I have never seen 2023 before, neither the frosts nor the hailstorms, nothing has been as serious as this drought. There was very little rain and in August we had a heat wave that dried out the grapes. We were only able to save 35% of the harvest. But we have started 2024 much better than last year; Since January, around 150 liters per square meter will have fallen. "I'm optimistic," says Joan Asens, fifth generation of winegrowers from El Masroig, at the Tast amb Llopsde Gratallops, one of the activities under the umbrella of the Falset Wine Fair.
About 35,000 people passed through the Priorat this weekend. In the capital, Falset alone, around 24,000 attendees have been counted who have tasted wines from 71 wineries from DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant, according to the organizers. There have also been tastings in Bellmunt, Gratallops or Torroja.
Joan Asens uncorks a bottle of La Coma d’en Genís, made from black picapoll. It is the red wine of his son Genís, who has participated in the winemaking process since he was very young. He now studies at the Escola d’ Enologia de Falset and also learns at home, in Orto Vins, the project of his father and two other farmers. Both are busy serving glasses and explaining the details of this red wine to an audience eager to try everything they can.
The measured optimism expressed by Asens and other vintners has nuances. “Another 100 liters of water should fall, the vine should not suffer before flowering, and it is also necessary that it rain in summer, at the time of the grape's color change,” he details.
Asens confirms that the market is now asking for wines with a lower alcohol content and if Priorat was previously a land of red wines, the supply of whites and rosés is only growing. Clos Mogador presented a rosé on Saturday in Gratallops, and there have been tastings of whites and brisados.
Who else regrets the losses of 2023, but with hopeful eyes set on 2024. Meritxell Pallejà, head of the winery of the same name in Gratallops, confirms that in her case production fell by 40%. “It wasn't worse for us because in the summer we tilled three times to better maintain the humidity of the soil. As the grandparents say: 'una llaurada és una irrigated' (a labrada is a irrigated one). And this year at the moment is looking good, the vineyard has sprouted very well, but in August it must rain,” he emphasizes while pouring glasses of one of his wines, Nita.
The majestic Cal Compte building, in Torroja del Priorat, hosted yesterday another of the long-awaited events of the fair, a tasting with 24 wineries. Among the visitors was René Barbier, one of the architects of the Priorat renaissance, who also regrets pronounced drops in production. Although he admits that the rains of these first months have been very timely, he insists that we are coming from three years of drought and that the water table needs much more water. “I have never seen a situation like this, but Priorat always stands up,” he says.
The winemakers from Mas Sinen, Clos Pachem, Mas d’en Gil, Mas d’en Compte... are distributed throughout the different interior spaces and the immense terrace with views of Cal Compte to sample their creations. Ricard Rofes and his Valldencompte, from La Torre de Fontabeulla, the only winery in this town, offers a white from 2020, from the last year before the drought. Like René Barbier, Rofes highlights that the accumulated water stress since 2021 is not overcome with these latest rains. “Twice as much water has fallen as in 2023, but if you go to the field and dig a hole, you will see that the humidity remains up to about 40 centimeters, lower down it is dry. At the moment, we are better, everything depends on what happens from now on,” says Rofes, who in the previous campaign lost between 35% and 40% of production.
What everyone agrees on is that in 2024 there has been spring. The landscape, another of Priorat's business cards, is stimulating; The greenery appears in the vineyard and is combined with the mauve, yellow or blue of the wild flowers, as witnessed by the 35,000 visitors who came to the region from Friday afternoon until yesterday. In Falset alone, some 64,000 tastings were sold, according to the organization, the highest number ever recorded.
