Alvaro Palacios Alvaro Palacios Gratallops 2022 750ml

The 2022 Gratallops is a village wine, "vi de vila" in the Catalan language, which is the official category from the Priorat appellation. The wine shows the ancestral mix of local varieties, which this year is 80% Garnacha, 19% Cariñena and 1% white grapes, Garnacha Blanca, Macabeo and Pedro Ximénez from different vineyards in the village. Like the rest of the wines, it fermented with part of full clusters and indigenous yeasts in oak vats, with punching down and, in this case, a maceration of 31 days. The wine will mature in oval foudres and large oak barrels for 14 months. It's pale, bright, very clean, expressive and elegant, with a great sense of harmony, contained ripeness and a medium-bodied palate with very fine tannins and a surprising sense of harmony, perhaps not super complex or deep but with a silky texture that makes it very attractive. It has 14% alcohol and a pH of 3.52 with 4.61 grams of acidity. They expect to produce around 21,000 bottles in March 2024. 93-95 points. (Luis Gutiérrez)

Moving on to his wines from the region of Priorat, the 2022 Gratallops has a fragrant bouquet with brambly red fruit, pressed iris and background scents of powdered stone. The palate is well-balanced with a pleasing granular texture. With gentle grip and a finely pitched acidity, this could almost be described as a “laid back” Priorat, which is not written pejoratively. Unassuming might be a more accurate word. It fans out discretely in the finish, but at the end of the day, it just says, “Drink me”! (Neal Martin)