A “beautiful” wine that is a Priorat path

Anna Gallissà, the winemaker behind the GR-174, says it's the estate's most representative wine. GR stands for Gran Recorrido (Great Route). These are the paths marked on the mountain, with identifying colors and a number. The GR-174 circumnavigates the entire Priorat region, and in the bottle that bears its name, there's also wine from all over Priorat. "The GR passes through our estate, but we don't have enough grapes, so we buy from Bellmunt, Poboleda, Torroja, Gratallops, El Lloar..." From south to north.

So, the wine includes Garnacha and Cariñena, but also Cabernet, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, some Merlot... It depends on the vintage.

"On our plot, the Cabernet Franc is very old, 25 years old. Next year we'll pull it up and plant Garnacha. We cut the neck of the Merlot last year. We make a Priorat wine, but it's easy to drink. It has the color, the density, the volume, all the volume, all the volume. 1.5 degrees. We're not going to do 15.5, if we can, but not 13 either!"

So, they're not looking for anything overwhelming, of course, but they don't forget for a moment that they're in Priorat. With sun and a Mediterranean climate. "We have to find the warmth, the sun, inside the wine. We manage it so as not to find raisins. But we're not in a cold area! I want this Mediterranean, about which we make songs, advertisements... to belong to the wine!"

I taste it and I agree with them. They avoid overripe wines, raisins, everything we don't like in a still wine. But as Anna says: "There's a balance between overripe and green. I play around with the estates, I harvest a slightly greener Garnacha to give it acidity and red fruits, but you compensate with a riper Cabernet..."

She smiles. "We must fight for what we have," she says. And she tells me something full of wisdom: "I've been working in Priorat for many years, but I don't work like I did 25 years ago. I don't dress like I did 25 years ago either." We must know what represents us, I understand. And we want a Mediterranean Priorat. "It's like with cars. They change the headlights, but it's the same, and you love it."

She has been working in the wine world since 2001. He harvested his first grapes way back in 1993. He's lived in Priorat since 2000, but he's from Baix Camp, a land of hazelnuts and olive oil. "You live the land, it's a passion. Priorat is captivating, but hazelnuts and olives are my passion. We can't do it alone at home, but my mother says something: 'There are people who pay a fee to play golf. We pay a fee for what we love: making olive oil and harvesting hazelnuts.'"

Pairing with friends

The vintage you have in your glass is already a drought vintage. But these grapes have had traditional irrigation, from the beginning of their training. "When we started planting, we irrigated to avoid heat waves. Now, today, talking about heat waves is ridiculous, because they are now everyday life. We help the plant evaporate these very high temperatures."

If we talk about vintages, and she wants to play, Anna finds the 24th vintage "more beautiful" than the 23rd, because it is much cooler. "We have the climate we have, and when the grapes arrive, we have to manage what we have. One good thing about climate change is that it has made us elastic."

We have a young wine in the glass, what they call "an entry-level," but tasted blind, there is that depth, that density, that color. It is an interesting young wine. Easy to drink for non-experts and easy to drink for experts. Anna, who makes videos on Instagram (@casagransiurana) full of wisdom and joy and knowledge and joy of living, says that the best pairing for this wine is friends.

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