Wine & Spirits - October 2020 - 23

"Ten years ago we harvested ten days later, but were getting the same final alcohol that we're getting now despite
these much earlier harvests," he says, specifically referencing 2019 and its severe heatwave.
Costa finds that he's had to rethink most everything that
they'd been doing if he hopes to keep up with the changing climate and general wine-drinking preferences. And
in doing so, Vall Llach is producing wines better adapted
to the region and in turn, more in line with the more
restrained styles people are looking to drink currently.
In addition to picking earlier, Costa says he's been focusing on the region's original grapes, grenache and carignan
(called garnatxa and carinyena locally). These now make up
the core of Vall Llach's two top wines: Vi de Vila Porrera
(mostly carignan, with a small percentage of grenache) and
Mas de la Rosa (100 percent carignan).
"Cabernet sauvignon is very difficult here," he says. "If
you pick it early, at lower alcohol, it's too green. If you pick
it later, it's all raisins and/or rot, and at 17 percent alcohol it
won't ferment. Because of these problems, we end up losing
about 5,000 liters a year. But honestly, I'm happy to lose it; I
don't want to mix it in with other, far-better adapted grapes."

Redefining Priorat

PHOTOS THIS PAGE BY MIQUEL HUDIN.

When Dominik Huber arrived here more than two decades
ago, he was quickly dismissed by locals for his "crazy" wine
experiments. The German vintner was pushing harvest earlier to produce wines with lower alcohol than was common at
the time, and was aging his wines in large vessels to diminish
the intensity of the extraction. These experiments found a
home at Terroir al Límit, the winery he set up in Torroja del
Priorat, a tiny village in the dead center of the region, and
played a large part in initiating Priorat's Third Wave.
His foreign ideas were often mocked in harvest chatter:
"Hey, have you started your whites?" a grower might ask.
"Nope," another would answer. "We'll do them next week,
but I heard Dominik already finished his reds."
Huber's core philosophy is to focus on food-friendly wines.
"I was having dinner at [Michelin-starred restaurant] El Bulli
many years ago and nothing on the wine list really worked
with the dishes," he recalls. "I felt the wines took away from
the food, and this is what I've been working to overcome. I
want the wine I'm drinking to give me something, not take
it away." He often welcomes business associates with meals

"Ten years ago
we harvested
ten days later,
but were getting
the same final
alcohol that
we're getting
now despite
much earlier
harvests"
-- ALBERT COSTA,
VALL LLACH

"I want the
wine I'm drinking to give me
something, not
take it away."
-- DOMINIK HUBER,
TERROIR AL LIMIT

ARBOSSAR VINEYARD
IN TORROJA DEL
PRIORAT, WHERE
DOMINIK HUBER OF
TERROIR AL LIMIT FARMS
90-YEAR-OLD CARIGNAN
VINES ON ITS HIGH
NORTH-FACING SLOPE.

he cooks for them in the middle of his vineyards, where they
can enjoy the cool settings at high altitudes.
His wines at Terroir al Límit may have started as a different sort of Priorat, but their style has become more of the
norm with each passing year as more Third Wave winemakers have gained ground in the region.
And they continue to evolve: Tatjana Peceric, who has
worked six vintages at Terroir al Límit, cites climate change
as a challenge. "In addition to getting warmer, the weather
is getting more extreme and we have to adapt to it," she
says. Peceric shares Huber's radical idea to abandon oakaging for their wines, and use cement tanks instead-
another move that hasn't gone unnoticed in Priorat, as
several other producers have begun to do the same.

Take a Walk
on the North Side
Like Huber, Alfredo Arribas arrived in Priorat nearly two
decades ago. Originally from Barcelona and an architect
by training, he started making wines in both Montsant
and Priorat, with a focus on their southern reaches. His
cellar, Clos del Portal, is tucked into a hillside surrounded
by vines, perched above the generally dry Siurana River.
Arriving during the boom of the aughts, when the number of wineries in Priorat quadrupled in less than ten years,
Arribas followed the original formula for big wines, such
as those at Vall Llach 20 years ago. "I started out falling in
line with the established style, but as the climate has been
shifting, so, too, have my perceptions of what the region
is," Arribas says.
While many people may see Montsant as a "cheaper
Priorat," Arribas recognized the value of its cooler climate
and lighter soils in what became his quest for lower-alcohol wines. After experimenting with grenache growing on
chalky soils in upper Montsant, he began searching for ways
to apply his experience to Priorat's hot slate.
His newest project, Vins Nus ("naked wines"), looks to
northern vineyards in both Priorat and Montsant at 1,600
feet and higher, where the vines have a relatively long ripening cycle. Arribas finds he can pick grapes that have good
flavor as well as acidity, while keeping the alcohol low-
characteristics he preserves through spontaneous fermentations of whole bunches and vinification only in neutral
containers, whether steel, clay or old wood.
The result is wines like his InStabile No.7, a clarete-
essentially a light red-with the crisp fruit one would
expect from Priorat, but without the bite of alcohol. It's
one example in this series of somewhat experimental wines
that showcase the freshness Arribas and his winemaking
team are managing to coax out of the region each year.
In Priorat's Third Wave, the top producers are getting
more out of their wines by thinking more and doing less-
as the idealized Priorat remains a moving target. Will it ever
be possible to make another red wine at 12.5 percent alcohol in the region, as René Barbier and his crew did more
than 40 years ago? Probably not, but growers continue to
try, despite what the climate is throwing at them now. Here
in Priorat, anyone who thinks they can stand still may see
the stones swallow them whole. n

WINE & SPIRITS

OCTOBER 2020

Wine & Spirits - October 2020

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