![]() ![]() The poor, stony soils here are known as ‘llicorella’ and consist of dark-brown slate, with some quartzite. The vineyards are protected by the Sierra de Montsant and annual rainfall is very limited, which would normally mean irrigation is necessary, if it weren’t for the special soils in this region, the primary factor influencing Priorat wines. The older vines yield small, but top quality grapes. The age of the vines and extremely low yields certainly contribute to the intensity and strength of Priorat wines. There are several reasons why Priorat wines are so exceptional and highly regarded: The rest is history as they say! Why does Priorat produce such excellent wines? Such was the positive international response to these wines, these 5 entrepreneurs established their own bodegas and this encouraged many others to arrive in the region. A certain Robert Parker then visited the region and put Priorat on the map with excellent ratings. Their wines were distinctive from the former Priorat wines - much more concentrated, with a more mineral flavour and complex blends including some French grape varieties, innovative winemaking and ageing in new French oak barrels. In 1989 5 wine entrepreneurs joined forces to make Priorat wine in the village of Gratallops. In 1974 the ‘Cellers de Scala Dei’ families started to focus on the quality of the wine, purchased new machinery and produced their first bottle of wine for commercial sale, in that same year. In 1928, Priorat wine families joined together to protect the good name of Priorat wine, which ultimately resulted in the Priorat DO being confirmed in 1954. Vineyards were replaced by forest land and the region went into decline. ![]() Many families moved away from the region during this period, as they found it hard to make a living from the land and the lure of work in the textile mills was attractive. The resulting wines weren’t great quality and were sold in bulk - not in bottles. Vines were replanted but the steep terrain made the work arduous. The phylloxera crisis of 1893 hit the region hard. The state then auctioned off the land in the early 1840s and it was purchased by a consortium of five families called ‘Societat Agrícola La Unió’, which later became known as ‘ Cellers de Scala Dei’, formed to rebuild the Priory vineyards.Ĭellers de Scala Dei’ bottled their first wine in 1878 and won a gold medal at the Paris World Fair in the same year. The monks left in 1835 and the people, angry that the monks had become rich from their hard work, looted the priory. Many of the vines were planted at high altitude, some 500-800 metres above sea level.įor 600 years the people from the local communities rented the land from the monks and worked hard to make a living, farming the land. And of course, they planted vines, especially the red Garnatxa grape variety - or in French, Grenache. The history of Priorat stretches back a long way! In fact about 1000 years, when in the 12th century, Carthusian monks travelled here from Provence and established a ‘Priorat’ (a Priory), which became known as ’Cartoixa d’Escaladei’ (Carthusian Monastery of Santa Maria d’Escaladei) in the foothills of the Montsant mountains. The history of Priorat It all began with the arrival of the Carthusian monks… Read on to see what we discovered about Priorat, now one of Spain’s top two wine regions and its most iconic winery, Scala Dei Cellars… We decided to visit Catalonia to discover more about the Priorat wine region and to sample what are said to be some of the best wines in Spain, at a winery which lies at the very heart of Priorat’s history and origins! Priorat, a very special and remote wine region, with an incredible history, now produces some of Spain’s most highly praised - and highly priced - wines. All of this changed in the 1990s however, when the wine world discovered that due to the poor soils and low yields, the quality of Priorat wines could be truly exceptional. Once upon a time, many years ago, Catalonia’s Priorat vineyards, in the north-east of Spain, were considered too difficult and unfit to farm, because of poor soils and the steep, terraced slopes. Read about our Priorat wine tour and wine tasting at the historic and iconic Scala Dei Priorat Cellars ![]()
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