My Red Wine Of The Year

martinet_240

I think that in Italy not a day passes without at least one wine and food event. Well, these events are divided into two categories – those that are tiring and those that are boring.

The first category is the one worth attending . They are so rich in cultural and sensory stimuli that eventually you feel physically and mentally tired. And you’re happy that it’s so.

I believe that the event that most absorbs energy of the mind and body is the Salone del Gusto in Turin, organized by Slow Food. There you can find thousands of great products and exceptional people from all over the world.

At the end of a long day at the Salone, you are exhausted from all that beauty. It is almost impossible that you can still find something that makes you say, ” Wow!”

Yet it happened to me.

A friend of mine had reserved two seats at a tasting evening of Spanish wines. Wines of Priorat, a land unknown to me. “Well – I said to myself – I can sit for a while, anyway, and rest.”

Rest? Naah.

The first two wines were good, the third a little more, but the fourth – oh , the fourth! – it was a knock-out punch. It made me jump on the chair; it kickstarted my adrenaline. The fourth wine was the best wine I’ve had in the glass for about ten years now.

And I saw.

I saw vineyards clinging to the rocks on the backs of steep hills made of slate and quartz. I saw the sparkling mica, hit by the ray of the sun. I saw the thirsty roots sink into the rock in search of water. I saw the leaves blowing in the storm. I saw the sun shining in the summer and the cold of winter. I saw the hard work of the winemakers.

There was in the glass the succulence of ripe fruit and the salt of human passions. I savored the perfume of alpine medicinal herbs and the freshness of the morning, when the air is so clean that it’s like crystal. I could feel the cool wind from the north and the hot breath of the mistral breeze. I felt the hardness of the rock and the warmth of a people proud to belong to their land.

I love wines that can speak.

The wine was the Priorat Clos Martinet 2004 Mas Martinet.

I ordered a few bottles. I hope that it will repeat the miracle.

Anyway, it is my red wine of the year. For sure.

Priorat Clos Martinet 2004 Mas Martinet

photo #paolagiagulli