Wine & Spirits - Winter 2017 - 113

100 BEST WINES OF THE YEAR
Cueva Baja-the only single-vineyard wine
in Mauro's small portfolio. This 2010 sums
up the elegant, balanced style of the house,
not only because the brilliant vintage helped
accentuate that style, giving it a delicious
core of ripe fruit and spice, but also because
of the fresh herbal notes that permeate the
wine. The tannins, as in all the best examples
of this winery, are tight and firm, yet elegant
and refined. This is a new take on the area,
far away from the excesses of the past. Save
it for a decade. (W&S 6/ 17) § Europvin USA,
Van Nuys, CA

B E S T C A TA L O N I A R E D
217794

97 | Ferrer Bobet

$105

2012 Priorat Selecciò Especial Vinyes
Velles ^ Around the little town of Porrera
there is plenty of old-vine cariñena. The
grape thrives in this high-altitude spot. From
those steep slate slopes, Ferrer Bobet crafts
this bright, luminous red with all the components of a cariñena from ancient vines: The
youthful purple color, the bright, tart acidity,
the aromas of wild red fruit, the flowers, the
herbs, the tight, vertical structure. This will
last for a decade at least. (W&S 2/17) § Vintus,
Pleasantville, NY
217592

97 | Scala Dei

$55

2012 Priorat Cartoixa ^ Scala Dei is one of
the oldest wineries in Priorat, a Carthusian
monastery expropriated by the government
in the 19th century and privatized; it released
its first commercial bottling in 1878. Cartoixa
is the top selection, based on garnacha and
cariñena from estate vineyards up to 60 years
old, only produced in the best years. This Priorat is robust, ample and at the same time
tight and muscular, hiding its fruit behind
the wine's pure slate character: It seems to be
made of the black slate that covers the mountains of the region. Save it for a decade to let
the fruit fill in all the interstices in the slate.
(W&S 2/17) § Aveníu Brands, Baltimore, MD
224167

97 | Terroir Al Limit

$290

2014 Priorat Torroja Les Manyes ^ Dominik
Hubert, owner and winemaker at Terroir Al
Limit, farms this wine in an unusual place by
Priorat standards: It comes from a vineyard
at 2,600 feet in altitude-one of the highest
in the region-on red clay soil rather than
the more celebrated slate. The result is a wine
as taut as a high-tension cable, with an acidity
so firm and strong that it seems to electrify
the wine. Made entirely of garnacha, held in
a single 1,200-liter foudre for two years before
bottling, it's rich in red fruit, spice and min-

eral notes, but above all it is rich in structure.
A wine to drink in a decade. (W&S 10/17) §
Eric Solomon Selections/European Cellars,
Charlotte, NC

BEST GALICIA RED
222619

95 | Forjas del Salnés

$69

2014 Rías Baixas Finca Genoveva Caiño ^
Owned and farmed by the charming Doña
Lola, these old caiño vines provide the jewel
of the crown in the brilliant portfolio of For-

jas del Salnés. More than a wine, this red is a
place. The grasses of the Salnés mountains,
the salty sea aromas of the Rías, the iodized
taste of their seafood and then the earthy
notes that melt with the flavors of reddish
fruits, intense in freshness. Rodrigo Mendez, who makes this wine with Raúl Pérez,
believes that some of Doña Lola's vines are
more than 300 years. They produce an astonishing caiño. (W&S 8/17) § Olé Imports, New
Rochelle, NY

https://www.domainestorage.com

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