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2005 Marco Abella Winery Priorat Clos Abella

Removed from a subterranean, temperature and humidity controlled residential cellar; Purchased upon release; Consignor is original owner

Ends Sunday, 7pm Pacific

RATINGS

93Vinous / IWC

Intensely aromatic nose offers a seductive array of red and dark berries, flowers, smoky minerals and black tea. Pliant raspberry and bitter cherry flavors gain weight with air, picking up sweeter black and blue fruit character and silky tannins. Very fresh on the impressively long finish, which repeats the lively red fruit flavors.

92Wine Spectator

Black cherry, licorice, mineral and coffee flavors are subtle and harmonious in this well-integrated red, which has firm tannins, good balance and a long, fresh finish.

15.5Jancis Robinson

Very ripe dark fruit, figs, dry leaf and lots of savoury spices. The tannins are talc-like and it has little-yet-balanced acidity. Acceptable levels of nail varnish. The palate is hot-climate, the fruit a bit austere but still harmonious.

REGION

Spain, Cataluna, Priorato

Priorat in southern Catalonia is one of Spain’s newer regions for quality wines. With only about 2,500 vineyard acres, it is not one of Spain’s larger appellations, and its rocky mountains and hillsides make for challenging vineyard management. But grapes have been grown here in the rich, volcanic soil since at least the Middle Ages, when Carthusian monks planted vineyards. Bulk wines were the main focus here until the late 1970s, when pioneering Spanish winemakers Alvaro Palacios and René Barbier replanted vineyards and vastly improved winemaking in the region. Clos Mogador, Clos Erasmus and Finca Dofi were some of the now much-admired wineries started in the later decades of the 20th century. By the 1990s many innovative, quality-focused wineries were started in Priorat, making it one of the hottest winemaking regions in Spain. Priorat was made a DO in 1954 but upgraded to the prestigious Demoninación de Origen Calificada, or DOCa, in 2000. (In Catalan, the regional language, the appellation abbreviation is DOQ.) Full-flavored, full-bodied wines with relatively high alcohol content are characteristic of Priorat, with Garnacha (Grenache) and Carinena (Carignan) being the traditional grapes.