Les Terrasses 2021 is crafted from more than 60 small, steep terraces in the dramatic landscape of Priorat. The vines, some of them over 90 years old, grow in the region’s characteristic llicorella slate soils around villages such as Gratallops, Porrera, and Scala Dei. These conditions give the wine its distinctive minerality and depth.
The wine is aged for 12 months in French oak barrels, of which 20% are new and 80% are used.
The wine offers a fresh and fruity nose with notes of dark strawberries, cherries, slate, white pepper, and spiced blueberries. On the palate, it is juicy, ripe, and vibrant with fine, soft tannins.
93 POINTS
James Suckling
Enticingly fresh and nicely fruity on the nose, with racy notes of dark strawberries, cherries, slate, white pepper, and spiced blueberries. Juicy, ripe, and vibrant, with fine, mealy tannins on the medium-bodied palate. Very harmonious and expressive. Delicious now, but it will also keep well.
93 POINTS
Wine Spectator
Defined by creamy tannins, this harmonious medium- to full-bodied red offers an expressive range of roasted plum, black raspberry, and fig cake notes. Lively on the palate, with aromatic accents of mountain herbs, licorice, white pepper, and vanilla lingering on the chewy finish. Garnacha and Samsó. Drink now through 2036. 9,000 cases made.
About Alvaro Palacios
For many, Alvaro Palacios’ story begins hundreds of years ago with monks. Monks who not only had the time to refine their products, but were also pleasantly free from economic concerns. At least according to Alvaro Palacios himself: “All the greatest wine regions in Europe were founded by monks. The whole foundation is religious. And making the world’s best wine – or Spain’s best wine – requires a religious attitude toward wine.”
Alvaro Palacios trained as an oenologist in Bordeaux and, among other roles, worked at the magnificent Château Petrus in Pomerol before returning to Spain in the early 1990s to take over and expand the family estates. As early as 1995, critics began showering Alvaro Palacios with praise, and the accolades have continued ever since – whether the wines in the spotlight were from Priorat, Rioja, or Bierzo. Everything Alvaro touches does not turn to gold, but into divinely inspired, delicious, and highly distinctive wines.
Alvaro Palacios grew up among nine siblings at his parents’ winery, Palacios Remondo, in Rioja. Surprisingly, Alvaro chose to travel rather than continue the family business, even though he had a deep interest in the many facets of the wine world. He went to Bordeaux to train as an oenologist and later worked at Château Petrus. He then returned to Spain and settled in Priorat in 1989, which at the time was known for its production of bulk wine. Alvaro gained a foothold there where many other winegrowers had been forced to give up, as the vineyards produced only modest yields.
Since 1995, Alvaro Palacios has received recognition and acclaim for his winemaking. It is especially the prestige wine L’Ermita that is beloved and has secured him a place among the finest wineries of Spain’s new generation.
