2018 Mas Martinet Bru Priorat D.O Q.

50% Garnatxa - 20% Syrah - 10% Caranyana - 10% Cabernet Sauvignon - 10% Merlot Winemaker Sara Perez of Mas Martinet: 'We can achieve true greatness because we have true grandes pagos [grand cru vineyards] here . . .' Though new oak is still widely used, she endorses restraint. 'Every year, many of us are working to diminish the effects of oak on our wines. Using 100 percent new oak, and new oak that has not been properly envinado [broken in by using lesser red wines or white wines to pre-condition the barrels], is an abuse.' Instead, she uses epoxy-lined cement vats (once almost universal in Spain, then out of fashion, and now coming back), wooden tinos (upright vats) and only 50 percent new oak. 'I break it in by fermenting our Martinet Bru [her excellent second wine] for two months and the rest is second-year oak and 10 percent is aged in the tinos,' she explains." - Gerry Dawes, The Wine News, Tarragona's Powerful New-Age Reds The wines of Priorat are today Spain's finest reds, and the equal of the best that the French Mediterranean and all of Italy produces. It is a wild region, of steep, terraced vineyards that date to Roman times. The typical terroir is composed mainly of ragged and broken slate (schist, or llicorella in the Catalan dialect), lending a distinct character and finesse to the region's best wines. Vines on the hillside behind Perez's home Perez Grapes Wine making at Mas Martinet is at once simple and brilliant as described by Drew Matich from Pulling the Cork, August 2009: ". . . the bottom line is this: Sara's wines faithfully reflect the grapes of the vineyard in any given year. There are no winemaker games played to optimize or equalize the wine across different vintages. The grapes are blended, fermented, and aged as they come out of the vineyard. And from our tastings, the results were amazing."