2011 Clos Nelin Blanco

Putting your nose in the glass of the white 2011 Nelin makes you think the wine is not made from grapes, but from rocks, it’s pure minerals, concentrated and complex. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the wine is of course produced with a blend of Garnacha Blanca, Macabeo with some Viognier and other white grapes which aged for 15 months in a mixture of oak vats and terracotta amphorae. Balance, elegance, harmony are just three words that quickly come to my mind. I feel a level of precision and purity which I had not seen in Nelin before. This is a superb Priorat white that should age gracefully in bottle. One of the best whites in Priorat, and at a relatively good price. Very impressive! Drink 2014-2022. Clos Mogador and the Barbier family should require no introduction to any Priorat aficionado, as they are the pioneers and catalysts of modern day Priorat. To understand low yields (and high prices) it should be enough to say that from their 40 hectares of vineyards they produce 45,000 bottles of wine per year. The wines are not cheap, but for the quality they offer they represent good value and are all highly recommended. Importer: Europvin SAS, CA, www.europvin.com