I just got off medication that required 10 days of abstinence from wine – wow was that hard! I don’t practice lent but if I did, I now know I wouldn’t give up wine. To add salt to the wound, my birthday occurred during those 10 days!
This weekend celebrated the end of my meds! I’m sure almost any wine would’ve tasted good but the wine I drank seemed utterly exquisite. I have a hunch that even if it wasn’t my first time to sip vino after “doctor’s orders” that this wine still would’ve settled me into a dreamy state of mind.
So stop babbling and give you the dirt, right? The wine was “Black Slate” Porrera Vi de la Vila, Priorat D.O.Q., 2008. This wine hails from the famous Priorat region in Spain known for it’s unique llicorella soil, a dark brown slate with quarzite adding a “mineral-laden essence”* to the wine. The wine is a blend of 60% garnacha (grenache) and 40% carinena with dark fruit, spice, mineral and chocolate flavors. It has a bit of smokiness due to aging 12 months in French oak and finishes smooth like a sultry women in a long, glitzing evening gown. I especially noticed the wine taking on black cherry flavors as I finished it with a slice of dark chocolate birthday cake that had somehow managed to still be available for consumption.
I purchased this wine on a whim, at first, getting sucked in by the “cool” label. I hate to admit it but I’m a sucker for good marketing and artsy labels. Secondly, I was drawn to it because it came from Priorat which is well known for outstanding wine. I’m happy to say not only did this wine not disappoint but at the reasonable price of about $17 a bottle, it will probably be purchased by the case the next time I’m in the store who so wisely chose to stock this remarkable wine.
*Source: The World Atlas of Wine, sixth edition, Octopus Publishing group, Ltd., London UK 2007
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