Celler Del Pont Lo Givot

Spain, Priorat - 2006

Price £38.89

Medium purple in colour, the wine has a expressive nose of forest floor, truffles, spice box, black pepper, lilac and wild blueberries. On the palate the wine is full bodied, rich and dense with layers of fruit and terrific integration of oak, tannin, and acidity. Intense, concentrated, and very long yet still an infant in terms of its development, just coming round and drinking superbly well and will continue to do so for another15 years.

Priorat forms the epicentre of rich and powerful wines made throughout Spain, it has often been described as the best hidden diamond of any wine region. What distinguishes Priorat from other regions in the World is the soil type, thick slate, shale or quartz rock and tiny bands of reddish-brown earth. The region is mountainous with steep slopes, arid with very little rainfall and irrigation is very rarely used as water is so scarce, vines planted between 300 and 700 metres above sea level, rocky soil and little water, the annual production in Priorat is extremely low, perhaps the lowest of any wine growing region of the world. Wine production in this area dates back to at least the 12th century and old vines of the region normally produce less than half a bottle of very concentrated wine. Given the extremely harsh growing conditions coupled with ultra low yields helps explain the higher cost of Priorat wines.

Spain’s most expensive wines come from Priorat, in fact many of the finest winemakers of the world are found in the tiny region of Priorat and one group of talented individuals is known as the Magnificent Seven, this is one of those winemakers estates. Of recent vintages, 2004 is regarded as the finest of the past couple of decades throughout the whole of Spain.