Wine & Spirits - October 2021 - 92

Montsant & Priorat
Our blind panels recommended 51 wines
from Montsant and Priorat; we feature the
top selections from our editor, Joshua
Greene. All wines tasted are searchable at
wineandspiritsmagazine.com.
MONTSANT WHITE
92 | Coca i Fitó
juicy, cool and zesty, still packed with coolseason
freshness, delivering its mineral buzz
of energy through fruit that keeps juicing up
in the finish. Decant it for duck braised with
prunes. § La Luz Selections, Portland, Oregon
92 | Acústic
$25
2018 Montsant Blanc ^ This is a sumptuous
garnacha blanca, laden with alcohol that
lends weight to its pineapple and toasted-lees
flavors. It has a rustic complexity, the kind
of spicy white you might drink with a trotter
terrine. § Bottle Diplomacy, Vacaville, CA
92 | Orto
$30
2018 Montsant Brisat ^ This is garnacha
blanca from four parcels farmed with biodynamic
practices in the clay-limestone soils
of Montsant. Joan Asens ferments the fruit
with 30 percent of the whole clusters intact,
and another 30 percent with its skins for
three days, before fermentation starts with
the ambient yeasts. Then the blend spends
six months resting on the lees in tanks. The
skin contact and the lees influence contribute
to this wine's dark tones of apricot leather
and coriander, while the cool freshness of
the fruit keeps it brisk, long and spicy. For
equally spiced cured pork sausages. § La Luz
Selections, Portland, Oregon
MONTSANT ROSÉ
90 | Venus La Universal
$28
2019 Montsant Dido La Solució Rosa ^ Perfumed
in its red fruit, this rosé has notes of
strawberries and cream, backed up by light,
mineral structure. It's pretty and satisfying,
especially with a plate of jamón Iberico. §
Europvin, Van Nuys, CA
MONTSANT RED
93 | Orto
$55
2014 Montsant La Carrerada Samsó ^ This
grows at a parcel of carignan planted on limestone
in 1956. Joan Asens makes it with 30
percent whole clusters, racking the wine into
a 5,000-liter neutral-oak vat to rest for a year.
Now seven years old, the wine is bold and
92
$22
2019 Montsant (BEST BUY) ^ This is Albert
Jané's project in a 200-year-old cellar in
Marçà, a blend of carignan and grenache
from his younger vines, between 35 and 65
years old. When you first open the bottle, it
may seem lean, showing some of the alcohol
surrounding its blueberry fruit and rosemary-scented
tannins. Forget it for a day and
you may not recognize the wine when you
taste it again, as it turns into a joyous red
with bright mineral tones backing up all that
fruit and herb. Clean and generous. § Skurnik
Wines, NY
92 | Coca i Fitó
$60
2013 Montsant Negre ^ This wine grows at a
vineyard in the Falset Valley, where the syrah
and grenache are 60 to 70 years old, growing
in limestone-rich soils. There's also a 20 percent
contribution from carignan vines that
are 20 to 30 years old. The fruit combines in
a broad, ripe and honeyed darkness, structured
by stony tannins that give it an earthy,
cavernous feel. Ready to pour with winter
braises. § Bottle Diplomacy, Vacaville, CA
92 | Espectacle
$140
2018 Montsant Espectacle del Montsant
Grenache ^ René Barbier makes this wine in
collaboration with a team including Christopher
Cannan of Europvin. It grows on a steep
hillside with centenary garnacha vines in the
village of La Figuera, the fruit fermented and
aged in large French oak vats. The care in
farming and winemaking show in the wine's
grace and detail, in its pretty strawberry-seed
tannins and spring-flower scents. Dark red
grenache flavors come up from underneath,
juicy and plump. A young wine with stamina,
ready to enjoy or to cellar. § Europvin, Van
Nuys, CA
91 | Celler de Capçanes $80
2018 Montsant La Flor del Flor de Primavera
Samsó ^ This grows at four parcels of vines
ranging from 85 to 105 years old, some on
WINE & SPIR IT S Oc TO b ER 2021
clay and granite, some on slate terraces. It's
a kosher (non-mevushal) wine structured by
aging for 14 months in kosher French oak
barrels. Full and smoky with dark plum and
rosemary scents, this is a rich red for a grilled,
butterflied leg of lamb. § Royal Wine Corp.,
Bayonne, NJ
91 | Agricola Falset Marçá $18
2020 Montsant Zerran (BEST BUY) ^ From
Jorge Ordóñez's own label, this wine is half
garnacha grown in slate soil, some carignan
in sandy clay and a small amount of syrah
grown in limestone. More than half of it ages
in stainless steel, with 45 percent in seconduse
French oak barrels. It's a clean, light and
frisky red with depth of flavor, touching on
plums, roses and tamarind. A great buy. § Jorge
Ordóñez Selections, Dedham, MA
91 | Orto
$75
2014 Montsant Palell Garnatxa Peluda ^
From a slate parcel planted in 1950, this is
farmed under Joan Asens's regenerative practices
that incorporate organics and biodynamics.
It preserves the cool summer of 2014
in wild strawberry flavors that last. A little
minty, a little shadowed in the complexities
of bottle age, taking the fresh fruit to grilled
fruit, placing the wine with grilled pork belly. §
La Luz Selections, Portland, Oregon
91 | Orto
$85
2014 Montsant Les Tallades de Cal Nicolau
Picapoll Negre ^ Joan Asens makes this
wine in a similar method as La Carrerada
Samsó (also recommended here), with the
fruit coming from a parcel of picapoll negre
planted on limestone in 1870. Asens's biodynamic
farming practices help sustain the
ancient vines, delivering a dark-red wine with
blackberry and coal-tar depths. It carries a
resinous wood smoke, dry and intriguing. § La
Luz Selections, Portland, Oregon
91 | Venus La Universal
$25
2019 Montsant Dido ^ Decant this to let
the barnyard notes integrate into the red
fruit, which comes up from underneath
with plenty of spice. It tastes of black raspberries
and sweet strawberries, providing
brightness and lively depths of flavor, while
chipped mineral tannins give it an edge for
spicy braised pork. § Europvin, Van Nuys, CA
90 | Orto
$24
2018 Montsant ^ There's cool, earthy freshness
to this wine's lush fruit, keeping it brisk.
The spice in the finish brings to mind pairings
with Middle Eastern meze, like grilled
eggplant with tomatoes and toasted pine
nuts. § La Luz Selections, Portland, Oregon
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Wine & Spirits - October 2021

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