Sara I Rene Partida Bellvisos Blanc 2017
-
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
This is a wine fit for ageing, deep and complex (similar to the great Priorat reds). It is Mediterranean, with skin contact and aged mainly in 600 Litre oak barrels…it transports you from the highest parts of the vineyards where wild fennel and anise grow, right the way down to the lower levels where the more clay-based soils are profound and structured…It is a tiny journey descending and ascending our rocky, unique terrain.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Gratallops Partida Bellvisos Blanc wants to be a vin de garde. It's a blend of Garnacha Blanca, Trepat Blanco and Viura (Macabeo) from 65-year-old certified-organic vines on llicorella slate soils surrounded by a Mediterranean forest, fermented in 380-liter amphorae with some stems and skins that macerated for a month. After being pressed, it was transferred to demi-muids, 600-liter Austrian oak casks of thick staves, where it continued fermenting for nine months. It comes from a Mediterranean vintage and is a powerful, Mediterranean white with 15% alcohol, notes of aniseed and fennel, big bones and a full body. It's like a riper version of the rosé Pedrer—spicy and with a balsamic touch and a bitter twist on the finish. This wine behaves well in warm years... It was bottled after the fermentation finished.
Other Vintages
2014-
Robert
Parker
Producing full-bodied white wines, Grenache Blanc can be unctuous and soft or floral and fresh. Some of the finest examples are terroir-driven, age-worthy wines. It is a key ingredient in white Châteauneuf-du-Pape and many white blends across southern France and NE Spain. Somm Secret—Grenache Blanc plays a key role in the vins doux naturels of Rivesaltes and a subsidiary role in those of Banyuls and Maury.
Tiny and entirely composed of craggy, jagged and deeply terraced vineyards, Priorat is a Catalan wine-producing region that was virtually abandoned until the early 1990s. This Spanish wine's renaissance came with the arrival of one man, René Barbier, who recognized the region’s forgotten potential. He banded with five friends to create five “Clos” in the village of Gratallops. Their aim was to revive some of Priorat’s ancient Carignan vines, as well as plant new—mainly French—varieties. These winemakers were technically skilled, well-trained and locally inspired; not surprisingly their results were a far cry from the few rustic and overly fermented wines already produced.
This movement escalated Priorat’s popularity for a few reasons. Its new wines were modern and made with well-recognized varieties, namely old Carignan and Grenache blended with Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. When the demand arrived, scarcity commanded higher prices and as the region discovered its new acclaim, investors came running from near and far. Within ten years, the area under vine practically doubled.
Priorat’s steep slopes of licorella (brown and black slate) and quartzite soils, protection from the cold winds of the Siera de Monstant and a lack of water, leading to incredibly low vine yields, all work together to make the region’s wines unique. While similar blends could and are produced elsewhere, the mineral essence and unprecedented concentration of a Priorat wine is unmistakable.