Sometimes it is interesting to go back to the beginning.\u00a0 In 1988 Daphne Glorian, at the time employed by an English Master of Wine in his Paris office, decided to spend her life\u2019s savings on 17 terraces of hillside vines just outside the village of Gratallops.\u00a0 Newly minted friends Ren\u00e9 Barbier and Alvaro Palacios encouraged her and together with Carles Pastrana and Jose Luis Perez, they pooled their talents and resources to make a new style of wine in a region rich in history but that had only really produced sturdy wine for the local markets.\u00a0 In 1989 the modern Priorat was born.<\/p>\n
Fast forward to today, and Clos Erasmus is considered one of the elite producers of the Priorat.\u00a0\u00a0 Their body of work is impressive and includes 98 (twice), 99 (three times) and 100 (twice) point efforts as reviewed by Robert Parker. The problem with Clos Erasmus through the years has definitely not been quality, but quantity.\u00a0 There has been precious little to go around. Old vine Grenache, Carignane and a little Cabernet fruit make magic in Priorat in the right hands, and Daphne, along with her current super-star winemaker, the diminutive, dreadlocked Ester Nin are at the top of their game.<\/p>\n
These rustic hillsides produce wines of great power and character, yet in Ester\u2019s hands also retain a surprising elegance.\u00a0 Bordeaux had something like a three century head start and one has to appreciate how far Priorat has come in a mere three decades.\u00a0 Like Bordeaux, one of the best values in exceptional wine comes from the second wine of Clos Erasmus called Laurel. From the younger vines on the property, plus some declassified Clos Erasmus, this is the Catalan equivalent of Chateau Margaux\u2019s Pavillion Rouge or Lafite\u2019s Carruades. It is also another poster child for our mantra of buying little wines from the very best producers.\u00a0 Typically Laurel is a pretty sensational drink, but Ester and the gang have outdone themselves this year.<\/p>\n
Flavors of currant, black cherry, coffee, cocoa and an insistent minerality from the llicorella (yic-o-raya) black slate soils makes Priorat a very special place for grapes.\u00a0 The 2015 Clos I Terrases Priorat Laurel<\/strong> <\/a>screams of its class and breeding. In fact this version is the best we have tasted.\u00a0 It is aromatic, inviting, layered and remarkably engaging.\u00a0 It delivers plenty even if you aren\u2019t feeling cerebral and just want to relate to it on a purely hedonistic (sensual) level.\u00a0\u00a0 If you need some numbers, this second<\/em> wine has received 93 points or better in every<\/em> vintage since 2004 save one (2010, curiously enough the only vintage reviewed by Neal Martin during a very short stint as Advocate\u2019s Spanish reviewer).\u00a0\u00a0 The wine in question, this lovely 2015 Laurel, registers at 95 points<\/strong> with Advocate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Clos Erasmus and Laurel are not vineyard designations, but they do begin to take shape in the vineyard. Meticulous farming and observation take place throughout the year so by the time fruit starts to reach the cellar in autumn, most of the blends have already been mapped out by Daphne. When the primary fermentations are winding down these decisions begin to coalesce and wines intended for Laurel are racked into a combination of 20hl wooden tanks, second- and third-fill 228L French oak barrels and clay amphorae. It rests for 16-18 months before final blending and bottling.<\/p>\n At this point we\u2019ll defer to Luis Gutierrez, whose review supplies most of the relevant technical information as well as well as a rousing endorsement, \u201cThe 2015 Laurel is the second wine here, and it has evolved with time. It’s a transparent and bright blend of Garnacha with 20% Syrah and some 5% Cabernet Sauvignon from vines between 11 and 22 years of age. The blend is different each year, as the vines are becoming older and wiser. It shows extremely aromatic and expressive, open and elegant. It really does not show any heat; on the contrary, it feels quite fresh. It’s not a muscular wine\u2014it\u2019s very elegant.<\/em><\/strong> Part of the wine matured in amphora, and there’s no more pig\u00e9age (since 2012), only very soft pump overs just to keep the cap wet. The extraction is a lot lower than in earlier years. This is nothing short of spectacular. <\/strong>..\u201d<\/p>\n Jeb Dunnuck provided an early revieew on this one as well, \u201c \u2026 it boasts a deep purple color as well as perfumed notes of resinous herbs, blackberries, liquid violets and pepper. It\u2019s rich, concentrated, and voluptuous, yet pure and elegant on the palate. It\u2019s undoubtedly the finest vintage of this cuv\u00e9e I\u2019ve tasted \u202695 points\u2026\u201d.\u00a0 Amen to that.\u00a0 This is a release we have looked forward to every year since we first ran across the 2005 some years ago (we\u2019ve been following Erasmus since the late 90s), and this one is special.\u00a0 Do not miss it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes it is interesting to go back to the beginning.\u00a0 In 1988 Daphne Glorian, at the time employed by an English Master of Wine in his Paris office, decided to spend her life\u2019s savings on 17 terraces of hillside vines just outside the village of Gratallops.\u00a0 Newly minted friends Ren\u00e9 Barbier and Alvaro Palacios encouraged … Continue reading “THE BEST LAUREL EVER?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[37],"tags":[353,354,352,32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2758,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2757\/revisions\/2758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.winex.com\/stockreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}