2018 Alvaro Palacios Gratallops Priorat

(94 Points) The "vi de vila" or village wine 2018 Gratallops was produced with a blend of 74% Garnacha, 25% Cariñena and 1% white varieties that were crushed and destemmed and then fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts. The wine matured in oak containers of different sizes, bocoyes and oval foudres, for 15 months. This is the most approachable and open of the 2018s, aromatic and with the characterful profile of wet slate, nuts, Mediterranean herbs and acid berries. It has a lively palate with great acidity but especially with complete but sustained freshness. It has fine tannins and is nicely textured. Textbook Priorat. 18,740 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2020.

Álvaro Palacios is on a roll with the 2018s, which are impressive across the range, not only in Priorat but in Bierzo and Rioja too. In Priorat, he has 47 hectares of vineyards, 42 of them in the village of Gratallops. Like what happened with Rioja, they saw a return to more normal conditions with the 2018 vintage, more classic weather. Palacios calls it a "reunion" with snow, which he says always seems to bring something magic. There was more rain in the spring and the dry, Mediterranean summer, with a special moment during the harvest when heavy rains appeared, so he decided to wait and give time for the grapes to soak it up; the alcoholic degree went down and the wines also have more acidity. 2018 has something of 2010, 2012 and 2016 but with more finesse, 2018 being a more powerful but more elegant version of 2016, which are the two most elegant vintages of recent times for Palacios. There is a little more Cariñena in most of the wines from 2018. Also, there is a new wine in 2018, La Baixada. 2019 is a unique year, highly concentrated, like a warm and dry version of the already unique 2013. Annual production averages 415,000 bottles.  June 2020 Week 3, The Wine Advocate