2020 Secret del Priorat

Robert Parker - 90

I had not tasted the entry-level red from Priorat for a while and was surprised to find that the Secret del Priorat I tasted in September shares the same name of a wine I tasted in 2011 and it was a sweet wine! This 2020 Secret del Priorat is 42% Garnacha, 38% Cariñena, 10% Syrah, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot from six of the nine villages of the Priorat, and it is a dry red wine. It comes from a low-yielding year that had plenty of rain (very atypical) and mildew, which was unheard of in the region. The wine has 13.9% alcohol and very good freshness (pH 3.26) after fermenting in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and maturing in second-use 300-liter French oak barrels for one year. It's pale ruby in color and comes from a year of mildew when they lost around 15% of the crop (Porrera had less mildew and there was more in Lloar and Gratallops, in the warmer places, but in Priorat overall the loss was probably 30%). Even so, they used as many grapes as they could from higher altitudes in Torroja and Porrera and less from the lower villages, and the blend also had more Garnacha (Cariñena suffered more). They look for the overall Priorat character, with little oak and with some time in bottle to settle. It’s medium-bodied with a fine thread; they are doing softer vinifications and less extraction. It’s clean, has focused flavors and the varieties that represent some 20% of the blend are very integrated, with perhaps 10% Syrah and then Cabernet and Merlot that give some spiciness. You don’t notice any herbal notes. It has fine tannins and good balance and elegance. With time in the glass, there was a note of honeycomb and beeswax. Approachable. 40,900 bottles produced. It was bottled in June 2022.