Porrera, Priorat

ecbam — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:14:40 +0000

I have been back home for a month now and I’m still trying let my European excursion sink in. All the people, places, and regions still race through my head as if I just saw them yesterday! The trip had its ups and downs, but most importantly it was an eye opening experience.

Ezra and I had just finished an all night siesta in Barcelona and headed east towards Priorat. We drove on a narrow windy road through mountains and hills, on a beautiful, sunny winter day. The drive actually, reminded me of highway 1, just without the Pacific Ocean to our left. We had driven about an hour and started to see vineyards. I knew we were close. I came across a man on a tractor and decided to flag him down and asked, “Donde se encuentra Priorato?” He replied, “Estas en Priorato!” The smile on my face must have been classic! He told me to head towards the second town named Porrera, and I would find some wine there. We complied and headed down the road. Village, would be a better name for Porrera. This village was small with narrow roads and tall buildings, and I mean NARROW ROADS! Not much was going on as we drove carefully through the town. Reaching a small bridge I decided to turn around, not really “feeling” the vibe in the village. I drove onto the bridge to turn around and get back onto the main highway, when I saw the emblem of a producer I recognized, Vall LLach ! Ecstatic would be an understatement for my feelings at that moment, as you can plainly see.

Yes, that’s me acting all Humpty Dumpty on the bridge…

I quickly reversed and parked the car and Ezra and I went looking for someone, anyone. I knocked on the cellar door, no one answered. We walked around the village and stumbled upon a small family restaurant and walked in on two older ladies having lunch together. I walked in and the record player must have screeched… They both stared at me like some being from another country!…..I mean another planet! I quickly told her what we were doing in the area and we loved the Vall Llach wines, she wiped her mouth, put down her utensils and then walked us literally around a couple of corners to the winemaker’s home. She buzzed the intercom and spoke to a women and told her in spanish that there were two guys from California interested in the Vall Llach wines. Down came a dark spanish man named Salus. We introduced ourselves and chit chatted a bit about why we knocked on his door, and he told us to come back in a couple of hours to do some tasting.

We continued blissfully on down the highway, winding through the impressivly steep and rolling Priorat region. It couldn’t have been a more beautiful day. It was a feeling of Deja Vu for me to see the region that I have only read about and seen pictures of. We drove around for a couple of hours and took pictures of the soils, terraces, vines, etc… then headed back to Salus’ home. We buzzed the door once again and Salus and his 7yr old son Mark greeted us and we headed towards the winery. We walked through the village and through all the extremely excited kids that were eagerly awaiting the 3 Kings holiday. Salus started telling us about his winery as he opened up his cellar doors. The first room we entered was his processing room and the machinery was state of the art, not what I was expecting. The next room we entered was his wine storage room, thousands of bottles resting here, Mags, six packs, and cases of great juice. Salus was an extremely passionate and dedicated man, I was trying fiercely to process and translate to Ezra all the information that he was telling us! Salus had three different stories of barrel rooms. The building in which they reside is over 500 years old and all three stories are original architecture with cathedral style arches and pillars. The first floor of barrels were completely unblended, second story were blends, and the third were experimental blends, impressive.

The 2004 Vall Llach is the flagship wine of the estate. Produced from estate old-vine fruit consisting of 65% Carinena, 20% Merlot, and 15% Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2004 Idus is old-vine Carinena and Garnacha. The wine consists of 45% Carinena, 20% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Garnacha, and 10% Syrah.

The 2004 Embruix is composed of 35% Garnacha, 30% Carinena, 20% Syrah, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Merlot

These were just a few that we tasted through with Salus, out of bottle! Ezra and I looked like a couple of Purple People Eaters after tasting through a ridiculous amount of barrels! His wines were lush yet delicate, big and bold and had great character and depth! He has vines that are over 1oo years old throughout the Priorat region.

High above the village of Porrera, Erza, Salus, his son, and I stood watching over the village with a breathtaking view of the valleys covered with vines. He began to tell us about his role in Priorat. ”I am the President of the Priorat D.O.Q., and I serve as the mayor of Porrera,” he mentioned humbly. Ezra and I were taken off guard, I certainly did not expect this genuinely nice man who had shown us the visit of our lives to be what he had just mentioned to us! ”Wow” Is all I could say to him. He sat and just smiled at his son, and at Ezra and I in a very proud manner. We finished up the visit going back down to the village to his house as dusk had arrived, Mark his son was really excited now about the arrival of the 3 kings bringing gifts to all of the kids of the Porrera. Ezra and I had already received an unbelievable gift, and a day I will never forget, thank you Salus!

Europe Trip!

ecbam — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 17:49:15 +0000

Much to the chagrin of my coworkers, I’m taking a little jaunt through Europe with my childhood friend, Ezra for the next few weeks. In order to gain a little bit of street cred with the boss, I’ll hit up a few wineries along the way. For posterity’s sake, the following is an outline of my itinerary.

I leave tomorrow and for the first week or so, we’re cruising through the Eastern Block of Europe… Checking out Budapest and Prague, visiting Ezra’s previous home in Germany… we’ll do some snowboarding, and just take in the sights. After that, as you can see below, the itinerary gets a little less loose:

January 4th-6th: Priorat, Spain
I’m still working on making some connections here… I’m hoping to get in touch with Eric Solomon and find some spots to hit through him.

January 7th-9th: Champagne, France
Local Paso Robles winemaker and French ex-pat Roger Nicolas from RN Estate was kind enough to get me in touch with his niece in Paris whose boyfriend works for a Champagne house in Ludes, so we’ll be visiting and tasting with them.

January 9th-13th: Kerry, Ireland
A slight detour here to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

January 13th-16th: Rhone region, France
I’m fully focused on making connections via Hospice du Rhone while I’m here. For sure I’ll be visiting Domaine de la Charbonniere and Domaine Faury… but the rest is up in the air. We’ll see where the ~~wine~~… er… I mean wind… takes us.

January 16th-18th: Madrid, Spain

January 18th-20th: Rome, Italy

January 21st: Home!
… And back to work on the 22nd. The restaurant will be closed for our annual winter break, but I’m pretty sure there’ll still be tons of work for me when I get back.

I’m planning on taking a journal to document some of the trip… And maybe if I can find a computer here and there I can give a few updates here as well.

Fully Committed » red wine

Porrera, Priorat

Europe Trip!