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About The Producer Venus “la Universal” is the project of married couple, Sara Pérez and René Barbier Jr., both offspring of influential wine producers of the Priorat D.O., Mas Martinet and Clos Mogador. Working in the Montsant D.O., they have been inspired by the goddess, with a goal to “interpret femininity through a bottle of wine”. Using organic farming and natural vinicultural practices, Sara and René aim to transport you to this corner of Montsant through each glass of wine.
Venus released its first wine thanks to a vine grower who brought old vine grapes to us. From then, we allways bet to establish very close relationships with our collaborators, rewarding their work in a just and worthy way. It allows them to follow the same philosophy and working method without penalize them. We started with just a few vine growers but the family is growing year after year. We are very happy and proud of their work, thanks to them Venus is as it is.
About the Wine Dido La Universal is a young eco red wine from Montsant produced by the Venus La Universal winery. It is a blend in which the predominance of Grenache, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah are evident.
The grapes for this wine comes from a farm of 10 hectares on weathered granite. The characteristics of granite make it easy to change temperature, warm during the day and cool at night. This peculiarity means that a long and good maturation occurs.
Fermentations occur with unselected yeasts in order to try to maintain the aromatic and structural diversity.
On the other hand, the maceration is rather short. The aging, which lasts nine months, is partly in clay jars and partly in concrete tanks.
Winemaker's Tasting Notes It is our tribute to the youth, tenacity, love and Garnatxa.
The wine, from the plots of Falset, exhibits a delicious fruit and grows in concrete tanks to hold an extraordinary freshness and purity.
93+ Points - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate The red 2018 Dido comes from their youngest vineyards, mostly under 30 years old, on granite soils that provide freshness and tension to compensate for the warmth of the southern Montsant. It's a blend of Garnacha, Syrah, Cariñena, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from five differnt growers. They say this is what they wanted to achieve with this wine; it is floral, expressive, clean and focused, with perfectly integrated oak, all the varieties complementing each other—not showing any varietal character—and a juicy palate with astonishing balance. This is truly outstanding. This comes at an unbelievable price and should be widely available.