Clos Mogador, Proprietary Red, Priorat, Spain, 2021

Overview of the Wine
The estate of Clos Mogador is a must for any serious Spanish wine aficionado. Located in Gratallops, in the heart of the Priorat hills, René Barbier, one of the founders of the Priorat revolution, creates his intensely concentrated wine from a blend of 40% Garnacha (from 80 year old vines), 35% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah and 5% Pinot Noir, Mourvedre and Merlot. This distinctive blend balances the power and massive structure typical of Priorat with an elegance and finesse that belies its aging potential. While the Clos Mogador will continue to improve for 10 years or more, it is delicious now. Vintage after vintage, this wine has consistently received high scores from the wine trade.

Organic.

Grape/ Blend
40% Garnacha, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Syrah and 20% Carignan

Origin
Priorat, Spain 

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
Ageing takes place in 500 liter new French oak casks for one year with racking by gravity every three months. The Syrah is aged in vat to maintain the lively fresh fruit flavors. After blending of the different grape varieties the wine spends the second winter in vat. No stainless steel is used here, only fibreglass and wooden vats. The doors of the cellar are kept open in winter to encourage the precipitation of tartrates. Unfined and unfiltered, the wine is bottled in the spring or autumn of the second year after the harvest.

98 Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The eponymous red 2021 Clos Mogador fermented with some 30% full clusters trying to give it more freshness (but without noticing the stems) with a long maceration (40 to 50 days) and (almost) no punching down, with less extraction. There's been a progressive change in the vineyard (they removed the south-facing Cabernet Sauvignon), and they increased Cariñena (around 30%), which in the future will be almost as much as Garnacha. It has aromatic complexity and a beautiful texture. It matured in 2,000-liter oak foudres and a small part in barrel and later in concrete. The wine has 14% alcohol and has the Priorat, Mogador and Mediterranean character (wet slate, graphite, aromatic herbs) with more elegance and freshness. The tannins are also a lot more elegant, and the wine comes through as very balanced.

97 Points - James Suckling 
A beautiful, fresh red with lots of vibrancy. Mineral, flint, freshly crushed blueberries and red berries. Juicy, polished tannins with a little more crunch to the fruit this year. Has a nice firmness compared with the sweeter tannins in 2020. Really fluid, bright and vivid. Long.

Product size: 750ml