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Clos Figueres Cataluna, Spain |
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Christopher Cannan purchased the Priorat estate of Clos Figueres in 1997 on the advice of René Barbier of Clos Mogador. René Barbier's team takes care of the vineyards as well as the vinification and aging of the wines.
From these high terraces, the views are wonderful...in one direction the famous L'Ermita vineyard and the craggy Montsant mountain range behind it; in the other a long-distance vista featuring the Ebro Valley and more mountains beyond.
Grapes have been grown on these terraces in the Priorat since the Romans occupied Spain in the 3rd century BC; in fact Tarragona was the Roman capital of the territory.
Clos Figueres is situated in Gratallops, meaning ‘layer of the wolf’. It’s considered to be one of the best villages for wine in the Priorat D.O. Located on the northern side of the Sierra del Monsant, Gratallops’ unique soils, climate and elevation separate it from the other villages in the region. Only 16 miles from the Mediterranean, cooling breezes blow up the Ebro Valley from the coast regulating the temperatures in the vineyards.
When the maritime wind is not blowing it can be brutally hot, though diurnal swings in temperature are severe, resulting in high levels of acidity.
At Clos Figueres 60-80 year-old Garnacha and Cariñena vines and new plantings of Syrah, Touriga Nacional and Mouvedre grown in these schist terraces express an intense minerality.
The soils are very similar to those in Cote Rotie, the Duero Valley in Portugal and in the hills of the Neusiedlersee in Austria. Locally called licorella, this schist is very soft and friable, allowing for both deep penetration of the root system and water retention, permitting the vines to get through the very driest parts of summer. The amount of organic material is negligible and the landscape is so extreme that apart from olive and walnut trees, grapes are the only other produce that thrives here.
Vineyard management at Clos Figueres is also very different than estates in the D.O. Vines are planted at about 2000 vines per hectare, while vineyards at Clos Martinet, for example, are planted at about 10,000 vines per hectare. Foliage removal is also eschewed as the leaves provide shading and protection from the intense sunlight during the summer. Usually grape growers favor south-facing slopes; the most prized exposition here is Northwest, for its protection from powerful sun exposure.
Starting in 2009 Alain Graillot of the eponymous estate in Crozes-Hermitage has been consulting at the winery, visiting Priorat 4 times a year. “Alain is a master blender” says Mr. Cannan, and there is “some promising experimentation being done with stem inclusion, something that Alain is known for”. The wines are stunning examples of the appellation and with such dedication to the vineyards and to the winemaking, we can only expect that the wines will continue to progress.
A note on the names : Figueras / Figueres are fig trees in Spanish and Catalan respectively. Long before Christopher Cannan purchased it, the estate was known by the locals as Clos Figueres, but national regulations (dating from the Franco era) required Spanish spellings on all official documents...hence the company name Clos Figueras S.A. |
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