2021 Alvaro Palacios L'Ermita

The L'Ermita 2021 is a legend in the making, with 13.9% alcohol, the lowest ever, astonishing finesse and details, purity, symmetry, elegance and great freshness that makes it lively with a low pH of 3.31 and 6, 18 grams of acidity. These parameters should ensure that the wine will last a long time, and the wine will be lively and develop a citrusy nose of grapefruit and orange peel. It is a powerful wine with lots of energy, abundant tannins, and super elegant with great balance. It has a relatively high percentage of Cariñena, much higher than the 2020, and the blend for 2021 is 75% Garnacha, 24% Cariñena. Around 2,800 bottles of this 2021 will be made.

FACT: The wine is in our conditioned Wine Warehouse and if you pick up the wine you will also receive a nice discount. You will see your discount immediately when you choose Collect in the Checkout page. We are almost next to the Rijksweg with plenty of parking. Click here for our address.

ABOUT 2021 PRIORAT

One name will forever be linked to the first weeks of 2021: Filomena. That was the name given by the international meteorological services to the snow and ice storms that hit much of the Iberian Peninsula with serious snowstorms. Snowfall started in the vineyards in Priorat
on January 9 and produced a layer of more than 50 cm for three days. Temperatures dropped dramatically for almost a week. The weather continued to surprise with unexpected and contradictory phenomena, and after the icy explosion of Filomena in early January, average temperatures were already recorded around 15ºC Celsius. The vines had enjoyed the snow, but now they were faced with drought as between late November 2020 and mid-April 2021 rainfall was extremely scarce: just over 30 liters in five months! The normal climograph for Gratallops includes a very wet spring, which will be like blood to the soil in the coming months. 2021, on the other hand, was unusually droughty and without sufficient rain it took a long time before they were able to finish plowing the plots. Finally, the rain that fell from May came on the thirsty ground

VINTAGE 2021 IN GRATALLOPS, PRIORAT
Relevant dates
Annual precipitation: 449 mm / 50 cm snow.
Average temperature: 15.5ºC.
Average annual relative humidity: 65.59%.

ABOUT ALVARO PALACIOS

Álvaro Palacios is one of the nine children of the owner of Bodega Palacios Remondo in Rioja. After studying winemaking in Bordeaux and working for two years at the famous Petrus in Pomerol, he decided not to return to his native region, but to discover the unspoilt land of Priorat. Priorat is about a two-hour drive from Barcelona. The area has a long wine history with monks who have been making wine here since the twelfth century. However, several setbacks caused the area to fall into oblivion. In the 19th century there were still 15,000 hectares under vines, but by the end of the 1980s only 900 hectares remained, mainly old vineyards high on the slopes, difficult to reach and even more difficult to cultivate. Yet it was these vineyards that caught the attention of a group of winemakers, including René Barbier and Álvaro Palacios. They believed in the enormous potential of the region and lifted Priorat out of the doldrums.

In 1989, Álvaro Palacios bought his first vineyard in Priorat, Finca Dofí. Not much later, L'Ermita followed, a steep vineyard facing northeast with - typical for the region - a slate soil. This soil is also locally called llicorella and consists of red slate with small particles of quartz that reflect sunlight. The wine from L'Ermita has now become the figurehead of Priorat. Priorat has a warm continental climate with warm, dry summers. The vineyards are located at different altitudes ranging from 100 to 700 meters. It can cool down considerably at night, which ensures optimal ripening. The two main grape varieties are Garnacha and Cariñena, which thrive in the poor slate soil of Priorat.