our favourite bottles with it, before hiking up those four flights of stairs. I had the regulation bottle of 'duty-free' stashed away so there was time for a couple of large ones while I picked up my e-mail (free wifi, by the way - excellent!) before turning in.

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