A white-skinned priory (I)

"Priorat is a great land, and its white wines have a personality as strong as its reds. It's difficult to predict, but perhaps the future will be white, and quite diverse, because there are very different styles and profiles, but they are all Priorat wines, with a minerality that makes them saline and long on the palate, and with great aging potential. When they are old, they are very special." These are the words of winemaker Joan Sangenís, from the Cal Pla winery, one of the historic wineries of the DOQ Priorat, with vineyards in Porrera. Sede is one of the region's most charismatic white wines, Mas d'en Compte, a blend of Garnacha Blanca, Picapoll Blanco, and Xarel·lo. Its oak aging is evident, but it is a classic that discerning sommeliers treasure. "White wines have the soul of reds; they are intense, unique, and very food-friendly. In Priorat, we have fine white wines, crafted slowly: we age them in stainless steel tanks, casks, amphorae... We bottle them after 10 months, and the wine just keeps getting better," comments winemaker Albert Jané, referring to Ritmo, 2016 and 2023, a single-varietal wine made from old and "beautiful" vines—as stated on the label—of Garnacha Blanca grown on slate. Over the years, the wine achieves an elegant, profound, and balanced maturity. "The Carignan Blanca brings a smile to the Rocafosca 2024, adding freshness to the blend with Garnacha Blanca," explains Gisela Mira, sales manager of Costers del Priorat, in El Molar. "We used to make it with chimney stones, but the Carignan Blanca makes the wine more vibrant. We anticipate a boom in Priorat now that the regulations support it," she affirms. "There are few old vineyards of white varieties, but many have been planted in recent years because we know the wine is very good and the catalog of permitted varieties is extensive," notes Meritxell Pallejà, a winemaker and viticulturist in Gratallops.

In 2019, Nita Blanc was born, made with Garnacha Blanca, Chenin Blanc, and Viognier. "We have built a Priorat that perhaps isn't what the market demands, but we have something unique on our hands that we must preserve and offer to those who want it. We are a prestigious DOQ that cannot be sold according to trends. We have worked hard to showcase the wines village by village, vineyard by vineyard, to understand the grandeur of a region, and we don't have the brands. We need more hectares and more resources," she argues. At Vil·lusionistes, in Vilella Baixa, two of the eight wines they produce are white: Equànim is a Brisa made from Garnacha Blanca and Macabeo. Sergi Siuraneta tends the vineyards: "There's room, if there's the will; there's plenty of room in Priorat to keep planting. I wish more people would come and we'd have a more balanced ecosystem between vineyard and forest."