2018 Terroir al Límit Vi d’altura Les Tosses, Priorat

The two-hectare Les Tosses vineyard sits on a stony ridge of deep, black slate soils to the northeast of the village of Torroja, at an incredible altitude of 650 metres. It is one of the very few ancient vineyards (the vines are more than 80-years-old) at this height. The bush vines here are mainly Cariñena with a tiny percentage of Garnatxa. They face east, like watchmen guarding the valley, and are planted at a density of 6,605 plants per hectare. These vines, along with those of Les Manyes, receive the most intricate attention from the TaL team, with each vine attended to as a most prized possession. 

Dominik Huber only uses the best portion of this ‘Grand Cru’ site for this bottling (the rest goes into the village wine). The fermentation was with 100% whole bunches and indigenous yeasts. Pressing occurred half-way through the fermentation and then half of the wine went into a 1200-litre Stockinger cask for 20 months, the remainder to concrete. Yes, it is not cheap, but it is one of Spain’s finest reds, and is made in tiny quantities.

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This is floral, aromatic and elegant, going back to the character of the 2016, when the wine almost felt like a Garnacha, fresh and elegant but also quite serious. It's nicely textured with the grainy mouthfeel from the slate soils, very tasty, clean and precise, and it finishes very long and dry. It might be a bit dizzy from the very recent bottling and should improve tremendously in bottle, as it has the balance and all the ingredients to do so. This should be long lived. It's quite compact, and this is a wine that always benefits from more time in the bottle, slowly revealing its Mediterranean character.