2022 NerinTerra: Power and perfume from Priorat

Old vine terroir authenticity

'Priorat is one of the world's few first-class wines to be made from Garnacha and Mazuelo/Cariñena/Carignan vines. The vine age and concomitantly extremely low yields undoubtedly contribute to the intensity and strength of Priorat.' — Victor de la Serna, The Oxford Companion to Wine

The isolated inland hills and extreme, swooping valleys of Priorat are one of Spain's great winemaking landscapes. Mechanisation is impossible, and the slate and quartz licorella soils support few crops other than vines. Vineyards are separated by thick wild scrub, and hilltop villages float adrift between deep valleys.

Jean Belondrade's Priorat NerinTerra began with the discovery of an abandoned, old-vine vineyard. It was in a wild and neglected state, but it was also an amazing site, with twenty terraces of vines clinging to a north-facing slope spanning 80 metres from top to bottom. The quality of the site for high-quality viticulture was too compelling to resist, so Jean took the plunge and bought the site. Four years of arduous reconditioning followed, with the first 2018 vintage of NerinTerra appearing in 2021 (and championed by Uncorked since the beginning).

2022 is now the fifth vintage, and from a great start the wine has been getting better and better. The intervening years have seen several new plots added to the blend. Several of these are so steep they have to be ploughed by winch. One plot (La Aguilera) has the oldest surviving Cariñena vines in Priorat (planted in 1942). Generally dense planting ratios force vines to burrow deep into the poor soil in search of water and nutrients, and in the process yielding a pure, concentrated expression of a remarkable terroir. The 2022 was shaped by heat and drought, and that has led to intense, intensely perfumed NerinTerra. /NT

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