Since first trying Dominik’s wines a few years back I’ve been searching for other Priorat wines with this much personality and beauty. It’s been a struggle. I’ll be stashing some of these for my 2nd daughter’s birth year … well that’s the excuse I’ll be using!
A trip to Priorat in 2000 started a, thus far, 17-year adventure for German Chef turned wine farmer, Dominik Huber. As Dominik speaks of his time in Priorat, the lands, it’s people, and his wines you get a distinct impression that he has found a balance in life that many would envy.
Today we offer his 2016’s. All wines are in the warehouse ready for immediate shipping. Reviews below.
Vi d’Altura – The Grand Cru’s
Les Manyes 100% Granatxa = Grenache. Whatever you call it is truly delicious wine filled with personality and intrigue! It has the poise of great Burgundy with incredible layering of complex flavours.
Les Tosses 100% Cariñena or Carignan makes stunning wine, one thing is certain, Huber’s top version is spectacular!
The Premier Cru’s
Abrossar 100% Cariñena. Huber’s cooler fresher version of his 1er Cru equivalent has a ridiculous perfume & teases your senses!
Dits del Terra 100% Cariñena. Huber’s warmer, bolder version of his 1er Cru equivalent Cariñena or Carignan perfumed, spicey & savoury!
Vi de la Villa – The Village Wines
Torroja 50:50 Cariñena & Garnatxa balances perfume with earthiness & a wicked mouthfeel.
Half his time spent in his isolated mountainous vineyards of Priorat, half his time, moving around the world sharing his passion for the wines of Priorat. The former offering calm, the later, the contact with vibrant people and places of the world, satisfying the joy of experience, in addition to helping disrupt his thinking, helping him push his grape growing and winemaking further.
Last year Dominik held a Masterclass in Melbourne for a lucky few. Wine Decoded was there to capture his thoughts on Priorat, his vineyards, wines and much more. Now we share it with you in the film below. Read on for more of our thoughts.
🎧Prefer to listen?
His approach to natural wine is proactive, applying great technical rigour to ensure he guides his fruit to deliver its full potential. Disdain, is perhaps, a nice way to describe his feelings for “lazy” natural winemakers who don’t put in the work and make bad wine.
No, Brett is not accepted in his wines, and, hygiene is important. Yes, analysis is used to determine the status of wines and make informed decisions. Oxidative maturation is OK in its place, with Huber’s preference to apply it to his whites and not his reds. Oxidised wine is not OK. The whites are still fresh, fragrant, and loaded with intrigue. If you tasted them out of a black glass in a dark room, the textures are closer to a light red, than a “modern” white. Don’t get confused or put off by this, the whites are superb wines, vibrant with great flavours.
Simple: a healthy environment, results in healthy vital and vibrant grapes that are just desperate to be turned into delicious wine.
Like all of the great wine producers, there is a strong focus on the vineyard. This is matched by the desire to make wine that is the perfect accompaniment to the regional Catalan cuisine, heavy on seafood, often simple, always tasty, typically not made from the prime ingredients, as the Italian’s say, Cucina Povera or poor people’s food.
Priorat lies 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. Since then, plantings have increased dramatically with noble French varieties, Cabernet, Merlot and Shiraz dominating.
Like many of the wine regions in the New World, it’s in a state of rapid evolution, trials of sites, varieties, historic and new winemaking techniques are taking place. Many wines are excessively alcoholic, over-oaked and oxidised. Those that or good, like Dominik’s, are the jewels of Priorat. The region is going through wine puberty again.
Huber has stuck to the local varieties, Granatxa and Cariñena for the reds. Garnatxa Blanca, Macabeo, Pedro Ximénez and Muscat of Alexandria for the whites. They are a revelation! In addition to his own wines, he has a side project working with like-minded growers to produce wines under a co-operative model. They are the perfect introduction to Priorat.
Some, ask if there is a typical style of wine produced in Priorat. I always find this an interesting question. A senior member of the wine industry asked me if there was a typical style of Pinot produced in the Yarra Valley. At the most basic level, my response “The Yarra Valley is over 50km square, there are so many different sites planted to Pinot Noir some warmer, other colder, elevation, aspect, soil types, all of these things vary dramatically throughout the region and different fruit results.” All this was without the influence of vine age, viticultural and winemaking practices. Even in a strip as thin, and, as well defined, as the Côte d’Or in Burgundy 50km x 1km there is an incredible array of different styles of Pinot and Chardonnay being produced. Priorat at about 25km x 25km, has considerable diversity to its fruit sources.
Moving past “typical” I’d love to see us looking at wine at face value and asking simply is it good, not, does it taste like Grenache or Pinot.
