Description

Please reference!  From Plateau to Volcano: Spain’s Wines at Elevation – By Rick Fisher, food-and-drink journalist

Merum (pronounced “Mare-um”) was first established in the tiny Priorat village of Porrera by two Catalan families in 2004.  Just a five-minute walk from the hamlet’s most famous producer Vall Llach, Merum practices what the locals call “heroic viticulture” (we call it “severe viticulture”) because of the extreme contours of the dry farmed, steeply terraced mountainside vineyards, all the organic farming must be accomplished without the use of mechanize machinery.  The winery produces three distinct wines from it 29 hectares of vineyard parcels.  It’s extremely rare and flagship “El Cel”, meaning “in the sky” or “heavenly”, is sourced from a selection of the very highest-altitude and steepest terraces stretching across these plots. Here there is no topsoil, only layers of pure Licorella slate the old bush vines continue to penetrate.  Later to ripen because of the high elevation, the microscopic yields are only one to two very small clusters per vine!   Doing the math, then it takes about 4-5 vines to produce a single bottle of wine.

The new release of the 2020 Merum El Cel is a robust blend of 35% Grenache (Garnacha), 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Carignan (Cariñena), and 20% Syrah.  Each varietal is sourced, destemmed, and fermented independent of one another in stainless steel tank.  Then each wine undergoes malolactic fermentation and is moved into French barrique for up to 18 months.  It is only after this aging process that the final blend is meticulously determined, and the resulting wine rested for maturity.

There were only 240 cases of the 2020 Merum El Cel produced and ONLY 40 cases were imported to the United States.  The 2020 Merum El Cel has received a pinnacle rating of 96 points from Wine Spectator.  This should not surprise anyone familiar with Merum, as its “village” wine, the 2018 ”Desti” was rated #4 in Wine Spectator’s 2021 Top 100 Wines of the Year.

“An elegant red that gracefully walks a fine line between rich expression and restraint. Fresh, with a frame of fine-grained tannins and a beautiful nose of mountain herbs, violet, graphite and milled pepper, which accent the pure beam of ripe black currant and mineral character on the palate. Long, mouth filling finish. Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carignan and Syrah. Drink now through 2035. 240 cases made, 40 cases imported.” – 96 points, Wine Spectator