Wine Journal: The Romance of Old Vines

Other cooperatives have chosen to form alliances with successful producers to get the technical and marketing skills they need. Through just such an arrangement, the village cooperative in Poboleda now has the help of Joan Maria Riera, a talented young winemaker who worked for a time at Saintsbury in California’s Carneros. Its new partners have upgraded the equipment in the cooperative’s modest quarters, and although members still have the right to deliver all their grapes there—that was part of the deal—selection is rigorous, and about a quarter of the wine is sold off in bulk.

“We give the growers all the help we can,” Riera told me. “And by way of encouragement we routinely pay 500 pesetas a kilo for impeccable fruit.” Riera imposes strict organic cultivation standards on all the cooperative’s members. “All our wine is organic,” he said, “and the Swiss and German authorities send inspectors here regularly.” All the reds are traditional blends of Grenache and Carignan, but the best of them, bottled as Mas Igneus, usually contain small proportions of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Syrah.

Best known of the cooperative partnerships is Cims de Porrera. The Perez family, with partner Luis Llach, rents the village cooperative’s winery, where the huge underground cement tanks in which the wine used to be made have been turned into vaults housing French oak barrels. The 52 member growers, who sell their grapes to the winery, cultivate a total of 54 hectares (130 acres) of vines, spread over 150 different plots. “They’re all at different altitudes, with different exposures, and often with the Grenache and the Carignan mixed together,” Sara Perez told me. “We do our best to pick the two varieties separately anyway,” she said, “because they don’t ripen at the same time. We judge ripeness by the taste of the skins. When the fruit is ripe, the aroma tells you so. It was nature’s way of attracting animals to eat the fruit when the seeds were ready. We follow the same rule, and it seems to work for us, too.”

Because of their limited production, distribution of Priorato wines is still uneven. Availability varies from state to state, as do vintages and prices. Some wines, like Alvaro Palacios’s Clos L’Ermita, mostly presold before arrival, are rarely found on retailers’ lists. With regard to recent Priorato vintages, 1998 was a classic year, and the wines are firm but elegant. The wines of both 1997 and 1999 are forward, but the 1999s have a plumper quality. The balance and harmony of any Priorato wine depends on the vineyard, the age of the vines, and the skill of the winemaker, but there is usually a difference between wines made with a generous proportion of French varieties and little Carignan, and those made exclusively, or almost exclusively, from Grenache and Carignan, Priorato’s traditional grapes. Very ripe Grenache, especially, gives an enticing aroma and flavor of dried fruits (figs, raisins), which suits the rounder style of its wine but is often masked in the presence of Cabernet Sauvignon. The bouquet of a new-style Priorato is usually brighter and, depending on varietal proportions, more berrylike.

Mostly or exclusively Grenache and Carignan:
Barranc des Closos Negre 1997, 1998, and 1999 ($14)
Vinicola del Priorato, Onix, 1998 and 1999 ($12.50)
Cims de Porrera 1997 and 1998 ($37.50)
Alvaro Palacios, Les Terrasses, 1998 ($25)
Mas Igneus 1 12 (12 months in a new barrel) 1997 ($42)
Mas Igneus 2 06 (6 months, second-year barrel) 1998 ($20)

Made with varying but significant proportions of Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah:
Clos Martinet 1998 ($60)
Gran Clos 1998 ($52.50)
Clos de l’Obac 1998 ($60)
René Barbier, Clos Mogador, 1998 ($52.50)
Clos Erasmus1998 ($60)