Dominik has chosen a path of restraint, elegance and uses only the traditional local varieties. Which he asserts are better suited to the region with their ability to retain acid and tannin profiles. I certainly think they have the advantage of vine age & balance on their side too. It will be interesting to see if variety experiments extend beyond the few French varieties and how they perform over time.
One thing is clear, the wines of Terroir al Límit are very good, perhaps at the top level with Les Manyes and Les Torres, great!
About the Wines
The Reds
2016 Terroir al Límit Vi de la Vila de Torroja
White capsule (Vi de la Vila, or village wine). Huber’s village wine is an equal split of Cariñena (Carignan) and Garnatxa (Garnacha/Grenache) from vineyard parcels dotted around the high-country hamlet of Torroja, where Terroir al Límit is based. At 366 metres above sea level, these are some of the highest, old-vine red sites in Priorat. The youngest vines that provide fruit for this blend are more than 50-years-old—and most of the vines sit on llicorella slate soils apart from a portion of the Garnatxa, planted on much scarcer limestone clay. This cuvée is also the beneficiary of any declassified material from TaL’s top vineyards. Made with 100% whole bunches in 2016, the Torroja was raised in 3,500-litre Stockinger foudres for 18 months. It’s a brilliantly perfumed and floral wine offering ripe red fruits, milk chocolate and spice from the subtle oak. The palate is really fine and medium-bodied—Burgundy weighted even—with notes of fresh plum, cranberry, and again, that subtle and delicious cocoa note. The finish is fresh and dry with very fine tannins. It’s a wine that will clearly benefit from air and a couple of years in bottle but it’s also absolutely delicious now.
The 2016 Torroja Vi de Vila is the village wine that is bottled earlier than the others. The oak is neatly folded into the wine, which is quite fruit-driven and fresh but with clout—especially now that they have the Historic as an entry-level wine, this can show a little more complexity. The blend of Cariñena and Garnacha in equal parts works very well. The fruit is red rather than black, and the texture is silky, with very fine tannins and great acidity. It's very lively, aromatic and open, fluid, elegant and fresh.
Stunning licorice, cocoa, bitter chocolate and earth. Powerful and deep with joyful vivacity. Remarkably elegant tannins for a village wine. The finish is long and polished with intense mineral freshness. Drink or hold.
2016 Terroir al Límit Vi de Coster Arbossar
Red capsule (equivalent of 1er Cru wine). L’Arbossar is a steep, north-facing vineyard of 90-year-old Cariñena (Carignan) on schist and granite soils near the village of Torroja where the TaL cellars are situated. Against conventional wisdom, Arbossar was planted on the cooler, north-facing slopes of Torroja and it was this unusual site that informed much of Huber’s early experience with the terroir of Priorat. As Luis Gutiérrez confirms it’s always a “fresher and more floral style” than the corresponding Dits del Terra that derives from the south-facing slopes. Both wines are made in the same fashion; 100% whole bunch vinification with wild yeasts and aged for 16-18 months in large format, neutral oak.
"The Cariñena 2016 Arbossar shows very different from the Dits del Terra. This comes from their oldest vineyard, which delivers very low yields, in some parts no more than 300 or 400 grams per plant. 2016 was a warm year, but not as warm as 2017. The idea is to use less and less oak and, in some wines, use only concrete. In fact, Arbossar is one of the wines that will be aged exclusively in concrete. In 2017, they removed the last 500-liter oak barrels and only used oak foudres and concrete. The élevage has also been shortened, and the wine is put in bottle earlier, as sometimes a too-long aging tires and oxidizes the wines. This is a very elegant Cariñena, with floral notes, clean berries, fine minerality, some spices and a very tasty finish. Simply superb. 4,664 bottles were filled in July 2018."
Wow. This is so beautiful with crushed cherry and strawberry character and hints of flowers and slate. Full to medium body, tight and dense with compact and silky tannins. Floral and beautiful at the end. Ancient-vine wine. All cariñena. Drink or hold.
2016 Terroir al Límit Vi de Coster Dits del Terra
Very limited. Red capsule (equivalent of 1er Cru wine). The Dits del Terra can be thought of as Arbossar’s south-facing sibling. It is also 100% Cariñena, from three schist-rich sites where the vines are more than 80-years-old. It was aged in a six-year-old, 3,500-litre Stockinger cask. The south-facing terroir brings more flesh and power so Huber infuses the juice very gently, simply using a jug to pour juice over the top of the whole bunches. “Jugotage” as Dave Mackintosh calls it! This is a much more layered, hedonistic and seductive expression of Priorat (than theArbossar) although it’s still bright and fine with great finesse – as is the Terroir al Límit style. Expect waves of plummy, spicy, floral fruit, flecked through with milk chocolate and cedar notes. The texture is pulpy yet, as always, the finish is cool and fresh. An incredibly classy and moreish wine.
