Mas D'en Gil Bellmunt 2018

Wine Spectator, 90 pts

A bright, medium-bodied red, with dried cherry and strawberry fruit enlivened by tangy orange peel acidity. Open-knit and accessible, with light, chalky tannins and aromatic accents of sweet smoke, red licorice, dried sage, toast and espresso crema. Chewy finish. Grenache and Carignan.

Steeply sloping hillsides made of Llicorella (slate) soils, crowned by tiny villages, drenched in Mediterranean sunshine… The Priorat is a tiny rural world in the south of Catalonia, 130 km from Barcelona, where sea breezes and inland winds fill the steep vineyards with the essence of aromatic herbs. The Rovira Carbonell family care for and farm one of the most emblematic and ancient estates of the Priorat Qualified Designation of Origin (DOQ) Priorat: Mas d’en Gil, located in Bellmunt del Priorat, one of the nine “Historical Priorat” villages. Located at 350 metres above sea level, Mas d’en Gil covers an extension of 125 hectares (309 acres) of vineyards, olive groves, almond groves, hazel groves, cereal crops and Mediterranean woodland. Spread over five valleys with differentiating microclimates and terroirs, the estate is a scale model of the abrupt Priorat landscape, one of the greatest wine growing regions in the world. Mas d’en Gil is a combination of nature and human activity going back centuries. Over the last 150 years, this has culminated in the passion shared by three families who have consecutively owned the estate. Today, this dream of bottling the earth has become reality in the shape of wines, olive oil and bittersweet vinegar made at Mas d’en Gil. These products express the respect, hard work and surroundings of place in the heart of the Priorat.