If you're looking for a generous, hedonistically styled red, the Priorat region of Spain offers a lot of quality for the money! It makes big wines that can maintain overall balance and drinkability due to its sunny Mediterranean climate coupled with vineyards on high, steep slopes. Bodegas Mas Alta has been offering up wines like this for years, and fans of that style are going to find their 2018 Cirerets to be irresistible!
While relatively youthful Garnacha from the Cirerets vineyard contributes a lot to the body and roundness in the wine, old-vine Carinena contributes vibrancy and complexity that's key to the balance. After breathing in the glass for 30 minutes, the purity of fruit expression streams out with intense aromas like raspberry, cherry, and black plum macerating in warmed alcohol, married with deep aromas that have a woodsy edge and a "graphite minerality" (think pencil shavings). On the generous and deep palate, there is an immediate entry of sweet fruit married with that slight woodsy edge along with a licorice-like note. It is quickly full, round and silky in mouthfeel, then elegantly yields a light amount of velvet-textured tannin as the persistent fruit is reined in by accompanying flavors evocative of a stony minerality and a medicinal herbal character that serves as a welcome counterpoint to the long-lasting fruit on the gently dry finish (in typical Mediterranean style). It's a mellow and warming wine, but it maintains just enough vibrancy to make it a sunny rather than brooding experience.
Bodegas Mas Alta's winemaking is a modern implementation of traditional ideas: organic and biodynamic farming for healthy soils, local yeast fermentations for their unique contributions to flavor, and fairly neutral aging containers that do not interfere with the purity of the characterful, flavor-concentrated fruit. The Cirerets bottling is no factory-farmed production, yielding a fraction of the bottles some wineries put out with bigger price tags.
WINE ADVOCATE 95 POINTS - "I just love the elegance and harmony of the 2018 Cirerets despite the 16% alcohol marked on the label. It's a village wine from La Vilella Alta produced with 60% old Cariñena planted in 1962 (La Veana) and 40% young Garnacha planted in 2002 (Cirerets). It is powerful yet elegant and harmonious with a soft texture, sleek tannins and very pure and penetrating flavors. Really delicious and hedonistic. This is certified organic and biodynamic since 2016...already very harmonious and has the stuffing and balance for a good development in bottle."
While relatively youthful Garnacha from the Cirerets vineyard contributes a lot to the body and roundness in the wine, old-vine Carinena contributes vibrancy and complexity that's key to the balance. After breathing in the glass for 30 minutes, the purity of fruit expression streams out with intense aromas like raspberry, cherry, and black plum macerating in warmed alcohol, married with deep aromas that have a woodsy edge and a "graphite minerality" (think pencil shavings). On the generous and deep palate, there is an immediate entry of sweet fruit married with that slight woodsy edge along with a licorice-like note. It is quickly full, round and silky in mouthfeel, then elegantly yields a light amount of velvet-textured tannin as the persistent fruit is reined in by accompanying flavors evocative of a stony minerality and a medicinal herbal character that serves as a welcome counterpoint to the long-lasting fruit on the gently dry finish (in typical Mediterranean style). It's a mellow and warming wine, but it maintains just enough vibrancy to make it a sunny rather than brooding experience.
Bodegas Mas Alta's winemaking is a modern implementation of traditional ideas: organic and biodynamic farming for healthy soils, local yeast fermentations for their unique contributions to flavor, and fairly neutral aging containers that do not interfere with the purity of the characterful, flavor-concentrated fruit. The Cirerets bottling is no factory-farmed production, yielding a fraction of the bottles some wineries put out with bigger price tags.
WINE ADVOCATE 95 POINTS - "I just love the elegance and harmony of the 2018 Cirerets despite the 16% alcohol marked on the label. It's a village wine from La Vilella Alta produced with 60% old Cariñena planted in 1962 (La Veana) and 40% young Garnacha planted in 2002 (Cirerets). It is powerful yet elegant and harmonious with a soft texture, sleek tannins and very pure and penetrating flavors. Really delicious and hedonistic. This is certified organic and biodynamic since 2016...already very harmonious and has the stuffing and balance for a good development in bottle."
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