The 2011 Masdeu is a new, single-vineyard wine, pure old-vine Garnacha grown at 800 meters altitude on argilo-calcareous soils, whole-cluster fermented and aged for one year in a 1,200-liter oak foudre. It shows a bright ruby color and a flowery, clean and quite impressive nose, very fragrant, full of violets, lilies, orange blossom, wild strawberries and sour cherries and a palate with very fine tannins, good acidity and an impressive purity of flavors, with great persistence. The warm 2011 might have resulted in 15% alcohol, but the wine is extremely balanced and elegant, with lively acidity (blood oranges). It makes you salivate for the next sip. Only 1,500 bottles were produced. At this quality level it’s still good value. Super! 2014-2022.
There is a big change in the wines of Scala Dei since winemaker Ricard Rofes, (who has previously been in charge of the wines from the Cooperative del Masroig and worked with Alfredo Arribas in Priorat and Montsant), took charge with the 2007 vintage. I spoke to him after tasting the wines, as I wanted to understand what he’s doing. He’s going back to the way the old wines were produced –Scala Dei bottled the first wine under the Priorat appellation from the 1974 vintage – and as Ricard told me, “Each year we vinify separately some of the fifty-something different vineyards Scala Dei owns to show the different terroirs.” The wines might be fermented with part of the stems in cement vats and aged in used, big-volume oak containers. In 2011, a very warm vintage, “I only did Masdeu, our highest vineyard, close to 800 meters altitude with a calcareous and clay soil. Most of what we have is Garnacha and in 2010 there are three different single-vineyard Garnacha wines: Sant Antoni, Artigots and La Creueta, and in different vintages we’ll bottle different vineyards.” The two wines I tasted are back at the top. Well done!
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