Santbru 2004

Last week at Alimentaria, I had the chance to try Santbru 2004, a new wine from one of Spain's leading architects, Alfredo Arribas. Together with partners Agustí Perís and Jean Luc Colomboi, Arribas has set up a wine company, Portal Companyia de Vins with two branches, Portal del Montsant and Portal de Priorat, to create exceptional wines from these two neighboring regions in southern Catalunya.

Lead enologist Ricard Rofes gave me an individual tasting of Santbru 2004, which in a few months will be the first wine released by the winery. The wine is from Montsant and is named for the founder of the Carthusian monestic order which came to the area 800 hundreds ago and spread and systematized grape cultivation there. The majority of the grapes used come from very mature Carinyera (Carignan) vines that range in age from 60 to 80 years old, plus a bit of Garnatxa and Syrah. In La Rioja, where Carinyera goes by the name of Mazuelo, its greater acidity and lower oxidation complements Garnacha in creating wines with strong aging potential.

Richard said that the 2004 growing season was excellent; the ideal conditions for the company's first wine. The warm, but not too hot, summer, allowed for long and steady maturation on the vine. The grapes were harvested it their peak, ensuring that the sugar / acid balance was correct and the tannins as well. The wine was aged in untoasted or lightly toasted French oak, which allows for the true flavors in the wine to be released without any masking of them.

I found the wine to be as dark as blackberries, with a very appetizing nose, with a real density in the mouth; a refined and serious wine, whose smoothness belies its 14.5% alcohol level. The old Carniyera vines don't produce a great deal of grapes, but do produce an abundance of flavor.

The production of Sant Bru 2004 is very limited at under 5,000 bottles.