So I came home the other night and figured I would open something with some age on it, and felt like CDP. Didn’t really see anything that was smart to open on a Tuesday, so popped this open instead. I’ve heard plenty of people argue that Priorats don’t age well, so I figured 8 years on this would be plenty.
Smelled quite nice, had some good herbs and Earl Grey tea notes, with plenty of plum and black cherry. The palate though, what a mess. The fruit was fading quickly, and the texture was really grainy. The tannins were pretty harsh too, and the alcohol was very prevalent. I drank the second half last night, and little redemption was had. The nose was the same, and the palate gave back some texture, but the fruit was stew-y and the tannins only mildly subsided. I would rate this somewhere in the mid 70s. I don’t think this has any kind of a future.
Bummer to hear, Ian. I agree most of Parker and Miller’s drinking windows are absurd. That said, however, I think that some Priorats are good 10-15 year bottles (notably Mogador, but also Rotllan, Martinet, Erasmus, Doix). I haven’t had the 01 Amadis but the 98 and 00 Tirant have been fantastic lately and the 01 seems queued to be right behind.
To me Rotllan Torra wines have never been on the top echelon of Priorat wines. There are some fans out there but I am not big on them because they are usually bretty. It is the only winery in Priorat where I recall tasting brett on their wines.
With that said, are you certain the bottle you had was not cooked? Based on your descriptors it kind of points that way.
2001 was a great vintage in Priorat and most of the wines should be in a good place to drink now. They will probably hold even longer but I do not believe most of them will improve that much with further bottle age.
SALUDos,
José
PS Is Gary doing any Winelibrary TV shows from Rioja?
My wife chucked out the cork, but it was flawless. I wanted to bring it to work to show my staff how important good storage is.
2001 is a strange year. The wines were overly ripe on release, and since then haven’t really impressed me. I have found 98 and 00 to be MUCH strong on the whole.
Forget the score for a moment, Andre Tamers does a fantastic job of importing some really true blue, unique wines from Spain, which was my higher level of motivation for buying this (00 was the last year I bought any of the “big name” Priorats) as I loved it on release. Since then, it’s just kind of faded in to mediocrity.
Tirant has always been good on release, but really haven’t had enough wines beyond say the 5 year old barrier.
Hasn’t turned me off from Priorat, just not a fan of this bottling at the moment.
I have enjoyed 1998 Priorats better than their 2001 counterparts in most cases.
1998 is also a superior vintage than 2000 IMO.
Between 2000 and 2001, there are a few Priorat wines that I think were better in 2000 than their 2001 counterpart (Vall Lllach, Martinet and Dofí come to mind), but I generally prefer the 2001 slighty better than the 2000 vintage.
To me the 2001 vintage was a turning point for the wines of Priorat. Great year, more wineries and much more exposure to the wine critics. If you purchased them before the reviews came out, you were able to get them for reasonable prices. After the reviews came out, the prices escalated and even on off vintages like 2002 the prices were not adjusted to reality.
In Spain Rotllan Torra has always been ‘the great American mystery’ for the (avowedly small) group of people who are really interested in Priorat here: the wines garnered high scores and praise in the US while they always showed stinkingly brettish in blind tastings here, and we rated them poorly. At some point we were wondering if they sent all their good stuff overseas on purpose - the anti-Sierra Carche, if you will. But then the only Rotllan wine I have tasted in the US was similar to those I knew here, so… I dunno.
Hi Greg,
I do recall having this on release, and remember buying 3 b/c of how much I liked it. This was the lone bottle I saved to see how it would age.
Victor-
No brett on this one. Just very mundane and subdued in terms of complex flavors, and also completely wilted in terms of body, texture and finish.
I don’t understand what you mean. Parker? WS? IWC? Everyone rated them highly. So I gather they must have been tasting someting rather different from what we were tasting here.
I wasn’t referring to one wine or the other, but to Rotllan Torra overall - the 2004 Amadís getting 94 points from IWC or the 2003 Amadís getting 92 from the WS. At elmundovino (blind tastings) we were giving the 2003 Amadís the equivalent of 78 points…
I understand that my English is clumsy to a fault, Daniel, but I thought that my post was self-evident in that it was a general reference to Rotllan Torra the winery, not just to Amadís 2001:
“In Spain Rotllan Torra has always been ‘the great American mystery’ for the (avowedly small) group of people who are really interested in Priorat here: the wines garnered high scores and praise in the US while they always showed stinkingly brettish in blind tastings here…”
Beautiful wine tonight. Upon uncorking a whiff of age but this blew off quickly. Nice and dark, still quite aromatic with some soy, some five spice in the nose. Smooth & delicious now with resolved tannins.
I’ll wait 5-10 years for the other bottle I own.
2009 may have been too soon, bottle #3022 benefitted from cellar time.
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