Merum Priorati Inici 2021

The Merum Priorati winery offers a range of three red wines whose labels really do set out its objectives: Inici (the Catalan for 'beginning'), Destí ('destiny') and El Cel ('the sky' or 'heaven'). For this company, like for so many producers who intend their wines to be a true reflection of origin, something which can seem obvious to us but isn't always so easy to achieve, the earth is of paramount importance. As we're in the Priorat, the protagonist here is the 'llicorella', the slate, poor in nutrients and good for drainage, which forces the roots to descend to great depths in search of water and results in the favourably slow ripening of the grapes. It's the llicorella that conducts the orchestra in this wine, with the Garnacha (60%) playing first violin, accompanied harmoniously by the Cariñena (15%), Syrah (15%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (10%). We should take this wine Inici as the first movement for getting acquainted with the essence of the Priorat, from the perspective of a singular wine that has its own personality yet makes its place of origin patently clear, and for enjoying a wine in which, although some of the Garnacha features are predominant, the most important element is the composition's great balance.