Wow. This is so beautiful with crushed cherry and strawberry character and hints of flowers and slate. Full to medium body, tight and dense with compact and silky tannins. Floral and beautiful at the end. Ancient-vine wine. All cariñena. Drink or hold.
2016 Terroir al Límit Vi d’altura Les Tosses
Green capsule (Vi d’altura or equivalent of Grand Cru). There are two Vi d’alturas, or pinnacle wines, that are produced here: Les Tosses and Les Manyes. These are Terroir al Límit’s finest Priorats, as tasted through the prism of Cariñena (for Les Tosses) and Garnatxa (forLes Manyes). In our opinion, they are simply two of the greatest wines emanating from Spain. Both are naturally fermented and aged in large French oak vats for two years. The 2-hectare Les Tosses vineyard sits on a stony ridge to the northeast of the village of Torroja, at the incredible altitude of 650 metres. It is one of the very few ancient vineyards at this height and has deep, black slate soils. The bush-grown vines face east, like watchmen guarding the valley, and are more than 90-years-old (almost all Cariñena with a small percentage of co-planted Garnatxa). The density of planting is 6,605 plants per hectare. Dominik Huber only uses the best portion of this ‘Grand Cru’ site for this bottling, the rest going to the village wine. The fermentation was 100% whole bunches with indigenous yeasts, and pressing occurred half-way through the fermentation and then the wine went to a 1,200 litre Stockinger cask for 20 months ageing. Luis Gutiérrez sums the wine up beautifully below.
"The 2016 Les Manyes is a hard act to follow, but I could have said the pure Cariñena 2016 Les Tosses was a Garnacha, such is the elegance and the floral, nuanced nose! This might be the most elegant Cariñena out there. It comes from a very old, steep vineyard in the village of Torroja on very dark slate soils. It matured in an oak foudre, quite old, and there is a nice note of graphite and wet slate, red and black cherries and a spice touch. It has great freshness, good acidity and is fluid and relaxed, powerful yet elegant and harmonious. 2,668 bottles were filled in July 2018."
The purity to this 100% cariñena is very, very impressive with rose petal, tar, asphalt and dark-fruit character. Full body. Tight and compact with beautiful depth and endless length. So much graphite and intensity. Chewy at the end. Drink after 2021.
2016 Terroir al Límit Vi d’altura Les Manyes
Green capsule (Vi d’altura or equivalent of Grand Cru). High in the Montsant ranges, the Les Manyes vineyard is located at the even more remarkable altitude of 800 metres (the highest in Priorat). This cool, north-facing vineyard is only 1.4 hectares and the vines here are now about 54-years-old. While Les Tosses is planted to Cariñena on pure llicorella slate, the Les Manyes site is predominantly clay with elements of quartz, chalk and limestone, and is planted almost exclusively with Garnatxa. It’s a site that produces a Priorat Grenache like no other. If we had to put forward a single wine that symbolises the unique wines of Dominik Huber, then this would be it. It is the antithesis of Priorat’s blockbuster image with the intensity, finesse and transparency of a great Grand Cru Burgundy. Huber ferments this cuvée with 100% whole bunches and indigenous yeasts, and again, presses off half-way through the fermentation before finishing the wine in single Stockinger foudre. As usual, there is an even greater finesse in the mouth than the Les Tosses. Yes, it is expensive, but it is, without doubt, a great, great (and rare!) wine. Again, there is no point us trying to outdo Luis Gutiérrez below!
“The 2016 Les Manyes is aromatic with tantalizing aromas of wild berries and herbs, flowers, a touch of forest floor and something salty. This has a lighter color and comes from a healthier vineyard that gives slightly higher yields (it was not in good shape); the vineyard is in a high-altitude place where they escape the heat of the Priorat. Of course the soils are completely different—they are limestone instead of slate and have more in common with Montsant than the majority of Priorat. The nose could be a mixture of a great vintage of Château Rayas and a traditional Nebbiolo from Piemonte. It's beautifully textured, with refined, chalky tannins and a medium to full-bodied palate, with no room for sweetness but with the volume of ripe Garnacha, pungent flavors and a very long finish. I just couldn't get myself to spit the wine! This is as far removed from a sweet wine as possible: This is a salty wine, a wine for food, a wine for gastronomy. The nose kept changing in the glass, developing new nuances with time—aromatic, intoxicating and attractive, with a kind of magnetism that made me go back to the glass over and over again. I could smell this for hours... I don't think Priorat gets much better than this! Bravo! 2,868 bottles were filled in July 2018.”
Incredible perfumes of dried strawberries and flowers. Mesmerizing. Full body. Very linear and racy with ultra fine tannins. Creamy with lovely polish. Extremely long and intense. Goes on for minutes. No wood. Aged in large cement tanks. Pure garnacha. Drink or hold.
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