2015 Terroir al Límit Vi d’altura Les Tosses, Priorat, Spain

Green capsule (Vi d’altura or equivalent of Grand Cru). 

Very limited. There are two Vi d’alturas, or pinnacle wines, that are produced here: Les Tosses and Les Manyes. These are Terroir al Límit’s finest Priorats, as tasted through the prism of Cariñena (for Les Tosses) and Garnatxa (for Les Manyes). In our opinion, they are simply two of the greatest wines emanating from Spain. Both are naturally fermented and aged in large French oak vats for two years. The 2-hectare Les Tosses vineyard sits on a stony ridge to the northeast of the village of Torroja, at the incredible altitude of 650 metres. It is one of the very few ancient vineyards at this height and has deep, black slate soils. The bush-grown vines face east, like watchmen guarding the valley, and are more than 90-years-old (almost all Cariñena with a small percentage of co-planted Garnatxa). The density of planting is 6,605 plants per hectare. Dominik Huber only uses the best portion of this ‘Grand Cru’ site for this bottling, the rest going to the village wine. The fermentation was 100% whole bunches with indigenous yeasts, and pressing occurred half-way through the fermentation and then the wine went to a 1,200 litre Stockinger cask for 20 months ageing. Luis Gutiérrez sums the wine up beautifully below.

‘I often find more similarities between Les Tosses and Dits del Terra than with the Arbossar. However, this time I found common characteristics between the 2015 Les Tosses and the Arbossar from the same year. Both show graphite and licorice, which speaks to the freshness achieved by this southeast-facing slope planted with centenary vines. It's musky, spiced and floral, with notes of blue fruit and violets, a touch of balsam, ash and incense along with really refined tannins with intense, penetrating and long-lasting flavors. It's clean, pure and delicate but also powerful and concentrated. 1,600 bottles were filled in May 2017.'