From: Priorat, Spain
Varietals: 70% Garnacha, 30% Mazuelo (Carignan)
Tasting Notes: Brilliant ruby. Ripe dark berries, licorice, smoky minerals and a hint of succulent flowers on the perfumed nose. Juicy, round and open-knit; a peppery note adds lift and cut to warm blackberry, bitter cherry and licorice pastille flavors. The long, mineral-accented finish shows very good focus and closes on a youthfully tannic note, leaving cherry pit and floral notes behind.
91 Points -James Suckling
Pairing: Traditionally, my mind goes first to simple grilled or roasted meats, cured meats, or hearty lentils, but because this particular wine does show the floral and pastille notes, I think it’s also a natural choice for stronger cheeses or sheep's milk cheeses, like Manchego. Florence Fabricant’s recipe for Pork Stewed With Lentils and Celery is a wonderful pairing with its combination of richness, earthiness, and freshness from the celery.
About. La Cartuja was founded in 2007 by Borja Osborne (from the Osborne family), Alberto Orte and Patrick Mata with the purpose in mind of making an estate-bottled wine showing the mineral complexity of Priorat at an inconceivable price (one of Ole's fortes. The single estate of 24 ha (59 acres) by the name La Solana ("Les Solanes" in Catatalan) is located in the very heart of Priorat between the towns of El Molar and El Lloar, just south west of the town of Gratallops. La Solana vineyard sits at 250m elevation with south-east facing slopes.
La Cartuja was the name assigned during medieval times, to a large geographical area governed by the Cartussian monks. This geographical area had its own code of law (similar to the Vatican estates). During medieval times Priorat as a whole was a "Cartuja". It wasn't a civil domain but a religious state. Needless to say that Priorat's winemaking heritage belongs to the Cartussian monks who tended these difficult isolated vineyards for centuries. As a side note, if you are looking for the oldest vines in Spain and the best areas to make wine look for the areas where the monks established themselves during medieval times.
