Tragedy at Celler Vall Llach in Priorat

A huge snowstorm in Priorat over the weekend apparently collapsed the vinification facility at Celler Vall Llach, destroying most of their equipment and a couple of vintages of wine in tanks and bottles. I believe they were also renovating the upstairs space into a boutique inn for hospitality.

Super sad, especially given their role as an economic catalyst for the entire village.

That is awful, I have really enjoyed some of their wines in their fruity youth.

I didn’t even know that Priorato could get snow? Isn’t it a Mediterranean clime?

Sorry to hear this. I’ve enjoyed their wines as well.

it’s actually a continental climate and it can see up to 50 degree swings in temps during the season. It effectively exists in a bowl with the montsant mountains surrounding it. Also, Spain has been getting destroyed by a biblical snowstorm the past few days.


This is awful and I hope that Vall Llach is able to bounce back as quickly as they can

From looking over the article, it would appear that no one was killed. That would have been a tragedy.

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Hi Arv, I wrote the post linked to above and live in Priorat.

Yes, there is snow here! Every year is maybe a dusting or some light flakes. Every decade or so is something a good deal heavier but this, at about 0.6m (nearly 2 feet) hasn’t been seen for maybe 50 years.

We have a unique climate here and despite being just 18km (12mi) from the Mediterranean Sea, the weather is vastly different which is why the wines of Priorat, Montsant, and Terra Alta are so unique.

Cheers and thanks to Kevin for posting my piece.

PS - For anyone interested in helping out, Vall Llach has quite good distribution around the world so you can usually find their wines locally. They also have an online store Venta on-line - Celler Vall Lach and are taking donations to help rebuild as it will remain to be seen how much of this is covered by some form of insurance (for instance, they will not see the full value of the future 2020 wines that were in the tanks) https://www.reconstruimvallllach.cat/

Miquel, thanks for contributing here. Sad to see the damage, I hope they can recover some of the finished wines.

Since you’re here, can you teach us the proper pronunciation of Vall Llach?

Cheers

Yeah, it’s “valy lyac” where the “ly” is the “ll” in Spanish and Catalan and is the same as in a word like “quesadilla”. Like Spanish and French, the “h” is unvoiced in Catalan but unlike the other two languages, when it’s in a “ch”, it doesn’t mean anything and it’s the same as if the word just ended in a “c” so for instance “garnacha” in Spanish is written “garnatxa” in Catalan to sound the same.

Lastly, in English, Vall Llach means, “valley lake”.

Hope that’s clear.

Thanks! That’s a start, but I may not have it exactly. I speak a little, but my exposure has been mexico, colombia, and paraguay, where they all speak a little differently. In spain I’m sure I sound strange lol. Around here the double ll is more Y sound than soft J sound, as it is in, say argentina, and i believe spain, no? Our “La Jolla” in san diego is pronounced locally as hoy-ya, though speakers in other parts of the world probably say hoy-zha. And I don’t have experience with a double ll at the end of a word, do you have more help with that?

So sad to hear this. I enjoyed Vall Llach the couple of times I tasted it.

Here it is in audio. Like vye-YOCK, if you wanted a shorthand for gringos.

Well that’s disappointing, exactly how I would say it. Was hoping for something a little more exotic :wink:

Yes, that recording is correct and made by someone who can speak Catalan.

This “zh” thing for the “ll” that’s said in some South American countries is correct only in terms of their local Spanish. It’s this quasi “y” or “ly” sound in Spanish, Catalan, French when after an “i” (Cadillac in Bordeaux is Ca-dee-lyac) and of course it exists in Italian and Portuguese but is written differently. I think Catalan uses it more than any other language though.

Miquel - sorry to hear about the winery and thanks for the lesson!

Please post more often.

If nobody hurt, then count a blessing.

No matter how many times we corrected him, my dad always pronounced the nearby city of Vallejo as valley-JOE