Gran Clos — Priorat

The Priorat Region

About the Winemaker

Robert Parker

International Wine Competitions

Press

The Priorat Region

About the Winemaker

Robert Parker

International Wine Competitions

Press

TAILORED FOR YOU

Priorat History

The Phoenicians - or their successors the Romans - introduced the vine to this area, and by the time Imperial Rome had reached its zenith, wines from Priorat were being praised by Roman poets and historians, including Martial, Pliny and Virgil. When the Romans withdrew in the 4th century viniculture was first disrupted by the Visigoths then banned by the Moors. It was not until the Christian reconquest in the 12th century that the population of the region began to recover and grapes were cultivated once again.

LAND OF WINE AND STONE

The Priorat Region

Set a dozen or so miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea in the Spanish province of Catalunya (Catalonia), Priorat is a small, elevated wine region partially encircled by a wall of mountains. The landscape is rugged, and is characterised by dramatic rock faces, pine forests and stone-built villages many of which are graced by imposing architecture or distinguished by peculiar folk art and customs.

About a thousand years ago, a group of monks were travelling over the world, looking for a place to set a monastery. Suddenly, they've discovered a region where a miracle happened - they saw a group of angels coming from the sky, so they've decided to settle down right there, in a holy place which lately will be called Llicorella.

Unfortunetaly, things turned out that it is next to impossible to maky any wine from that soil because of its rocky nature.

They kept trying different ways of making wine but eventually they didn't succeed. But then, everything changed. Somehow, in a way unbeknownst to them, they've discovered a wine like no others. Through the hard soil and in extreme conditions stuggled one of the best wines nowadays.

About our vineyards

WINEMAKER

About the Winemaker

Josep Angel Mestre was raised in the town of Falset, known as the "capital" of the D.O.Q. Priorat. The Mestre family has been producing wine in the Priorat region for over 50 years and it was his intense love for his surrounding countryside and an interest in the practice of wine-making that prompted Josep Angel to begin studying both viticulture and enology at a very early age.

Educated in Agricultural and Technical Engineering and Enology, Josep Angel has a deep understanding of the two most important factors of winemaking: the viticulture and the chemistry. While his degree hails from the prestigious University Roveria and Virgili, the foremost school of Enology in Catalunya, Josep Angel has also studied winemaking in France and attended numerous international technical conferences on the newest techniques in the profession.