Alvaro Palacios Camins del Priorat 2019 is the wine of “The New Spain.” While Spain’s winemaking tradition goes back centuries, it revolutionized starting in the 1990s. And Alvaro Palacios was a big part of that.
Actually, he was one of the architects and primary reasons for Priorat’s transition to the fine wine region in the past 20 years.
Bodega Alvaro Palacios
The son of the owners of Rioja’s Palacios Remondo, Alvaro Palacios, spent his early 20s working and studying winemaking outside of Spain. After a stint in Bordeaux, he returned to Spain with the ambition to make world-class wines. Palacios picked historic hillsides with slate soils and focused on Garnacha and Carinena traditional Spanish grape varieties to achieve this dream.
Now Bodega Alvaro Palacios widely considered to be among the most essential new Spanish wineries in a generation, Alvaro Palacios embodies the spirit of “The New Spain.” Palacios’ wines have garnered a following in Spain and abroad, amongst critics and collectors, for their generous fruit, polished tannin structure, and minerality.
In the Bottle: Camins del Priorat 2019
Camins del Priorat is the winery’s softer, entry-level Priorat. It’s 35% Garnacha, 24% Syrah, 17% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cariñena, 10% Merlot, and 3% other grapes. Camins made with grapes from 101 plots of 10 municipalities. The wines are aged four to six months in large and small oak barrels before blending and bottling. Technically, it’s Crianza style of wine, and we’ll discuss it later.
In the Glass: Camins del Priorat 2019
Camins del Priorat 2019 is jammy, brambly, and filled with the aroma of blackberry, black cherry, black currant, plum, and balsamic notes.
It had the flavors of black cherry, black chocolate, coffee, cocoa nibs, earthy, licorice, and anise notes on the palate.
The tannin and acidity were quite austere.
Finish
The Crianza style typically means that it’s a fruit-forward wine ready to be enjoyed on release. While Camins del Priorat 2019 certainly is a fruit-forward wine, it’s a bit wild and angular on the palate and needs a few years to mature and soften up. How do we know that?
We had a little experiment and left some wine in the glass overnight. The next day tannin and acidity mellowed and allowed more fruit to show on the palate. Such experimentation is a kind of shock therapy for the wine. Still, it’s an unorthodox way to check for wine ageability.
Would we recommend this wine? Most definitely. It’ll be an excellent wine in three to five years if you have patience. We are laying down a few bottles.
What are your thoughts on Camins del Priorat 2019 if you tasted it? Any other recommendations from Priorat?
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