The 2016 Torroja Vi de Vila is the village wine that is bottled earlier than the others. The oak is neatly folded into the wine, which is quite fruit-driven and fresh but with clout—especially now that they have the Historic as an entry-level wine, this can show a little more complexity. The blend of Cariñena and Garnacha in equal parts works very well. The fruit is red rather than black, and the texture is silky, with very fine tannins and great acidity. It's very lively, aromatic and open, fluid, elegant and fresh. All the reds fermented with full clusters and indigenous yeasts, and this had a ten-day maceration with the skins and stems and then aged 18 months in an oak foudre. They only have five or six 500-liter oak barrels in addition to the oak foudre, and they use concrete more and more. 16,800 bottles were filled in August 2017.
93 points, Luis Gutierrez (April 2018)
Priorat
This tiny region on the Catalonian coastal hinterland produces some of Spain’s most prestigious red wines. The region has only 1,800 ha of vines covering steep terraces and plateaus up to 900m featuring both granite based soils and unique shale based ”llicorella” soils. Priorat experiences warm to hot days with cool evenings producing wines of great intensity, colour and ripeness. Over the past 20 years, Priorat’s vineyards planted to Garnacha, Carinena, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir, have been slowly revived with great success, producing a new wave of powerful, rich reds, some with generous new oak characters.
