Clos Martinet ‘Camí Pesseroles’ Garnatxa Carinyena 2019

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

This vineyard is 3 steeply-sloping costers of Caranyena (80%) and Garnatxa planted early 20th century and now over 80 years old. Pesseroles is 3km along the old bridle path from Gratallops towards Porerra, but is actually on Torroja’s municipal footprint. (The full name of the wine is Vinyes al Cami vell de Porerra a Gratallops). It’s just to the east over a ridge from Rene’s Partida Bellvisos and there’s a fair bit of clay in the fine powdery slate here. Maceration starts with the Garnatxa Negre, after a week Garnatxa Peluda is added, then Caranyena at the beginning of week three and they ferment together (for as long as 36 days). Oak is used for fermentation to control rusticity. The wine is deep and soft just like the slate in which it grows – mineral and rustic it’s a timeless view of Priorat.

Caranyena is proclaimed in tones of beefstock and briar among leathery blue fruits with road metal mineral and lots of garriga. Nicely marked by seeds and skins of the grape, it runs from power to minerality, or in Sara’s words, “from tragic to the dramatic, the heart going into the earth …”, it is broad, smooth and savoury featuring a literal street of tannin,

About Mas Martinet

Clos Martinet is the wine of the home estate of Mas Martinet, just above the river as one winds from Falset towards Gratallops.

Clos Martinet, originally owned and run by Josep Lluis Perez, was one of ‘los Closos’, the group which settled in Priorat and worked together from 1989 to re-envision and re-envigorate Priorat wine production.

Nowadays, Josep Lluis’s daughter, Sara Perez is responsible for the day-to-day running of Mas Martinet.

Of their three most important wines:

• ‘Mas Martinet’ is a homage to her father’s era
• ‘Camí Pesseroles’ sums the post-phylloxera Priorat
• ‘Els Escurçons’ re-births the deep history of Priorat’s old ways (pic to right)

… and look out, Sara is hell-bent on expressing her generation’s take on things too (not just more ‘natural’ making (wines made in glass and/or amphorae with extended skin contact play), but historical and regional specifics such as contracting her own bespoke barrels layering staves of cherry, acacia and chesnut wood … and so much more!

We are always looking for new points of view, with a culture based on balance, sustainability and harmony with nature.
We are committed to tradition, to the environment and to people. We recover some varieties and reinvent some processes and materials under the principles of agroecology and minimum intervention with the maximum respect for the people who work on it. We stand up for an ecofeminist and cross-cutting view of the world.

Sara Perez

In the Vineyard

As well as the original farm (the Màs itself in the valley of Riu Siurana halfway from Falset to Gratallops), there are 3 single vineyards (one of which was planted by Sara herself), and in total 22 hectares of organic viticulture. The vineyards are dominated by local varieties, Garnatxa, Garnatxa Peluda and Caranyena. There is also (a reducing) residual of French genetics planted, mainly Syrah, with Merlot and Cabernet, planted from 1990 by Josep Lluis.

In the Winery

All wines use wild yeast fermentations and the estate is moving away from ‘scientific’ winemaking to holistic, natural precepts. Grape varieties are fermented together after de-stemming, although often Sara adds back a portion of Garnatxa stems. Ageing is mainly in foudre, rather than barrique, with some clay used to counter oak. The story of Mas Martinet is that of Priorat’s, in a nutshell. The ‘estate’ wine, Clos Martinet, and the entry single vineyard are a blend of Garnatxa, Caranyena and French gear: pre-phylloxera Priorat, civil war era Priorat and post-1989 renaissance Priorat, respectively. Sara is incredibly focused on respecting each era, and overlaying her generation’s interests too. The quick tell is in the comparison between the ancient vineyard ‘Cami Pesseroles’ and that which Sara massale replanted in 1995, ‘els Escurçons’. Pesseroles perfectly sums the 20th century: planted after phylloxera and the civil war, it is a Caranyena vineyard of great aged character, showing this workhorse variety at its most noble. Escurçons re-births the ancient genetics of pre-phylloxera, deeply historic Priorat planted ‘en costers’ in the highest parts.

Where in the World is Mas Martinet?

Mas Martinet is in Priorat just south of Barcelona in Catalunya off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s long history with wine started almost 1,000 years ago. In modern times it was consigned to producing bulk wines through co-operatives. It’s renaissance, started in the mid-1980’s, with several producers pushing to make quality wines.