Scala Dei Heretge 2017

The second Priorat to impress our judges convincingly enough to win inclusion in our top 50 Best In Show is a pure Carinyena…and surely makes a case for this schist-soiled region in Catalonia to be considered the pre-eminent global terroir for this much-maligned variety. This four-year-old wine is still dark black-purple in colour, with typically arresting sour-sweet Carinyena fruits lifting from the glass and evoking a wilderness landscape by their very wildness, as if pounded with stems on stones. The wine is almost medicinally intense in the mouth and once again offers a striking tutorial in the beauty of mingling sour and sweet; there is ample fine-grained tannic texture, and sweeping raptor-like acidity. It might all lack harmony -- but it doesn’t: the overall effect in the mouth is shapely, assured. Fine wine in dramatic style.

The odd one out is the 2017 Heretge, as it's a red produced with Cariñena grapes (all the others are Garnacha or a majority of Garnacha). It does represent the variety quite well and is very different from the others, with a slightly darker color and a broader palate with a rustic touch reminiscent of the dusty roads of Priorat, some tree bark and ripe fruit but without excess. It has fine-grained tannins and a dusty finish, tasty and mineral. 2,800 bottles were filled in June 2019.

A juicy, fruity red with plenty of fruit and slate undertones. It’s full-bodied, dense and tight with focus and form. Plenty of dark fruit at the finish. Drinkable now, but better in a year or two.