Coma Blanca 2020

Coma Blanca is a white from the D.O.Q. Priorat, made by the Rovira family at Mas d'en Gil from Garnacha Blanca and Macabeo. The estate covers 125 acres, with 45 hectares of vineyard sharing the ground with almond, olive and hazelnut trees and Mediterranean forest, planted on terraces and slopes of the slate soil Priorat calls llicorella. That decomposed schist reflects heat, drains sharply and drives roots deep, and the vines here are all old, over fifty years of age, giving low yields of concentrated fruit with real depth. The wine is aged for six months in French oak, where slow oxygen exchange through the barrel and contact with the lees build texture, weight and a savoury, waxy complexity, the wood adding gentle spice without masking the fruit or the site. At 15 percent it is a full, ripe white, the concentration of the old vines balanced by the mineral drive of the slate. It pours deep gold and shows pear, white peach and almond over a stony base, with a beeswax note and a touch of vanilla from the oak. The palate is broad and textured, the finish long and mineral. Serve at 11 to 13 degrees in a full glass.