I have just arrived from a business trip to Tuscany (Italy) and I was pleasantly surprised to see that also there, there are winemakers who base the quality and personality of their wines on the expression of the soil. I felt as if I was in any French quality wine-growing region where the goal is to find a way to express the soil characteristics.

The traditional philosophy in those regions is to practice a non-interventionist type of viticulture, where production depends on the soil itself, the climate and the respect for historical varieties. These three factors will play a part in the differentiation of those regions and will give personality to their wines. These are known as terroir wines.

These producers, who talk about wine as if it were a “work of art”, are disassociating themselves from easy-to-drink wines, with an overly sweet taste and great structure. Wines made from very mature grapes. These wines are produced all over the world and that is the reason why we could call them “globalisation wines”.

Some years ago the market offered a different type of wines: highly concentrated but not very elegant, with limited aromatic amplitude and, very vertical. They were called garage wines in France or super toscano in Italy. Their price was quite high.

As we all know, when a product becomes popular, many producers tend to copy this successful line as much as possible. Because their reproduction is quite easy, since their base is technological, they have appeared everywhere. If we add to this the fact that some so-called improving varieties (Cabernet, Merlot, or Petit Verdot) are used, elaborating a good wine becomes even easier because, thanks to the genetic characteristics of those varieties, you can obtain a high production of quality and the price can be much reduced. It is great for the customer!

Where should Priorat wines be classified? Do they have their own peculiar personality bestowed on them by the soil or maybe they are part of these globalised wines?

 
I am pretty sure that the collective and general intention of winemakers is to promote the personality of their region’s soil, climate, and traditional varieties (Grenache and Carinena).

If we analyse the soil and climate characteristics, we will see that those are the reasons of the boom of wineries created in the last ten years: highly draining soil, scarce rainfall basically happening in autumn and sometimes in spring. Vines with little vigour grow in this type of soil and the result are highly concentrated wines, of a great aromatic diversity, long, with a very pleasant and powerful in-mouth sensation, and a strong personality. This is what we need to define a strong personality region where technology can be applied in order to promote even more the wine’s characteristics.

When a region is considered to succeed it is because there is a soil that favours the collective will to make this type of wines that can be named author wines.

I would define El Priorat as a special region where many would-be wine artists come to create their works of art.

It is a region where traditionally wine was elaborated to be sold in bulk and which, thanks to the intention of a few friends who had sensibility, constancy, skills and luck, is now consolidating its hold on the way to success.

It is very important to emphasize the importance of the second generation, made up not only of our children but also of some people from all over the world, whose intention is to elaborate the best of wines. This implies sacrifice and patience. The region has been consolidated thanks to the efforts of all these producers and we should be grateful to all of them.

I would like to clarify that, although the characteristics of the soil are fundamental to give the wine its specificity and that the interventions of the producer-oenologist should be minimum when differentiating wines, man is an intelligent being, and he is the one who has the necessary sensitivity and who can transmit it.

We should know that in the plant-soil-man trinomial the only thing with an absolute value is the varietal genetic content of the vine. Each of these factors has an irreplaceable value and they all participate in shaping up the work of art.

The plant and the soil are independent beings but the value of human knowledge and sensitivity improve with time. We must be aware that our insistence on studying and work perfection will lead us to El Priorat we dream of.

 Josep Lluis Pérez