Rediscovering Spanis Terroirs: Priorat Wine Tasting

In 2001 a food and wine obsessed German named Dominik Huber, and South African winemaker Eben Sadie fell in love with Priorat. With the help of some friends they found a plot of old vine Garnacha and Carignan, and rented some cellar space to make their first vintage of Dits del Terroir. As the project grew, and they took on more vineyard sites, Dominik dedicated more time to farming - implementing biodynamics, and other methods to reduce the stress on vines in this stark and difficult terrain. This new approach paid off, directly impacting the quality of the fruit. With better grapes coming into the cellar, they came to realize that super-ripe grapes, combined with extractive winemaking, and aging in barriques was masking the essence of the vineyards they were working. They started to practice whole-bunch fermentation, and out went the small barrels, replaced with concrete tanks and large oak.  

Dominik now bottles in the Burgundian model: wines are classified as crus, village wines (Vi de Vila), or regional wines such as the Terroir Historic red and white, where grapes are sourced from trusted growers across the Priorat. The resulting lithe and elegant, pure and expressive wines have gone from strength to strength, and fully deserve the reputation and cult-status they’ve since acquired.  

The following wines will be tasted during this webinar:

Terroir Historic Blanc 2018: In this regional white, Macabeo and Garnacha Blanca grapes come from the nine different villages in Priorat to create a complex yet approachable wine.

Terra de Cuques Blanc 2017: The grapes of this blend of Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel come from their own village of Torroja and the wine is made like a red, macerating the white grapes with their own skins.

Pedra de Guix 2017: This is their top white, a classic white Priorat blend and vinified and aged following traditional oxidative techniques.

Terra de Cuques Negre 2017: Their village-level red is a traditional blend of Garnacha and Cariñena and raised mostly in concrete for added drinkability.

Arbossar 2017: This single-vineyard Cariñena comes from a north-facing plot of 90 years of age.

Dits del Terra 2017: In contrast, this 85-year old single-vineyard Cariñena has a south-facing aspect, offering a very different character than its counterpart.