2017 Vega Escal Priorat DOQ 750 ml

A 94-point bottle from one of Priorat’s great villages is a wine to be reckoned with—serious in every respect, usually including price. This dark, stony cradle of legends known as Gratallops is the source of iconic, collector-worthy bottlings from Clos Mogador, Clos de l’Obac, and L’Ermita, whose only equals for intensity and brawn are found in the cellars of Châteauneuf-du-Pape or Napa.

High scores here translate into $70 or $100 price tags, miniscule allocations, and sell-out hype. With a few cases of the 94-point 2017 Vega Escal earmarked for Wine Access members, we’ve got a wine that touches the heights of Priorat greatness yet is available at  hands-down one of the best prices you'll ever see out of the region.

There’s a dark magic afoot here—a heady, brooding distillation of Priorat’s famous llicorella soils, where vines struggle for survival and invest immense complexity and concentration into precious few grapes. Average yields in Priorat are half of what they are in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, so every ounce counts, and the grapes ooze blackberry-bramble personality and sun-scorched, spice-dusted soul. That’s the kind of quality you’ll pay a premium for—except today.

For a place that seems enchanted, it’s only fitting that the creator of this wine is a wizard of sorts. Fernando Mora, a self-taught winemaker-turned-Master of Wine, was named by Imbibe as “one of Spain’s brightest stars” who is “already getting scores of 94 and 95 for his wines.” Wild-haired and bespectacled, Mora lives and breathes old-vine Garnacha. That native grape makes up roughly a quarter of this release, culled from Vega Escal’s 84 acres in west Priorat, where vines reach up to 50 years of age.

Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon make up the other major parts of the blend, accented with Cariñena and Syrah. As one of the innovative young guns of Priorat, Mora is experimenting with ways to infuse the region’s rugged weightiness with classical grace. He picks earlier than in the old days for freshness, focusing on high-altitude plots where bracing elevations and winds counteract the summer heat.

Six months in French and American oak help put this wine’s power on high-octane blast, yet Mora succeeded at never letting it coalesce into too dense or rich a wine. We recommend you snap this up while the going’s good, cellar as much as you feel able, and drain the rest with the gusto this thrilling Priorat bottling commands.