This product is no longer available. Please choose another vintage above.
Merum Priorati - Inici 2017
Tasting notes
Brilliant, clean, and cherry red in color with a cardinal-red rim. The nose is rich with red fruit, bringing raspberries and red currants to mind, with notes of aniseed. Fresh and fruity on entry, red fruit once again comes to the fore, this
time blended with echoes of vanilla from its brief stint in oak. It is well balanced and its mature, velvety tannins usher in a long, elegant finish.
Estate
Merum Priorati is one of the most important wine estates in Priorat, founded in 2004 by two Catalan families, and located in the east of the appellation around the pretty village of Porrera. The three vineyard plots (Les Foreses, Plana Marjot and Les Escomelles) cover a total of 103 hectares, but just 29ha are given over to vines, as this is one of the wildest, most rugged terrains where few vines thrive and those that do produce less than 1 kg of grapes per vine (and as low as 250g per vine for the older Garnacha and CariƱena plants). Vineyards here are not measured in hectares, but by numbers of vines planted, due to extreme terracing and contours on these stunning mountainsides. There isn't what you'd call soil more just a carpet of broken black slate called Licorella. Five grape varieties still manage to thrive here on the estate: Garnacha, CariƱena, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Impeccably made but not over polished, wines are truly hand-made: fermentation is in small, open top vats with long cuvasion, delivering wines which are intense and seriously complex against a backdrop of bright and vibrant modern fruit.