My friend and North Carolina-based importer Andre Tamers of De Maison Selections summed up this gorgeous Priorat so well with the following words:
"The resulting wine is incredibly aromatic and deeply-satisfying, a symphony of flavor born of Priorat’s diverse orientations and microclimates. The glass is filled with freshness, nature, and all the mineral and botanical allure of the Priorat hillsides. Rocafosca is truly a masterclass in the transmission of terroir into the glass."
I'm a decent writer, but my oh my, this reads like the words of a Poet Laureate, and I agree with everything he says about the 2021 Rocafosca Priorat. Andre and De Maison have been wonderful partners to Table Wine since inception, and we've sold a ton of great Andre-imported Spanish wines over the years -- wines from Remelluri, Ameztoi, Ostatu, and Vina Sastre, just to name a few.
The 2021 Rocafosca Priorat raises the bar, and it's my favorite De Maison wine of all time. It's also the prettiest, most cohesive, and most aromatically pleasing young Priorat I've ever had the privilege to enjoy.
We just received our 36-bottle allocation, our price is great, and I feel confident saying that this is worthy of a 96-97 point rating.
2021 Costers del Priorat ‘Rocafosca’
94 points Vinous Media, 96 points Josh Spurling
I never knew Priorat could be so fresh, elegant, and silky until I tasted this wine. Rocafosca is the crown jewel from Costers del Priorat, and it is composed of 50% Carignan and 50% Garnacha from the estate's oldest and most prized vines.
The name Rocafosca is Catalan for "dark rock," and it refers to the black slate soils of this dramatic and extreme viticultural zone. Lynn and I visited Priorat a few years back, and as we entered the heart of the zone, all I could keep saying was "who in the hell decided to plant grapes here?"
Seriously, the vineyards are planted on steep and rocky slopes, all of the work has to be done by hand, and the yields are low due to these extreme conditions. That sounds like a great way to start a business that is going to fail, but the producers of Priorat are like the terrain -- bold, strong, brave, and resilient.
Jose Mas Barbera is one of these courageous souls, and he is the lead winemaker and one of the founding partners at Costers del Priorat. While I've not met Jose, I feel like I got to know him while sipping on a glass of his 2021 Rocafosca the other night. I'd guess this is a man who loves classic Barolo and traditional Red Burgundy. I could be wrong about that, but I get a slight hint of each of those wines, a nod if you will, in Jose's Rocafosca Priorat.
Sounds a bit crazy, but you're just going to have to trust me. This pours a deep garnet color, and it offers immediate and highly attractive aromas of warm cherry, plum, rocky minerality, violet, and Asian spices. I love the bouquet, but the palate is where the true beauty of this wine really shines through. The texture, for such a big and complex wine, is so velvety and fine-grained, and the tannins are totally assimilated into the core of the wine.
Wow, what a harmonious and righteous glass of wine : ) Drinking great now, it's got the energy to go for a decade in the cellar, and I plan to stash a few and follow its development.
If you want to really bring out the best qualities of this wine, drink a bottle with some grilled lamb chops or a thick-cut ribeye or grilled mushrooms if meat's not your thing. You will be rewarded!
