Alvaro Palacios La Baixada, Priorat, Spain

奧瓦羅酒莊白薩達(dá)園紅葡萄酒

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：1581

As with other 2021s, the 2021 La Baixada felt a bit raw with the combination of the abundant tannins and the higher acidity. The vines were planted in 1996 and then regrafted with material from l'Ermita, and this year the blend is 95% Garnacha with 4% Cari?ena and 1% white grapes. This is a barrel sample at six months of age (when tasted in early July), and it should mature for one more year before being bottled. They expect to have some 3,200 bottles of it.

The nose of the 2020 La Baixada was spectacular when poured, with notes of orange peel, orange blossom and some spiciness that turned into notes of brioche with time in the glass. It has the exuberance of the young fruit, but it doesn't have the depth and wise character of the old vines like Les Aubaguetes or l'Ermita. 2023 will be the first vintage to be called Vi de Vinya Classificada. It comes from 22-year-old vines and matured in oak for 14 months. 2,080 bottles and 37 magnums were filled in April 2022.

The 2019 La Baixada is from the 1.3-hectare vineyard of the same name that is in the process of being classified as "vinya classificada." The wine was produced with Garnacha and 2% white grapes from 21-year-old-vines on steep costers (slopes) of slate (llicorella). The destemmed and lightly crushed grapes fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts, and the wine matured in a French oval foudre for 14 months. This has a lot in common with Finca Dofí, from a common paraje that is planted with wood from old vines from L'Ermita and Aubagetes that were not clean and delivers very low yields of small berries with thick skin and very loose bunches, a qualitative advantage that made Palacios bottle the wine separately even at the young age of the vines. There is purity here, and the wine is direct and spherical, with round and glossy tannins. The élevage of these 2019s is very subtle and has not marked the wines; there is great purity of aromas and flavors. 2,890 bottles were filled in May 2021.

There is a new single-vineyard bottling, the 2018 La Baixada, which will soon be classified as Vinya Classificada. It's from a 1.3-hectare plot in the village of Gratallops planted on costers, very steep slopes on the classic degraded slate (llicorella) soils. The vines are 21 years old now and are located at 300 to 340 meters in altitude. The destemmed and lightly crushed grapes fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts and had 55 days of maceration. The wine matured in oval French oak foudres for 15 months. I asked álvaro Palacios what justifies another single-vineyard bottling from Gratallops, very close to Dofí, because to be honest, I see that the wine is very similar to Dofí. He said, "In fact, Dofí has part of its vines in three different 'parajes' or zones, one of them La Baixada, part of which is now separated and bottled independently. This was planted with a selection of Garnacha from L'Ermita and Aubaguetes, plants that develop very slowly and deliver very loose bunches of concentrated grapes that keep very good acidity." This is a classic, compact Priorat, with energy, subtleness, great purity and a bloody, iron-like note. This is a more refined version of Dofí, and it has more finesse than Les Aubaguettes, which is a lot more powerful and more concentrated. 2,800 bottles were filled in April 2020.