2022 Les Aubaguetes, Álvaro Palacios, Priorat, Spain
Critics reviews
The 2022 Les Aubaguetes blend 86% Garnacha, 13% Cariñena and 1% white varieties. It is cut from a different cloth from the preceding La Baixada. This is backward, sultry, and standoffish at first, opening reluctantly with aeration and dark berry fruit, melted tar, and candied orange peel hints. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-boned tannins. Classic in style, not austere, but with a fine backbone, this is a Priorat that deserves time in the cellar. It is not completely unapproachable since there is underlying elegance, yet one feels it is hiding something up its sleeve to reward the patient oenophile.
Drink 2028 - 2048
Neal Martin, Vinous.com (April 2023)
Bottled in March 2024, producing around 3,200 bottles.
The 2022 Les Aubaguetes comes from 1.79 hectares planted in the early 1900s (122 years old!) on blue slate soils and surrounded by trees in the village of Bellmunt del Priorat. This 2022 wine is 86% Garnacha, 13% Cariñena and 1% white grapes. During the native fermentation in oak vats with some full clusters, it had a shortish maceration of 23 days. It should complete 14 months in oval oak foudres before it's bottled. It has 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.49 and 4.68 grams acidity. It has a slightly darker profile this year, with notes of liquorice and an earthy touch. It has abundant, slightly dusty tannins that coat your mouth. This is going to require a little more time.
Drink 2026 - 2035
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (May 2024)
Tank sample. 86% Garnacha, 13% Cariñena, 1% Garnacha Blanca/Macabeo. From the Les Aubaguetes area in the village of Bellmunt del Priorat. Álvaro Palacios noted the uniqueness of this site, positioned in a steep-sided valley which retains moisture. Vineyard 1.79 ha, yield 14.52 hl/ha. 3,200 bottles produced.
Reductive elements abound. It manages to have weight and plush texture while being tight and grippy at the same time. Savoury notes balance the rich dark-fruit flavours. This is a very distinctive Priorat with great ageing potential.
Drink 2026 - 2040
Andy Howard MW, JancisRobinson.com (March 2023)
3,200 bottles produced. Gran Vinya Classificada.
A lovely vintage of Les Aubaguetes comes from the southerly village of Bellmunt. This is the first vintage of this wine categorised as Gran Vinya Classificada to join the handful declared. It’s a deserving award for the singular character of the north-facing vineyard, a wine that speaks of the slate soils of its origin. The Garnacha is blended with 13% Cariñena and 1% of the white grapes Macabeo and Garnacha Blanca. Dense, with black fruits, red cherries and a sense of slate. It’s very long and fresh.
Drink 2025 - 2040
Sarah Jane Evans MW, Decanter.com (March 2023)
About this WINE
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.
The cream of the crop is the single vineyard wine L'Ermita, which was first produced in 1993. It is a blend of 80% Garnacha, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Cariñena, all aged in new French barriques for up to 20 months. It is bottled unfiltered. It has intense concentration, enormous depth and a complexity which is simply staggering.
Priorat
Priorato, or Priorat, is one of the stand-out Spanish wine regions, with an extraordinary leap in wine quality, reputation and price over the 1990s. This small wine appellation, with 1,700 hectares of vines and just over 60 bodegas, lies to the west of the province of Tarragona in Catalonia.
It includes the municipalities of Scala Dei, Gratallops and Falset, where vines grow on steep terraces at varying altitudes of 100 to 700 metres. The climate is continental, and the region blessed with an exceptional schistous terroir (mostly llicorella with layers of slate and quartz). This schist is part of the same stratum found in the finest vineyards of the Douro, Toro and Ribera del Duero. It provides ideal conditions for growing vines and also contributes to the much-lauded mineral-rich character of Priorato’s wines.
The region’s wines were revolutionised through the efforts of René Barbier. In 1989 he joined forces with a group of eight other winemakers to produce wine from eight plots (or clos), planting the best grapes using modern methods, and harvesting at extremely low yields. This original group included such distinguished bodegas as Alvaro Palacios (Finca Dofi), Costers del Siurana and Mas Martinet.
The group later split up, but the legacy and the international acclaim their wines generated has attracted significant interest and investment in the Priorato region. It is now recognised as one of the great fine wine regions in Spain, rivalling Rioja and Ribera del Duero. The Priorat wines are typically powerful and full-bodied, with a warm, ripe fruitiness and impressive levels of concentration and minerality. The wines are made in all categories from Joven to Gran Reserva, undergoing the same oak ageing as Rioja.
The efforts of the Barbier group proved that old-vine, low-yielding Cariñena and Garnacha is the most planted variety here, followed by Garnacha. Both provide the backbone of the region’s wines, augmented by international varieties such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah.
White varieties (i.e. Chenin Blanc, Macabeo, Garnacha Blanca, Viognier and Pedro Ximénez) occupy less than five percent of the vineyard area.
Recommended Producers:
Combier Fischer Gerin (Trio Infernal), Clos Figueres, Alvaro Palacios (Finca Dofi)
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.
Beyond Europe, Grenache is widely planted in California and Australia, largely thanks to its ability to operate in high temperatures and without much water. Particularly in the Barossa Valley, there are some extraordinary dry-farmed bush vines, some of which are centuries old and produce wines of startling intensity.
When is a wine ready to drink?
We provide drinking windows for all our wines. Alongside the drinking windows there is a bottle icon and a maturity stage. Bear in mind that the best time to drink a wine does also depend on your taste.
Not ready
These wines are very young. Whilst they're likely to have lots of intense flavours, their acidity or tannins may make them feel austere. Although it isn't "wrong" to drink these wines now, you are likely to miss out on a lot of complexity by not waiting for them to mature.
Ready - youthful
These wines are likely to have plenty of fruit flavours still and, for red wines, the tannins may well be quite noticeable. For those who prefer younger, fruitier wines, or if serving alongside a robust meal, these will be very enjoyable. If you choose to hold onto these wines, the fruit flavours will evolve into more savoury complexity.
Ready - at best
These wines are likely to have a beautiful balance of fruit, spice and savoury flavours. The acidity and tannins will have softened somewhat, and the wines will show plenty of complexity. For many, this is seen as the ideal time to drink and enjoy these wines. If you choose to hold onto these wines, they will become more savoury but not necessarily more complex.
Ready - mature
These wines are likely to have plenty of complexity, but the fruit flavours will have been almost completely replaced by savoury and spice notes. These wines may have a beautiful texture at this stage of maturity. There is lots to enjoy when drinking wines at this stage. Most of these wines will hold in this window for a few years, though at the very end of this drinking window, wines start to lose complexity and decline.
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Description
Les Aubaguetes is a very old, 100% north-facing 1.79-hectare vineyard planted in 1901. The nose is full of ripe red and black fruit, scented with hints of exotic spice and a beautiful line of fruit. Rounded red and black berries dominate, which are sweet and pure yet exceptionally juicy. The tannins, like chalk powder, are exquisitely fine, coating the tongue but resolving effortlessly. This is a crisp, elegant, and pure expression of Les Aubaguetes.
Catriona Felstead MW, Senior Buyer, Berry Bros. & Rudd
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