Priorat
is a region situated on the North
East Coast of the Catalonian part
of Spain. This tiny and well
sheltered region is situated inside
the Monsant mountain range. This
"Denominacio' D' Origen Calificada"
or "DOC" accounts for
only about 1500 hevtares, making
it one of the smallest regions in
Spain and produces a yearly grape
harvest of 2400 tons. In comparison
to Rioja with its yearly production
of 367,000 tons.
The
region has nine small villages that
make up the "Denominacio". They
are, Porrea, Toroja del Priorat,
Scala Dei, Viella Baixa, Viella
Alta, Gratallops, Bellmunt, Poboleda
and Lloa.
The
region has about 500 grape farmers,
making the average holding very
small and therefore make for some
intense viticulture. The main
restrictions of the region are its
harsh terrain as well as the landscape,
being very hilly and extremely steep
in places. All work has to
be done by hand.
It
all began when we tasted two bottles
of wine that were so great and perfect
and yet we never even had heard
anything about this region called
Priorat. The two wines we tasted
were 1994 Clos Matinet and 1994
Clos Mogador. This then led
to a search on the region, books
were bought eventually a plane ticket
and six months later work started
at the Clos Martinet. The year thereafter
we worked at Cims de Porrea, a phenomenal
cellar in another village. During
this time Eben Sadie of South Africa
and Dominik Huber from Germany met. We
worked together in the vinyards
and winery in Spain and together
out of love for this region started
and is still growing. What
attracted us most were the people,
the landscape, the old vineyards
and the good times we had. Then
through the kind hand of the family
Perez I Ovejero, whom owned the
above cellars, our dream slowly
materialized.
(to
read more about this story click
on the link to the right of this
page "The Sadie
Wine Story".)
