GrapeDummies Between the Grapes! – Perinet
PERINET – Besides our times reviewing wines we like to explore some of the great wineries that can be found! As I (Ryan) live in Catalunya, in the North-East of Spain there are quite some options nearby.
This first visit brings us to Priorat, a small region near Tarragona. Priorat is together with La Rioja the only region in Spain awarded the DOC/DOQ (Denominació d’Origen Qualificada) status.
Perinet is a winery close to the border with the DO Montsant. They have four different vineyards spread out over the Priorat region. The biggest three are Mas del Xes, Mas Vell, and Pendents. Mas del Xes surrounds the winery and is the one that we will explore deeper with a special buggy.
Our trip to Priorat was a calm and quiet one, we took the local roads from the direction of Lleida, which took us through the fields and small towns until we started to climb for the Montsant and Priorat regions.
Perinet is just on the border of the Montsant DO and Priorat DOQ, on the Priorat side. We crossed a small river and drove up through the vineyards to this modern winery.
We were welcomed by Carlota, our host for the morning. Because of the COVID19 situation, she told us things would be slightly different. Of course, we wore masks whenever we went inside or would go together in one vehicle, but on the terrace where we decided to do the tasting, we were not restricted.
We sat down on the beautiful terrace with a view upon the Mas del Xes vineyard. Here they served us an amazing breakfast full of local produce. Pork from a nearby butcher, delicious olive oil, fresh bread, coca de recapte (A typical Catalan product), almonds, cheese and of course wine. They served their Merit!
After breakfast we took the buggy to go up the vineyard, here the winery mostly planted Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Garnatxa and Carinyena. All on the typical slate soil from Priorat named Llicorella. Winemaker Antoni Sánches-Ortiz will be checking each block for optimal harvesting conditions after which the vineyard is harvested near the end of September all through October the winery.
Down at the winery, we could see the sorting area, where the grapes were sorted before the fermentation in stainless steel tanks. The winery uses different ways of maturing the wines. Some or matured fully or partly in stainless steel tanks on the lees, while others are transferred to French oak casks.
After a quick visit to the lab we walked between the huge stainless steel tanks towards the barrel room. Full of barriques, with also a couple of bigger butts.
After seeing all this we went back outside to the terrace for the final tasting. We were served the 2016 Perinet Merit, 2016 Perinet and 2019 Perinet Rosé.
Make sure to check out our tasting journal where I will share all my thoughts on these wines. My first review, of the 2016 Perinet can be found here.
I will make sure to update this article when the other wines are also online.
Finally, I really want to thank Perinet for having us over. It was an amazing morning, Carlota took great care of us, and we can’t wait to come back here! If you want to know more about the winery make sure to visit their website.
This first vineyard visit opened up a whole new world for us, and we hope to be able to visit more vineyards in the future!
We’ve recorded a small video of our experience, make sure to check it out as well:
