Les Aubaguetes

The bottled 2021 Les Aubaguetes delivered what the barrel sample had promised (and more!) when I tasted it in June 2022. It was bottled with a contained 14% alcohol and a pH of 3.45. It's composed of 71% Garnacha, 28% Cariñena and 1% white varieties that fermented with 55% full clusters in oak vats and then matured in oval French oak foudres for 12 months. It has to be the most elegant, ethereal and nuanced vintage of Les Aubaguetes so far, perfumed and full of energy and light. The palate is symmetric, precise, like laser cut, harmonious and amazing. It's a very classical wine that develops plenty of different aromas with time in the glass, with hints of meat and blood, iron, violets, blood orange, aromatic herbs and flowers. There is an extra layer of complexity and elegance here; it's more ethereal and subtler, developing more and more nuances as the wine sat in the glass. 1,400 bottles were filled the 10th of February 2023.

The very classical and powerful 2020 Les Aubaguetes was produced with a blend of 70% Garnacha, 27% Cariñena and 3% white grapes (that were not used in 2021), and that might be the reason why the pH is a little lower, 3.39. The grapes were picked very early, and the wine fermented with 70% full clusters. The wine is truly superb, with depth and complexity, powerful and ripe without excess (14.5% alcohol) with concentration and elegance. It feels like everything is where it should be, and it's one wine that feels even better than the 2021. 2020 was a year of mildew that decimated the crop, and there are only 1,684 bottles and some larger formats. It was bottled in April 2022.

The 2019 Les Aubaguetes comes from a 1.55-hectare plot of old vines in the process of being classified as "gran vinya classificada," and in 2019, the wine is a blend of 74% Garnacha, 25% Cariñena and 1% white grapes, Garnacha Blanca and Macabeo. It fermented in oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in oak casks for 14 months. This is probably the most backward of the 2019s, perhaps a little different from the rest of the 2019s, as the percentage of Cariñena here is more or less the same as in previous years, while in the other wines it tends to be quite a bit lower. The Cariñena was not as affected by the heat as the others because there is a lot of shadow (that's what the wine's name means in the Catalan language); the sun disappears at 10 in the morning (!), and the yields were similar to previous years. So, there's something darker and earthier here, a wine more marked by Cariñena and the very dark slate from the soils. There are some grainy tannins, again a different texture from the rest of 2019s. But again, there is great balance, and it's perhaps the more traditional Priorat in the range. 2,543 bottles were filled in May 2021.