The Wine AdvocateRP 100Reviewed by:Luis GutiérrezRelease Price:$170Drink Date:2023 - 2043The 2020 Nit de Nin Mas d’en Caçador is elegant, complex and subtle, nuanced and insinuating, somewhere between the austerity of the 2018 and the exuberance of the 2019. The palate shows terrific balance, very fine tannins (the perfect tannins!) and a long, very clean and supple finish. A vintage of finesse and elegance with energy, power and light. This is refined beyond comprehension; there's purity, elegance, power and detail, symmetry and proportion. A wine that took my breath away. Just for the record, the vineyard is a 3.4-hectare slope planted between 81 and 116 years ago with Garnacha, Garnacha Peluda, Cariñena and 2% white varieties at 650 meters in altitude on pure slate that they harvested on September 10th and got 12 hectoliters per hectare (extremely low yields). The full clusters fermented with indigenous yeasts in a 3,200-liter oak foudre for four weeks, and the wine matured in 225- and 300-liter oak barrels for 18 months. It has 14.64% alcohol, a pH of 3.3 and 5.4 grams of acidity (tartaric). 2,193 bottles were filled in April 2022.
The Nin-Ortiz family have built their winery in their Planetes Vineyard in the limit between Falset and Porrera. When the whites are harvested, they keep the boxes with the bunches in a cold storage for one or two days, then press the bunches and let the must settle, and then they fill the barrels the next day. They started experimenting with some skin contact in 2019 (one barrel) and continued with a little more in the following vintages, varying the length of the maceration; they started with five and went up to 15, and then the wines are in barrel for eight months. They use barrels from different coopers and ages. The reds are produced in different ways, but all the old vines are 100% full clusters; the young-vine Garnacha is destemmed and Cariñena is also full cluster. Each parcel has its fermentation vat, the young one in stainless steel and the rest in oak. Indigenous yeasts are used with all the wines, and they us as little sulfur as possible. All their vineyards are certified organic and they don't buy any grapes, but they don't have the seals for the certifications, because it's a lot of paperwork (and money!). They are in the process of getting Cariñena Blanca approved for the Priorat appellation.
2020 was the year of mildew (700 liters of rain!), but they "only" lost 25% of the crop by working a lot in the vineyard; it's a year they say they'll never forget. For them, 2020 is not a warm year; the skins were perfect and the wines were super aromatic from the day they started fermenting in the winery. For them, it's an exceptional vintage, the most Burgundian vintage since they started. 2019 was a warm year, a classical vintage that resulted in more powerful wines, but a heat wave in August burned some grapes (15% of loss), and it affected Cariñena more than Garnacha. And the same plants that were affected by the heat wave were also more affected by the mildew, and it also had a more devastating result on Cariñena than on Garnacha.
In 2021 they had 70 centimeters of rain in January, so the vines had water and were rested and there was a huge crop. The summer was dry, but at the end of August, it started raining . . . and the grapes wouldn't ripen. Alcohol levels were down and many asked the appellation to lower the requested limit of 13% in whites 13.5% in reds . . . but they wouldn't allow it. The wines have more acidity and lower alcohol and should age nicely.
They work in Priorat and in the Pla de Manlleu zone of Penedès, where Nin is from (but there without appellation of origin), and this is how they introduce themselves: "We only work with our own vineyards and bottle by parcels, to preserve the identity of the place and soils. We do not buy grapes, in order to guarantee that all our wines are made with 100% certified organic grapes. We are part of 'La Renaissance des Appellations' as a qualitative seal of biodynamic viticulture, in order to obtain healthy grapes without residues, which allows us to make spontaneous fermentations without adding SO2 during the fermentation."
Published: Sep 30, 2022
Rating98
Release Price$150
Drink Date2023 - 2030
Reviewed by Luis GutiérrezIssue Date30th Sep 2022SourceEnd of September 2022, The Wine Advocate
The 2019 Nit de Nin Mas d’en Caçador has the exotic aroma of berries and ripe plums, sour cherries, graphite, classical Priorat, perfumed, extroverted and exuberant, which makes it really attractive and showy. It's super aromatic, with notes of kirsch, exotic spices, Mediterranean herbs and decayed violets. This is hedonistic and decadent, with slightly dusty tannins. 2,664 bottles produced.
The Nin-Ortiz family have built their winery in their Planetes Vineyard in the limit between Falset and Porrera. When the whites are harvested, they keep the boxes with the bunches in a cold storage for one or two days, then press the bunches and let the must settle, and then they fill the barrels the next day. They started experimenting with some skin contact in 2019 (one barrel) and continued with a little more in the following vintages, varying the length of the maceration; they started with five and went up to 15, and then the wines are in barrel for eight months. They use barrels from different coopers and ages. The reds are produced in different ways, but all the old vines are 100% full clusters; the young-vine Garnacha is destemmed and Cariñena is also full cluster. Each parcel has its fermentation vat, the young one in stainless steel and the rest in oak. Indigenous yeasts are used with all the wines, and they us as little sulfur as possible. All their vineyards are certified organic and they don't buy any grapes, but they don't have the seals for the certifications, because it's a lot of paperwork (and money!). They are in the process of getting Cariñena Blanca approved for the Priorat appellation.
2020 was the year of mildew (700 liters of rain!), but they "only" lost 25% of the crop by working a lot in the vineyard; it's a year they say they'll never forget. For them, 2020 is not a warm year; the skins were perfect and the wines were super aromatic from the day they started fermenting in the winery. For them, it's an exceptional vintage, the most Burgundian vintage since they started. 2019 was a warm year, a classical vintage that resulted in more powerful wines, but a heat wave in August burned some grapes (15% of loss), and it affected Cariñena more than Garnacha. And the same plants that were affected by the heat wave were also more affected by the mildew, and it also had a more devastating result on Cariñena than on Garnacha.
In 2021 they had 70 centimeters of rain in January, so the vines had water and were rested and there was a huge crop. The summer was dry, but at the end of August, it started raining . . . and the grapes wouldn't ripen. Alcohol levels were down and many asked the appellation to lower the requested limit of 13% in whites 13.5% in reds . . . but they wouldn't allow it. The wines have more acidity and lower alcohol and should age nicely.
They work in Priorat and in the Pla de Manlleu zone of Penedès, where Nin is from (but there without appellation of origin), and this is how they introduce themselves: "We only work with our own vineyards and bottle by parcels, to preserve the identity of the place and soils. We do not buy grapes, in order to guarantee that all our wines are made with 100% certified organic grapes. We are part of 'La Renaissance des Appellations' as a qualitative seal of biodynamic viticulture, in order to obtain healthy grapes without residues, which allows us to make spontaneous fermentations without adding SO2 during the fermentation."
