Quinon de Valmira 2019 Alvaro Palacios

Classification
Type	Rouge
Marque	Alvaro Palacios
Millésime	2019
Pays	Espagne
Région	Priorat
Raisin	Garnacha
Volume
État	Parfait
Étiquette	Parfait
Consommable	-2030
Stock	8

Avis professionnels

Robert Parker (98)

The single-vineyard 2019 Quiñón de Valmira is made with Garnacha (and 10% other traditional varieties) grown at 616 meters in altitude, fermented with some full clusters with indigenous yeasts in oak vats and matured in oak foudres and bocoyes for 16 months. This is 'only' 13.5% alcohol (lowish for Garnacha), so I asked Palacios how this wine can be so low in alcohol in such a warm and dry year. He explained to me that the red soils are only 20 centimeters deep, and below that, it's all white. Those calcium carbonate soils are cold soils, and the wines are also pale and low in alcohol but with fully developed flavors and aromas. The wines come through as lively, vibrant and deep, with pungent flavors, incredible finesse, with the red fruit from Garnacha intermixed with limestone that gives it the incredible elegance and tastiness, with an almost salty finish. This has more fruit than flowers, different from the 2018 but at the same quality level. It was bottled in April 2021, and 3,914 bottles, 110 magnums and 22 double magnums were produced.

Jancis Robinson (19)

Jancis Robinson: 90% Garnacha, 10% others. A single plot at 616 m above sea level named Quiñón de Valmira and located in Monte Yerga. Organic viticulture. Alcoholic fermentation in oak vats. Aged in barrels and foudres for 16 months. Neither fined nor filtered.
Tasted blind. An aerial texture. A super-burgundian style and with great purity. Álvaro, are you sure that the forest hasn't fallen inside your barrels? This wine could not smell more delicately of a forest mount, rich in scrubland and with touches of graphite. Herbal, Mediterranean, thyme, rosemary and moss. Very fine. How can it be that a wine with such delicate texture fills my palate with so much flavour! An exciting wine, for sure.

BOW (9)