2015 Finca Dofí, Álvaro Palacios, Priorat, Spain

  • Red
  • Dry
  • Medium Bodied
  • Grenache
Ready - at best (Drink 2020 - 2034)
92/100
Josh Raynolds
95/100
Luis Gutiérrez
95/100
James Suckling
97/100
Product: 20158004934

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2015 Finca Dofí, Álvaro Palacios, Priorat, Spain

Description

Alvaro Palacios is one of the world’s great winemakers, crowned both 2015 Decanter Man of the Year & Winemaker’s Winemaker by the Institute of Masters of Wine most recently. Alvaro spent 2 years at Petrus before setting up on his own in Priorat in 1989, his wines are now consistently excellent and in the past few years have found a further level of refinement and elegance, they have found yet another gear.

The 2015 Finca Dofi also has a wonderful fragrance but is a very different expression to the Gratallops. Macerated red fruit dominates here bringing a richness and a luscious quality to the wine. The mouthfeel is concentrated and sensual yet the wine is still incredibly fresh with classic Priorat notes of nectarine, pomegranate and grapefruit peel adding a lively vibrancy. The brown slate of Finca Dofi makes it the warmest site of the single vineyard wines, and it really is rather gorgeous.

Catriona Felstead MW, Spanish Buyer

Colour Red
Sweetness Dry
Vintage 2015
Maturity Ready - at best (2020 - 2034)
Grape List Grenache
Body Medium Bodied
Producer Alvaro Palacios

Critics reviews

92/100

Big, strong, stewy stuff. The tannins are acceptably bitter, although not starkly so, and the rather thick fruit has a little warm scent peeping through, so it works pretty well.

Decanter.com (Jan 2018)
Josh Raynolds 95/100

Opaque, bright-rimmed ruby. Powerful, mineral-accented red and dark berry, cherry liqueur and licorice aromas are complicated by suggestions of incense and exotic spices. Deeply concentrated but lively as well, offering palate-staining black raspberry, bitter cherry, fruitcake and floral pastille flavors that show outstanding clarity and mineral thrust. Finishes extremely long and precise, with resonating floral, spice and mineral qualities and youthfully gripping tannins. By all means give this still-young wine some cellar time.

Drink 2024 - 2034

Josh Raynolds, Vinous.com (Mar 2019)
Luis Gutiérrez 95/100

The 2015 Finca Dof is mostly Garnacha with a 4% pinch of Cariena and some white grapes from the vineyard that names it. Although there are some differences, mainly in the fringes and extremes, most of the soils from Priorat are very similar, with decomposed slate called llicorella. Most of Palacios's wines are produced in a very similar way, with natural fermentation of destemmed and crushed grapes in oak vats and levage in oak casks—in this case, larger bocoys and foudres for 16 months. This wine has gained in drinkability since 2010-2011, and this lighter vintage feels even more approachable, with very clean flavors and unnoticeable tannins. It finishes very tasty and with subtle earthiness. 22,742 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2017.

2015 was a high-yielding vintage in Spain in general and in Priorat in particular. The wines here have little color and feel very ethereal. 2016 is clearly more concentrated, and at the same time, the wines show vibrant acidity and more freshness.

Drink 2018 - 2025

Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (Apr 2018)
James Suckling 97/100

This is a very tight and fine-grained red with a compressed mouthfeel. The fruit comes through to a class and elegance. Such length. Ethereal structure. Unique. Drink or hold.

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com (Jan 2018)

About this wine

Grenache/Garnacha

Grenache (Noir) is widely grown and comes in a variety of styles. Believed to originate in Spain, it was, in the late 20th century, the most widely planted black grape variety in the world. Today it hovers around seventh in the pecking order. It tends to produce very fruity, rich wines that can range quite widely in their level of tannin. In many regions – most famously the Southern Rhône, where it complements Syrah and Mourvèdre, among other grapes – it adds backbone and colour to blends, but some of the most notable Châteauneuf du Pape producers (such as Château Rayas) make 100 percent Grenache wines. The grape is a component in many wines of the Languedoc (where you’ll also find its lighter-coloured forms, Grenache Gris and Blanc) and is responsible for much southern French rosé – taking the lead in most Provence styles. Found all over Spain as Garnacha Tinta (spelt Garnaxa in Catalonia), the grape variety is increasingly detailed on wine labels there. Along with Tempranillo, it forms the majority of the blend for Rioja’s reds and has been adopted widely in Navarra, where it produces lighter styles of red and rosado (rosé). It can also be found operating under a pseudonym, Cannonau, in Sardinia.
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Álvaro Palacios

Álvaro Palacios, whose family owns the prestigious Rioja Bodega, Palacios Remondo, spent two years at Château Pétrus before setting up on his own in Priorat in 1989. From the outset, he set out to produce world-class wines using fruit from extremely low-yielding old vines and applying ultra-modern winemaking techniques.
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