2005 Celler Cal Pla Priorat Mas d'en Compte

Cellar Cal Pla is in the village of Porrera, in the southwestern corner of the Priorat appellation. It is owned by the Sangenís family, who have been farmers and winemakers for eight generations. Until 1996 the family sold its wine in bulk to their neighbors. In 1988 Jaume and Mercé Sangenís expanded the estate by purchasing property that came with an old building. They turned the building into a winery and refurbished old vineyards, at the same time planting new ones. When the couple’s son Joan finished his university studies in enology in 1996, the family began bottling under their Cellar Cal Pla label. Today they own 50 acres with vines ranging from 15 to 80 years old. All framing is organic. Cellar Cal Pla grows Grenache, Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache Blanc, Xarel-lo, Picpoul and Macabeo. The red and white blends have won praise from critics, including Robert M. Parker Jr., who has rated the wines in the mid-90s.

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.