ANTOLOGÍA MIGUEL TORRES (II): PERPETUAL
An old soul, but innovative in spirit, Perpetualembodies the legacy of the region's old cellar-worthy wines. It is an elegant and modern interpretation that reflects the Priorat of today, while honoring the region’s own particular winemaking heritage. This provides the foundation for a distinctive identity recognized the world over.
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A perfect beautiful balance between tradition and modernity rooted in the region's steep hills and terraces, its Mediterranean forests full of juniper, thyme, pine and rosemary, and its slate soils.
Hundred-year-old vines root deep to survive in this dry and inhospitable terrain, which welcomes the Mediterranean's proximity like a breath of fresh air—nocturnal and treacherous, invigorating and essential.
The DOC Priorat appellation of origin.
Let's not forget that until the late 1980s, Priorat didn't even show up in Spain's leading wine guides. The region had slid into obscurity; its wines mostly remembered as “coarse,” “alcoholic,” marked by rustic raisiny fruit that wasn't suitable for mainstream consumption.
Towards the end of that same decade, a group of forward-thinking producers laid the groundwork for what would become a new winemaking style, soon recognized throughout the wine world as exceptional and undeniably distinctive.
The region's soil, known as llicorella, consists of layered red slate with minute mica particles that glitter in the sun. The soil aids fruit maturation in the vineyard and drew the wine industry's attention, which saw the resurgence of old vineyards and the emergence of new wineries, driven by the spirit of innovation.
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Old vine and licorella soil in the Priorat
Much has been written about the region and its Cistercian heritage, its ageworthy wines and nineteenth-century “wine cathedrals.” The same is true of its unique climatic, orographic and geological virtues, which give birth to enduring vines that outlive generations. In 2000, Priorat was the second region after Rioja to be named a Denominación de Origen Calificada, the highest appellation of origin status, which it more than deserves.
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El Lloar: a place to call home
The winery, located within the municipal area of El Lloar, is the picture of modernity. At the same time, it shares a deep connection with the surrounding vineyards, which can be seen through its enormous windows, and has become part of the landscape.
The El Lloar winery has solar and photovoltaic systems in line with the family's principles and policy of integrating and managing its facilities in an environmentally-friendly manner. The winery therefore uses renewables to cover a significant percentage of its energy needs.
Perpetual: the varieties
The old Garnacha and Cariñena vines that grow on the steep terraces of the Priorat region produce low yields of exceptional quality. They represent a varietal eternity of sorts, which Perpetual embraces and absorbs as the foundation of its identity.
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Likewise, the region's best wines seek the reality of this complex and rugged land, unchanged over time, where the grapes acquire concentrated fresh black fruit, often mellowed by elegant oak when human intervention initiates their magnificent transformation into wine.
Perpetual, the wine
Perpetual eludes rigid verbal confines to speak directly to our emotions.
It embodies sensuality, opulence and pride in its own unique identity. A powerfully structured wine, tamed for vinification. Deep purple velvet envelops a ripe black fruit nose; jammy plum flits around mature toasted notes of smoke and cocoa; all carried by wild, yet familiar Mediterranean undertones, where thyme and eucalyptus settle on the nose.
The palate is multifaceted, complex, but clean, sharing a story that is rooted in the past, but immediate too, like a wish that has been granted.
Mature round tannins carry through to the long finish where time seems to stand still as we lose ourselves in end notes of licorice and caramel.
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Perpetual is gaining followers every day as it makes its way into the pantheon of the wine world. The journey has just begun, but sooner or later, it will surely take Perpetual to the very gates of immortality known as our memory.
