Clos i Terrasses, Clos Erasmus, Priorat, Spain, 2019

Overview of the Wine
Emptying your bank account to purchase a vineyard without the benefit of any formal oenologic study and at the urging of a group of like-minded friends would by any reasonable assessment count as folly. So should you find yourself in this lamentable position it would only make sense to name your nascent wine after the humanist who so mockingly and humorously wrote the book on praising folly, Erasmus of Rotterdam. Follies and fools seemingly lack judgment but how often are the words of truth manifest in the guise of motley? As literary trope and as Jungian archetype the fool exerts enormous power and those ensnared by folly either fall to ruin or rise to fame. Only hindsight winnows genius from misfortune.

In 1988 Daphne Glorian, at the time employed by an English Master of Wine in his Paris office, was in the throws of epic folly and spent her life’s savings on 17 terraces of hillside vines just outside the village of Gratallops. Newly minted friends René Barbier and Alvaro Palacios encouraged her and together with Carles Pastrana and Jose Luis Perez, they pooled their talents and resources to make a new style of wine in a region rich in history and raw materials but without much of a proven track record for fine wines. In 1989 the modern Priorat was born: one wine but five different labels, each which would one day become known around the world: Clos Mogador, Clos Dofi, Clos Martinet, Clos de l’Obac and Clos Erasmus.

It may have begun in folly but through extraordinary effort and a relentlessness that borders on madness, Clos i Terrasses, much like the Priroat, continues to evolve and innovate. It is hard to imagine a world, only a quarter century ago, where wines like the five Clos did not exist but even more remarkable, is imagining what they will become in another quarter century under such talented stewardship.

Grape/ Blend
Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah

Origin
Priorat, Spain 

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
It provides a darker fruit character to the final blend and much of the backbone of fine tannins. Aubagues, which was largely regraded and replanted on costers in 2013, has a few remaining terraces of 35-year-old Garnatxa reserved for Clos Erasmus. As one of Daphne’s warmest sites, it provides much of the richness and texture that has become a hallmark of Clos Erasmus.

Product size: 750ml

Past Robert Parker Scores: 

2018 - 99 points

2017 - 98 points 

2016 - 98+ points 

2015 - 99  points