To celebrate the completion of a major milestone of my MBA I went to the LCBO in search of something special. The Vintages section had a number of selections on sale, and at very steep discounts. I picked up a bottle of Alvaro Palacios Priorat Les Terrasses 2006 for $30, a savings of ten bucks! Honestly I had never heard of this wine before but I figured it must be a great wine to justify a $40 price tag. Then again, Vintages had to discount it to clear out their inventory, so it must not be that good...Alvaro Palicios is a very well known wine producer from the Priorat region in Spain. The region has a distinctive soil called llicorella that is has concentrations of slate and quartz. The harsh growing conditions in Priorat produces low yields of highly concentrated juices. As a result, Priorat wines are very lively and flavourful. Les Terrasses is the least expensive of the three produced by Alvaro Palicios, the other two being L’Ermita and Finca Dofí.
Les Terrasses is a blend of roughly 30% Garnacha, 60% Cariñena, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cabernet comes through very strongly on the nose, with strong notes of plum and chocolate. Overall, the wine is fruity and vibrant, with undertones of minerals and mint. It is a great example of why I tend to prefer blends over 100% varietals - if a blend balanced right it offers an incredible complexity that is difficult to beat.
