RP94
The Wine Advocate
Reviewed by:Luis Gutirrez

Drink Date: 2024 – 2030

They produced a village ros, the 2022 Gratallops Vi de Villa Rosat, the second vintage of this pale ros produced with a blend of Garnacha, Cariena and white Macabeu. The aim is to produce a gastronomical ros, with complexity, not fruit driven and with some aging potential. It’s not a shy wine at 14% alcohol, and it has a powerful palate with good balance. It went through full malolactic and matured in a 2,500-liter oak foudre for 16 months without being racked. Despite the pink color, the feeling is that it could be a white wine, especially the nose, which is full of aromatic herbs and flowers, hints of dry hay and straw and a spicy twist, with a notable absence of fruity aromas. It has a serious, medium-bodied and balanced palate, tasty, savory, almost salty, with a velvety texture. Curiously enough, the grapes come from the warmer vineyards they have, in Manyettes, a place where the grapes tend to be overripe. Christian insisted on harvesting the grapes when they are crunchy, ignoring the skins and focusing on the vitality of the grapes, when they have the energy for an elegant fermentation. In 2022, they harvested the grapes very early. 3,100 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2024.

Clos Mogador is the winery from the Barbier family in Gratallops in Priorat, where they have 40 hectares of vineyards and produce 60,000 to 65,000 bottles of wine per year. In the last few years, they have had to be creative to be able to continue producing wines with energy and balance, given the challenging weather of recent years. They have started to use direct pressings, employ carbonic maceration of the grapes from south-facing plots or varieties more sensitive to drought, play with the blends to achieve more freshness and use less oxidative materials for the levage.

This time, I tasted with Christian Barber, who has also started his own personal project (Christian Barber i Gisela, reviewed separately). He’s in charge of the vineyards and explained the changes they’ve been implementing to adapt to the new climate conditions, such as using cover crops, harvesting earlier, working with more indigenous varieties, fermenting with some full clusters and some carbonic maceration, etc. He works in regenerative agriculture and has suffered a lot in the last couple of years because of the lack of rain. The vineyards are certified organic, and they also have a biodynamic certification from the Regenerative Viticulture Alliance, but for now, the bottles don’t carry the seal. Yields have been abysmal for Clos Mogador in recent years: in 2023, they produced 50% of the normal volume, and in 2024, they produced half of what they produced in 2023! But the wines are as good as ever or even better!

Published: May 01, 2025