Porrera’s great Carignan grapes are famous in the auspicious circles of world wine connoisseurs.

Celler Vall Llach is privileged to possess vineyards which grow extraordinary Carignan grapes and which have allowed the winery to release this new Vi de Vila de Porrera (new category of wine within the DOCa. Priorat which is based on the concept of village-level wines), as the winery’s true jewel.

Ancient Carignan vines, carefully selected from vineyards which are over a hundred years old and then blended with an average of 15% Grenache grapes.

These vines are from a different era and truly define the personality of our Porrera de Vall LLach.

The 2012 vintage was good in the cooler zones as the lack of rain and successive heat waves led to some grapes turning to raisin in the sunnier vineyards. Rainfall was well below the average levels of the previous years. This vintage can be characterised by a lack of rain, but most particularly by the successive heat waves which occurred from the month of May until the end of August. These heat waves caused the vines water stress as there was practically no rainfall from the middle of spring until the end of the summer. The effects of this were not apparent in the hotter zones and the vineyards with more sun exposure until the end of a spell of extreme temperatures in August.

This was due to the fact that relative humidity was higher than normal and the windy periods tended to be less intense. It rained in March and April and after that, rainfall tended to be insignificant until the beginning of July when it did not rain at all until the end of September. In terms of average temperatures during 2012, they tended to be normal. Regarding the different grape varieties, it is worth pointing out that Garnatxa (Grenache) and Carinyena (Carignan) better withstood water stress, whilst recently introduced varieties tended to turn more readily to raisin. This ability to better withstand drought was more visible in the older vineyards. Over the spring and summer months, the scarce rainfall meant that grapes were very healthy and there were no problems with botrytis.

The grapes ripened healthily in the lead up to harvest. Up until the end of August, we did not observe any water stress and berry development and ripening continued without problems. This was a dry vintage from the flowering phase right up until the ripening phase and was characterised by a significant gap between levels of alcohol and phenolic

Review:

Ripe, lush and a touch raisiny on the nose, this smells like boysenberry pie and crème de cassis liqueur. Chewy, tannic and a bit heavy in this youthful state, this offering from vineyards in the town of Porrera (Vall Llach's home) delivers blackberry, cassis and prune flavors along with a toasty, chocolaty, oak-heavy finish. Best from 2016 through 2021. - Wine Enthusiast 93 Points