2019 Les Manyes, Terroir al Límit, Priorat, Spain

100% Garnacha Peluda, 60-year-old vines above a monastery in the village of Scala Dei at 800 m. Chalk-rich clay soils. Hand-harvested, whole-cluster fermented, and then aged for 8 months in concrete.

Tasted blind. Pale and bricky. Sweet and tertiary in its fruit aroma, the beginnings of undergrowth. Dry on the finish, sinewy. Lean, the fruit on the sour end of the sweet-sour spectrum. As it opens, it becomes more refined and more enjoyable). Balanced but unusual. Challenges the stereotype of Priorat.

Drink 2023 - 2028

A pale ruby-coloured pure Garnacha from clay and limestone soils a rarity in Priorat), the 2019 Les Manyes is very primary and fruit-driven, with an explosive nose of berries, wild herbs and flowers, and it has a medium-bodied palate, juicy and with very fine chalky tannins. It's a very pretty Garnacha that is open and expressive. It has good ripeness and plenty of aromas, denoting proper ripeness of the grapes that had the time to develop aromas and flavours. This is ethereal but full of energy and light. It opens up and evolves very nicely in the glass. 1,868 bottles produced.

Drink 2023 - 2030